Liberalisation and the resulting increases in competition within railway markets, in particular within freight transportation, are expected to advance further. This implies positive effects on the logistic market, as service offerings become more flexible and the costs decline due to a broader supply of rail transport services (for example, through growth in international train operating companies, pre-arranged train paths and one-stop-shops on the core network corridors);
One can estimate the market share of private rail freight operators in Europe increased from 0% in 2001 to 25% in 2011 (International Railway Journal 2013) and 28% in 2012 (Verkehrsrundschau 27/2014). This is even more important since the total rail freight performance in the EU28 decreased by 2.1% in the period 2005-2012. By examining the countries that are ranked highly in the index of rail liberalisation one can see that, for instance, in Germany (3rd rank) the total rail freight market share of inland transport increased by 2.8% and Sweden (1st rank) by 3.7% in the same period. In contrast, Ireland (which is at the bottom of the liberalisation index and ranked 27th) experienced an overall rail freight share decrease by 0.8%, while the Spanish rail freight share (ranked 26th) stagnated between 2005 and 2012 at 4.6%.