EU’s largest rail freight operator Lineas’ share drops below 50%

The market share of Lineas, Europe’s largest private rail freight operator, has fallen below 50%. However, it is still higher than the European average. This is according to a report by the Belgian rail regulator.

The report refers to 2023. According to the Rail Transport and Airport Operations Regulatory Service, Lineas’ market share then fell to 49.1%, down from 53.2% in 2022.

The toll of liberalization

That Lineas’ market share fell is somewhere logical. After all, since the liberalization of rail freight transport in Belgium in 2007, more competitors have entered the market – this has also happened in other countries.

According to rail network manager Infrabel, there are currently 12 companies active in the rail freight market in Belgium. In addition to Lineas, which thus used to have a monopoly, these are CFL Cargo, Crossrail, DB Cargo Belgium, Europorte France, RailTraxx, SNCF Fret, HSL Belgium, RTB Cargo Belgium, Medway Belgium, TCA Rail, and Certus Rail Solutions.

However, the regulator says Lineas’ market share remains slightly higher than the European average for ‘historical operators’, which was 48% in 2022.

53.5 million tons of freight

But the report also shows that rail transport is not necessarily increasing, even though Europe and the government want more rail transport. According to the report, 53.5 million tons of freight were transported by rail in 2023. That’s down 8% from 2022 and the lowest level in seven years.

“This may be related to the macroeconomic situation, with a particularly notable 14 billion drop in imports and exports, especially in the metal and chemical sectors,” the report states.

Mostly domestic trains

Also noteworthy: more freight is transported by block trains (60%) than by composite ‘spread’ trains, the so-called Single Wagon Load (SWL). Only five railroads ran SWL trains, and almost 95% of these trains were organized by two railroads. In other words, this indicates a high degree of concentration in SWL offerings.

The share of intermodal transport, whereby goods are transported by several means of transport without any freight handling when changing modes, fell sharply, from 43% to 27%, as did that of goods from the chemicals sector (from 19% to 13%). The share of products from the metallurgy sector also fell slightly, from 26% to 25%, but the share of bulk products rose to 25%.

Most (59%) of the trains transporting goods were also domestic. From Belgium, though, rail transport is mainly used to go to Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. With an average punctuality of 69.8%, the punctuality of freight trains also deteriorated in 2023.

Difficult to meet the target

A total of 29.5 million euros on freight charges were also levied, accounting for just under a third of Infrabel’s operating income. Railroad companies, through the infrastructure manager, still receive subsidies to make rail freight more competitive, but the subsidy program expires at the end of 2025.

Rail in Belgium currently accounts for 12.2% of transport (2022 figures). For Europe, it accounts for 17.1%, a percentage that has been relatively stable since 2010. If this trend is followed, it seems impossible to achieve the goal of doubling the rail share by 2030.