Two EU Countries Have No Railway at All
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 26 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2024
- Last updated
- 26 July 2026
Key estimates
- Trains carried 7.5% of inland passenger transport across the EU in 2024.
- Hungary records the highest share at 11.3%, followed by Austria at 10.4% and the Netherlands at 9.8%.
- Greece records 0.4%, Lithuania 1.1% and Bulgaria 1.5%.
- Cyprus and Malta appear nowhere in the ranking: neither has a railway network.
- No Member State carries more than an eighth of its passenger transport by rail.
A mode that carries less than a tenth of European travel
Rail occupies a large share of European transport policy and a small share of European transport. Across the EU in 2024, trains carried 7.5% of inland passenger-kilometres.
The highest national figure in the Union is 11.3%. There is no Member State where rail approaches the role that cars occupy, and none where it carries even an eighth of passenger distance.
Where rail does best
Hungary records 11.3%, Austria 10.4%, the Netherlands 9.8%, and Germany, France and Sweden 9.4% each.
Hungary at the top is the finding worth stating carefully. It is not among the Union's wealthiest Member States, and it has a dense inherited network with heavily used commuter services around Budapest. Austria's position rests on a similar structure. Rail share tracks network density and settlement pattern more closely than it tracks income.
Where rail is marginal
Greece records 0.4%, meaning rail carries one passenger-kilometre in every two hundred and fifty. Lithuania records 1.1%, Bulgaria 1.5% and Estonia 2.0%.
Greece is the case that resists a single explanation. Its geography is difficult for rail and much of its domestic long-distance travel is by sea or air, but the figure is low even against comparable Mediterranean countries: Portugal records 3.8% and Italy 6.2%.
The two countries that are not in this ranking
Cyprus and Malta do not appear at all. Neither has a railway network, so there is no share to report.
Their absence is a fact about those countries rather than a gap in the data, and a chart of European rail use showing twenty-seven bars would be showing two that cannot exist. The ranking here covers the 25 Member States that have railways.
Share of passenger transport by rail, 2024
| Country | % of passenger-kilometres | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Hungary | 11.3 | +3.8 |
| Austria | 10.4 | +2.9 |
| Netherlands | 9.8 | +2.3 |
| European Unionaggregate | 7.5 | — |
| Bulgaria | 1.5 | −6.0 |
| Lithuania | 1.1 | −6.4 |
| Greece | 0.4 | −7.1 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- Two Member States have no railway
- Cyprus and Malta have no rail network and are absent from this indicator entirely. They are excluded rather than shown at zero, because zero would imply a network carrying no passengers.
- Passenger-kilometres, not journeys
- Rail's share is measured in distance. A country with heavy short-distance commuter rail and long-distance driving will show a lower rail share than its number of rail trips suggests.
- Urban rail is treated inconsistently
- Metro, tram and light rail systems are not always included in national rail reporting, and practice differs between Member States. This affects countries with large urban networks more than others.
- Inland transport only
- Air and sea passenger travel are outside the inland modal split, which matters for peripheral and island Member States where those modes carry substantial domestic distance.
Frequently asked questions
- What share of EU travel is by train?
- 7.5% of inland passenger-kilometres in 2024. No Member State carries more than 11.3% of its passenger distance by rail.
- Which EU country uses trains the most?
- Hungary, at 11.3% of inland passenger-kilometres in 2024, ahead of Austria at 10.4% and the Netherlands at 9.8%. Rail share tracks network density and settlement patterns more closely than income.
- Which EU countries have no railway?
- Cyprus and Malta. Neither has a rail network, so neither appears in this indicator. They are excluded from the ranking rather than shown at zero.
- Which EU country uses trains the least?
- Of those with a railway, Greece, at 0.4% of inland passenger-kilometres in 2024 — roughly one passenger-kilometre in 250. Lithuania follows at 1.1% and Bulgaria at 1.5%.
Methodological note
Modal split is published by Eurostat as the share of each mode in total inland passenger transport, measured in passenger-kilometres. This study uses the train share.
Values are for 2024. Twenty-five Member States report: Cyprus and Malta have no railway network and are absent from the source rather than recorded at zero.
The EU aggregate of 7.5% is Eurostat's own figure, computed across the countries that report.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Modal split of air, sea and inland passenger transport
tran_hv_ms_psmod
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · vehicle=TRN · unit=PC · time=2024
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-27
- Source last updated:
- 2026-08-26
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