STATISTICS BRIEF LIGHT RAIL AND TRAM: THE EUROPEAN OUTLOOK NOVEMBER 2019 INTRODUCTION Tram and light rail systems are available in 389 cit- evolution of light rail transit (LRT) in Europe since ies around the world, with more than half of them 20151, and provides a snapshot of the situation in (204) in Europe. This Statistics Brief describes the 2018. BALTIC/ NORDIC BENELUX REGION BRITISH 12 cities GERMANY 10 cities ISLES 482 km 49 cities 645 km 9 cities 375 m pax/y. 2,966 km 700 m pax/y. 356 km 2,908 m pax/y. 196 m pax/y. POLAND 15 cities 979 km FRANCE 1,051 m pax/y. 28 cities 827 km 1,104 m pax/y. SOUTH- EASTERN WESTERN CENTRAL EUROPE MEDITERRANEAN 29 cities 29 cities EUROPE 992 km 23 cities 809 km 1,277 m pax/y. 1,240 km 623 m pax/y. 2,188 m pax/y. 1 UITP collects rail data according to a three-year cycle (Metro, LRT and Regional & Suburban Railways) 1 A REMARKABLE RENAISSANCE 180 LRT has experienced a renaissance since the new millen- 160 nium, with no less than 108 new cities (re)opening their 140 first line, of which 60 are from Europe. This does not in- 120 Asia-Pacific clude new lines in existing systems and line extensions. 100 Eurasia Europe 80 40 450 South America 60 35 400 MENA & Africa 7 40 350 North America 30 +56% 20 6 300 25 3 2 250 0 2 4 20 2 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 10 1 5 200 15 1 6 1 150 1 1 Figure 3: Evolution of LRT development (km) 2 10 1 19 19 5 100 4 2 15 11 1 5 50 2 7 5 3 0 0 RIDERSHIP pre-1985 1985-89 1990-94 1995-99 2000-04 2005-09 2010-14 2015-19 Europe North America South America With a total annual ridership in Europe of 10,422 million Eurasia Asia-Pacific MENA & Africa in 2018, LRT carries as many passengers as metros and Cumulative # systems regional/commuter rail, and 10 times more passengers 2 Figure 1: LRT system opening per half-decade, 1985-2019 than air travel in Europe. The small railways certainly do not play a small role in the sustainability of European cit- ies. The symbolic threshold of 10 billion passengers per annum was reached in 2016. GermanyRidership and Central (m. Europepassengers) make up half of all patron- age, theRidership rest being distributed (m. passengers) as shown on Figure 4. GerGemanyrmany 3% 3% 6% 6% CentralCentral Eur Euoperope 2% 2% 28%28% 7% 7% South-EasteSouth-Eastern Eurnr Euoperope 10% FranceFrance © Katatonia 10% PolandPoland Between 2015 and 2018, 420 km of new LRT opened in BeneluxBenelux Europe. This makes up 36% of LRT line openings world- 11%11% New LRT Infrastructure (km, 2015-18) Western Mediterranean wide. 2017 was a watershed year as, for the first time, Western Mediterranean 21%21% Nordic/Baltic greenfield LRT projects in Asia-Pacific exceeded those 12%12% Nordic/Baltic in Europe. BritishBritish Isles Isles Figure 4: Ridership distribution3 (m. passengers), 2018 34 Asia-Pacific 267.2 197.5 Eurasia 10,500 10,422 Europe 10,400 10,300 30.3 South America 10,288 135.4 10,200 MENA 10,100 10,119 10,000 68.1 North America 9,900 9,800 420.5 Africa 9,753 9,700 2015 2016 2017 2018 Figure 2: New LRT infrastructure (km), 2014-2018 Figure 5: Ridership evolution in Europe (m. passengers), 2015-2018 2 Eurostat, 2017 3 2017 data used for France, Poland and Switzerland 2 Patronage data for 2018 is not yet available for all coun- tries (France, Poland and Switzerland are missing). How- ever, extrapolation yields a ridership growth of 6.9 % from 9,740 million in 2015 to 10,422 million passengers between 2015 and 2018 (See Figure 5). Demand growth is therefore 50% higher than the supply growth (km of line) over the same period of time, and signals a positive response from the travelling public. Figure 6 shows different ridership evolution according to regions, ranging from a strong 17.5 % in the British Isles, where infrastructure growth was also the strongest, to 1.5% in Poland. 3500 3000 +5% 2500 +5% 2000 1500 +12% +10.4% +1.5% 1000 +12% +4.5% © Transport for Greater Manchester 500 +13.5% +17.5% LRT popularity is best measured by the annual number of 0 Germany Central South France Poland Benelux Western Nordic/ British Europe Eastern Mediter- Baltic Isles LRT trips per inhabitant per year. The annual use ranges Europe -ranean from 10 to 182 trips and can be explained by a variety of Figure 6: Ridership evolution by region (m. passengers) 2015-2018 4 factors, mainly by the system development and sophis- tication. With a ridership growth of 6.9% between 2015 and 2018, demand growth is 50% higher than the supply Annual LRT trips / inhabitant 200 growth. 180 182 Data about passenger-kilometers is available for 17 160 169 countries. The average LRT journey in Europe is 3.27km. 140 138 120 Luxemburg 1.75 European Switzerland 2.14 average 100 Bosnia Herzegovina 2.20 80 87 Greece 2.26 60 Serbia 2.41 56 Spain 2.81 40 44 Estonia 2.93 20 Hungary 3.10 20 12 10 France (Paris) 3.13 0 Central Poland Germany Benelux Nordic/ France South- Western British Isles Netherlands 3.20 Europe Baltic Eastern Mediter- Europe Italy 3.52 -ranean Germany 3.90 Austria 3.92 Figure 8: Number of LRT trips per year per inhabitant, 2017 Norway 3.95 Sweden 4.24 Portugal 4.40 The busiest LRT network is Budapest, Hungary, with 427 UK 4.75 million passengers. All systems in Figure 9 are long-es- 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 tablished tram networks. The only exception is Paris Figure 7: Average distance per trip in selected countries (km), 2017 where LRT was re-introduced almost 30 years ago. 4 Please note, the outlined bars indicate estimations 3 18 900 16 800 Budapest 411 Prague 372 14 700 Vienna 306 12 600 Paris 300 10 500 Warsaw 277 08 400 Cologne 213 Zurich 208 06 300 Berlin 197 Average line length (km) 04 200 Zagreb 197 Average distance between stops (m) 02 100 Brno 196 00 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 ope ope many France Benelux Poland British Isles dic/Baltic Ger n Eur Nor n Mediterranean Central Eur ester Figure 9: Top-10 busiest LRT systems in Europe (m. passengers), 2017 W South-Easter INFRASTRUCTURE Figure 11: LRT network characteristics, 2018 Between 2015 and 2018, LRT infrastructure in Europe grew by 3.9% from 8,943 km to 9,296 km. The longest LRT network in Europe is Berlin (193 km) +2.5% reaching third place worldwide after Melbourne (250km) 3,000 and Saint Petersburg (246km). 2,500 Top-10 longest LRT Europe (km) 2,000 Berlin 193.2 1,500 +1.5% Milan 180.2 +1% +5.5% 1,000 +8.5% +4.5% +4% Vienna 178 +9.5% 500 +8.7% Budapest 160 Düsseldorf 155.3 00 dic/ Cologne 148.7 many France British Central Poland Benelux Nor Isles Ger Europe estern Baltic W Brussels 147.6 South - Eastern Mediterranean Europe Leipzig 145.6 Figure 10: Evolution of line length in Europe (km), 2015-2018 Prague 142.7 There are notable differences between network struc- Paris 139 tures across the countries. While the European average 0 50 100 150 200 250 lies at 7.3 km, lines tend to be longer on average in coun- tries with newer systems and limited number of lines, Figure 12: Top-10 longest LRT systems in Europe (km), 2018 while older and more complex systems feature lower av- erage line length. © UITP 4 MOBILE ASSET The fleet available to operate the 1,276 LRT lines in Eu- rope consists of 20,754 trams and light rail vehicles. Germany Germany 5% Central Europe 7% 5% Central Europe 2% 24% Poland 7% 24% Poland 7% 2% 7% South-EasteSouth-Eastern Europern Europe 8% 8% WesteWresten Mediterraneanrn Mediterranean Benelux 12% 20% Benelux 12% 20% France France 15% Nordic/Baltic 15% BritishNo Islesrdic/Baltic British Isles Figure 13: Distribution of mobile assets by European regions, 2018 Currently 51% of the total installed fleet in Europe are partial or full low-floorLow-floor vehicles vehicles per, rwithegions 100% of the fleet in France, Spain, Ireland, UK and Norway being low-floor 3,500 vehicles. 120% © Leonid Andronov 3,000 100% 100% A frequent rolling stock KPI is the average yearly mile- 2,500 80% age per unit. The average annual mileage per vehicle in Europe is 52,000 km, ranging between 38,700 km and 2,000 65% 77,500 km. The discrepancy can be partly explained by 59% 60% the fleet age structure. In addition, this value is theo- 57% retical and based on the assumption that all vehicles are 1,500 50% 47% 48% equally used. 40% 1,000 32% 29% 80,000 70,000 20% 500 60,000 European average: 52,000 km 50,000 40,000 Percentage of total fleet Frequency of total fleet 0 0% 30,000 n ope ope many ester 20,000 France Poland Benelux W n Eur Ger dic/Baltic British Isles Nor 10,000 Central Eur Mediterranean South-Easter 0 ope ope many France Poland Benelux British Isles dic/Baltic Ger n Eur Nor Central Eur n Mediterranean ester Figure 14: Low-floor vehicles by regions, 2018 W South-Easter Figure 15: Average annual mileage per light rail vehicle (km), 2018 5 PERSPECTIVE With continued pressure to reduce congestion, tackle However, much attention and resources will go into the air quality in cities and reduce greenhouse gas emission maintenance, modernisation and replacement of assets contributing to climate change, LRT will continue to ob- to keep ageing systems attractive and fit for operational tain support of decision-makers and the travelling public purpose.