5.4% increase of transported goods on the German railway network in 2011

The German Statistische Bundesamt (Destatis) reports that domestic as well as foreign railway undertakings transported a total volume of 375 million tonnes of goods on the Germany railway network in 2011. According to Destatis, this equals an increase of 19.3 million tonnes or 5.4% against the previous year 2010. It is the largest volume since 1992 (1992: 379.9 million tonnes).

Transport capacity – the product of quantity of goods and transport - also increased by 5.4% in comparison with the previous year. The average transport distance was 302 kilometres per tonne.

While the volume of goods increased between 5.2% and 10.6% during the first three quarters of 2011, only a moderate increase of 0.6% was noted in the fourth quarter.

Primarily, the total growth in 2011 stems from inland traffic which grew by 15.1 million tons compared to 2010 (+6.2%). Regarding the total tonnage, it now holds a share of 68.6%. The transport volume of combined traffic, mainly made of regular containers and interchangeable containers, increased by a higher-than-average 7.0% to 76.7 million tonnes with an average transport distance of 519 kilometres per tonne.