The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) has been keeping track of how the coronavirus pandemic has been affecting passenger and freight services and has found that the total loss of revenues in 2020 amounted to 26 billion euros.
The figures relate to the EU27. Passenger figures were much worse hit than freight services. The turnover decrease from 2019 to 2020 for passenger services was 24 billion euros, which is a 42 percent decrease, while freight services lost 2 billion euros in revenue during the same period, a 12 percent decrease.
CER pointed out that these figures did not tell the full story. It said freight in particular appeared to have succeeded in mitigating losses in Q3 and Q4 of 2020, while passenger services, which began to increase during the summer, reached losses of 50 percent during the month of December.
CER presented these results at its General Assembly on 26 January.
“The COVID-19 crisis is impacting heavily on railways. However the rail sector is showing resilience and capacity to help fight the pandemic and assist society on the road to recovery. Getting Europe's economy back on track while continuing to bring down global emissions is a pressing dual challenge. The European Year of Rail is a timely recognition of the role railways can and should play on these fronts.”
