23/08/2013

Intermodal (road/rail) transport in Europe has declined in 2012 by 11%.
UIRR has released detailed data.

Intermodal transport, particularly European road-rail transport, had shown good developments during the past years. Recently, however, important setbacks occurred due to the economic slow-down, mainly in Southern Europe, and due to the temporary closure of the Brenner and Gotthard alpine rail passes in 2012.

In 2012, this has led to a 11 per cent decline in intermodal traffic (in terms of consignments) for all International Union of Combined Road-Rail transport companies (UIRR). Accompanied transport even suffered a loss of 24 per cent in terms of tonne-kilometers. This decline was less marked, but still in the order of 5 and 19 per cent for total and accompanied intermodal transport respectively (for more information see the graphs below).

Intermodal road/rail transport in Europe (UIRR companies)
National and international traffic (1997–2012)

Source: UIRR

Intermodal road/rail transport in Europe (UIRR companies)
Accompanied (RoLa) and unaccompanied traffic (1997–2012)

Source: UIRR