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Freight transport demand by mode - EU27: Freight transport demand by mode - EU27
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Freight transport volume (billion tonne kilometre (tkm)) (EU‑27): Bar chart showing growth in freight transport volumes
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Freight transport volume (billion tkm) (EU-27): -
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Freight transport demand (CSI 036) - Assessment published Jan 2011: Over the past decade freight transport volume has grown rapidly and has generally been coupled with growth in GDP. This is particularly striking in recent years when there has been a surge in freight transport activity. Consequently the objective of decoupling GDP and freight transport growth has not been achieved. Closer inspection reveals large regional differences, with the EU-12 Member States showing much faster growth since 2000 in the freight transport sector, compared to the EU-15. This is mainly a result of these countries starting from a relatively low transport level and then experiencing a shift towards high value production and service industries, which has resulted in strong transport growth. For the first time in the 13 years displayed, freight transport demand in the EEA32 experienced a year-on-year decline in 2008. This is in sharp contrast to the long-term trend; freight transport demand has grown by over two-fifths since 1995, and by nearly one-fifth in the period 2003-2008 alone. In 2008, decoupling between freight transport volume and GDP was observed for the first time in five years. However, this is likely to be due to the impact of the economic recession, and will not necessarily continue in the future. Aside from this, the recent trend is for positive coupling between GDP and freight transport demand. Within the European Union, the EU-12 has experienced growth in freight demand over three times that of the EU-15 in the period 1998-2008, and demand within the EU-12 continued to grow in 2008 despite the general downturn.
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Share of land freight transport by mode: Percentage share of land freight transport between road and rail transport mode for EU12, EU15 and combined EU27.
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Trend in freight transport demand and GDP: Green indicates faster growth in GDP than in transport while red indicates stronger growth in transport than in GDP. Figure 1 shows a large increase in freight tkm in 2004. This is due to a change in the methodology used to calculate the estimates for this year. (see metadata for more details) The main reason is that countries had to harmonise their surveys with the EU legislation, Freight transport demand is defined as the amount of inland tonnes-kilometre travelled every year in the EEA32. Inland freight transport includes transport by road, rail and inland waterways. The current version of the indicators is based on inland transport only. Although statistics on sea transport are already well developed, due to their predominantly international nature, there are conceptual difficulties in dealing with these modes in a manner consistent with the inland modes. Data from Lichtenstein is not included as it was not available as part of the dataset .The ratio of annual growth of inland freight transport to GDP, measured in 2000 prices, determines the amount of coupling between GDP and transport. The decoupling indicator, depicted by the green bars, is calculated as unity minus the coupling ratio; so a positive score indicates decoupling (i.e. transport demand grows less slowly than GDP), with a negative score showing the opposite (i.e. transport demand outpaces GDP growth).
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Freight transport demand by mode and group of goods: Located in Data and maps › Indicators
Freight transport demand by mode and group of goods: Located in Data and maps › Indicators
Freight transport demand by mode and group of goods: Located in Data and maps › Indicators
Freight transport demand by mode and group of goods: Located in Data and maps › Indicators