Regardless of heavy losses and big impacts in income, railways have continued to do their utmost to maintain essential freight and passenger services running, whereas protecting their customers and staff.
The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) has been monitoring the situation in close collaboration with all its members and the data collected for 2020 reveals the shocking financial impact that COVID-19 has had on railways. The results of the CER survey had been presented at the CER General Assembly which took place virtually on 26 January 2020.
The data reveals that railways lost a total of €26 billion in revenue in 2020 within the European Union (EU27). The CER states that passenger services were more affected than freight, however, the pandemic is taking its toll across the board.
As the passenger service is concerned in 2020 railway book a loss of €24 billion compared to the year 2019, percentage-wise it shows a fall of – 42% in 2020 compared to 2019.
In freight services, railways suffer a loss of €2 billion compared to the year 2019, percentage-wise it shows a fall of – 12% in 2020 compared to 2019.
Alberto Mazzola, CER Govt Director, stated: “The COVID-19 crisis is impacting heavily on railways. However, the rail sector is showing resilience and capacity to assist fight the pandemic and assist society on the road to restoration. Getting Europe’s economy again on observing while continuing to bring down global emissions is an urgent dual challenge.
The European Year of Rail is a timely recognition of the role railways can and should play on these fronts.”
