Switzerland remains, by far, the European champion of train travel. Both for the number of journeys per person and for the kilometers traveled, the Helvetii are well ahead of other countries. And the increase remains sustained.
In 2023, the Swiss traveled an average of 2,466 kilometers by train per capita (passenger kilometers) and used this means of transport 68 times, the public transport information service (Litra) indicated on Thursday. Over one year, passenger-kilometres increased by 13.2% and journeys by 11.5%.
Thus, the Swiss use rail more than 50% more than the country ranked No. 2, both for kilometers per capita and for frequency.
The main rail countries are, behind Switzerland, Austria, France, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg. In contrast, the train is almost non-existent in Greece and very little used in countries like Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania or Romania.
In absolute figures, in Switzerland, traffic last year exceeded the 2019 record (pre-Covid) by 2.5%, with 22.3 billion passenger-kilometres.
The study is based on data, notably from Eurostat, including the 25 EU countries with a railway network (therefore excluding Malta and Cyprus), as well as Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland.
On a global scale, another study showed that only Japan rivaled Switzerland for the popularity of rail.
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