Rail freight continued to regain market share from the road in Switzerland in 2016, according to newly-released figures. The Swiss Federal Statistical Office’s (FSO) latest report on the transport sector said that rail’s performance had increased by 0.9 per cent compared to 2015, making it four successive annual gains. 

Transport services on the Swiss rail and road network in 2016 totalled 27.8 billion tonne-kilometres (TKM: the movement of one tonne of goods over one kilometre), a fall of 0.6 per cent on the previous year. Rail freight’s increased performance contrasts with a 1.5 per cent fall for road haulage.

‘Rail offers advantages’

The share of the market for rail in 2016 was 39 per cent, the same level as in 2008, before it reached an all-time low in 2009 due to the global financial crisis. The FSO says that road and rail ‘are not primarily competitors but complement one another: whereas, in most cases, the regional distribution of goods is only possible via roads because of the existing transport infrastructure, rail offers advantages, especially for longer transport routes’.