According to Eurostat data, Switzerland had passenger-kilometers per resident at the national level of 2,378 in 2019 and 1,536 in 2021, a fall of 35.4% that can be attributed to the COVID-19 epidemic, according to EU Helpers.
While the average for the EU was 927 kilometers, France and Austria will come in second and third place with 1,121 and 902 kilometers traveled per resident, respectively, in 2021.
With 1,140 kilometers, Austria came in second place in 2019 behind France (1,437 kilometers). But in 2021, these two nations were in reverse order, with Austria coming in third and France moving up the list.
Sweden (773 kilometers), Denmark (716), Germany (692), and Czechia (643), round up the top five countries with the most passengers transported via train.
However, compared to 2019 levels, all of these nations saw significant drops in the number of passenger kilometers traveled by rail in 2021. Ireland saw the biggest drop, accounting for 64.4% of the total drop from 489 to 174 passenger kilometers traveled per resident.
Along with Ireland, Norway, Italy, and Slovakia saw the biggest drops in the amount of passengers transported by train per resident in 2021, with each of them seeing this number more than halve. More particular, the number of passengers traveling by rail decreased by 52.6% in Norway, about 50.6% in Italy, and by 50.2% in Slovakia.
Slovenia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria were among the nations that were able to maintain their statistics during this time, with their average rail passenger transport travelled in 2021 being 13, 19.8, and 19.5% below 2019 levels, respectively.
Additionally, on a global scale in 2021, Luxembourg (135.5 kilometres) had the highest passenger-kilometers per resident, followed by Switzerland (62.2 kilometres) and Czechia (57.5 kilometres). In 2021, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all had zero passenger-kilometers per resident.
Switzerland had the most trips per resident (60.8 in 2019 and 38.8 in 2021), followed by Denmark and Luxembourg (26.1 and 23 trips per resident, respectively). However, the number of trips in 2019 decreased by 36 and 35.3%, respectively, to 40.8 and 35.6 for Denmark and Luxembourg.
In nations like Switzerland (14.6), Austria (9.8), and Sweden (7.5), the proportion of trains in inland passenger transport was greater than the EU average (eight in 2019 and six in 2021).
The lowest rates were seen in Greece, Lithuania, and Slovenia, where fewer than two inland passenger trains were observed.