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Trains overtake buses: EU travel habits slowly shifting

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In 2024, cars were the most used means of transportation in the EU. Cars accounted for 69.2% of total passenger-kilometres (estimated at 6 130 billion passenger-kilometres), indicating a decrease of 1.0 percentage point (pp) compared with 2023. Transport by airplane made up 15.8% of total passenger-kilometres, up by 1.0 pp from 2023. Trains followed with 7.5% (+0.3 pp compared with 2023), surpassing buses, coaches or trolleybuses at 7.3% (-0.2 pp), and sea vessels at 0.4% (unchanged). The share of trains has seen a slow increase in recent years, exceeding the share of buses, coaches or trolleybuses in 2024 for the first time since 2014.

Compared with 2014, in 2024, the shares of travel in the EU by cars and by buses, coaches and trolleybuses decreased by 2.9 pp and 1.3 pp, respectively, while trains and airplanes became more popular, with a 0.9 and 3.6 pp increase, respectively.

At country level, Lithuania (83.7% of total passenger-kilometres), the Netherlands (77.0%) and Finland (75.4%) registered the highest shares of transport by passenger car among EU countries in 2024.  

For air transport, Croatia recorded the highest share of air passenger-kilometres in total transport performance (45.6%), followed by Bulgaria (30.3%) and Cyprus (25.3%).

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EU people on the move, 2024 (top 3 countries with the highest shres in total passenger-kilomtres for each mean of transport - by airplanes, by train, by bus, coach or trolleybus, by car and by sea vessel). Infographich. Link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: tran_hv_ms_psmod

Malta had the highest share of transport by buses, coaches, or trolleybuses (17.0% of total passenger-kilometres), followed closely by Ireland (16.6%) and Hungary (15.3%).

Rail transport played an important role in Hungary (11.3% of total passenger-kilometres), Austria (10.4%) and the Netherlands (9.8%).

As for sea transport, Estonia registered the largest share of passenger-kilometres (2.7%), closely followed by Malta (2.4%) and Croatia (2.3%).

This news item marks European Mobility Week, celebrated each year from 16 to 22 September to raise awareness of sustainable urban mobility. 

For more information

Methodological notes

  • The indicator presents the share of each means of transport in the total transport performance, measured in passenger-kilometres: 1 passenger-kilometre represents 1 passenger travelling 1 kilometre.
  • The share of a means of transport is calculated as the passenger-kilometres travelled using that means divided by the total passenger-kilometres travelled across all means of transport (passenger cars; buses, coaches or trolleybuses; airplanes; trains and sea vessels). Total passenger-kilometres performed and changes in other means of transport impact the shares of other means. Therefore, an increase in the share of one means of transport results in drops in the shares of other means but does not necessarily indicate drops in their actual number of passenger-kilometres performed. Data on passenger cars and buses, coaches or trolleybuses contain estimates. For more information please consult the multimodal transport and reference metadata sections.

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