In terms of freight it doesn't really make sense to speak of Europe as a whole. Even though the EU is trying to push rail transport, amounts moved varies greatly from country to country, partly due to politics, but also due to geography and business structure.
On the trans-alpine routes rail has a very large modal share. This is partly politically forced as Switzerland and Austria don't want an endless line of trucks clogging the environmentally sensitive alpine valleys, but even without regulation, road infrastructure would not stand a chance to keep up. How large the share of domestic freight is, I don't know.
A country like Sweden has a rail modal share comparable to the US, and for the same reasons: Mining, long distances and low population denisity with population and production centres spread far apart.
In Germany the modal share is less than half of the US if I remember right, but what is missing is the coal and mining business. For intermodals the share is probably about the same and being the production powerhouse of Europe this amounts to quite a bit.
This is also what bodes for the large transit in the neighboring countries like the alpine states, in the Netherlands for the port in Rotterdam and to a lesser extent through Denmark to Sweden.
In several other countries like on the British Isles freight rail is all but dead. This is also true of anything but the transit traffic in a country like Denmark. The reason being a mix of business structure (heavy industry largely gone) and political neglect. Also sea transport is a larger competitor, especially for bulk products like grain, again due to geography.
Common to the European countries are however a lower standard for freight - no double stack clearances, train lengths limited by siding lengths, lower weight limits and freights having to run in tight slots between passenger trains. At least the EU is pushing common standards. But whether this has made freight "a joke" or killed it off altogether or it is thriving on US levels minus the coal mining is vastly different due to local conditions.
On the trans-alpine routes rail has a very large modal share. This is partly politically forced as Switzerland and Austria don't want an endless line of trucks clogging the environmentally sensitive alpine valleys, but even without regulation, road infrastructure would not stand a chance to keep up. How large the share of domestic freight is, I don't know.
A country like Sweden has a rail modal share comparable to the US, and for the same reasons: Mining, long distances and low population denisity with population and production centres spread far apart.
In Germany the modal share is less than half of the US if I remember right, but what is missing is the coal and mining business. For intermodals the share is probably about the same and being the production powerhouse of Europe this amounts to quite a bit.
This is also what bodes for the large transit in the neighboring countries like the alpine states, in the Netherlands for the port in Rotterdam and to a lesser extent through Denmark to Sweden.
In several other countries like on the British Isles freight rail is all but dead. This is also true of anything but the transit traffic in a country like Denmark. The reason being a mix of business structure (heavy industry largely gone) and political neglect. Also sea transport is a larger competitor, especially for bulk products like grain, again due to geography.
Common to the European countries are however a lower standard for freight - no double stack clearances, train lengths limited by siding lengths, lower weight limits and freights having to run in tight slots between passenger trains. At least the EU is pushing common standards. But whether this has made freight "a joke" or killed it off altogether or it is thriving on US levels minus the coal mining is vastly different due to local conditions.
