French rail freight up 4.4% as semi-trailer traffic jumps 42%

French rail freight grew 4.4% in 2025, its second consecutive year of expansion after a 9.9% rise in 2024, while total inland freight transport shrank by 1.9%. The figures come from the 2025 annual transport report published on 10 November 2026 by SDES, France's national statistical service.

Road freight fell 2.8% over the same period. That divergence lifted rail's modal share to roughly 10%, up from 9% a year earlier — meaning roughly one tonne-kilometre in ten now moves by train.

What drove the growth?

Combined transport — the intermodal carriage of lorries, semi-trailers, containers and swap bodies on rail — grew 7.6% to a record 15.8 billion tonne-kilometres. That segment alone accounted for more than three-quarters of the year's total growth in French rail freight. Conventional wagonload and block-train traffic grew a more modest 1.8%.

Semi-trailers carried by rail were the standout. Traffic in that segment jumped 41.9%, generating around three-quarters of the additional combined transport activity in 2025. Container and swap-body traffic rose 2.9% and still made up 79% of combined rail freight.

Rail motorway expansion underpinned the semi-trailer surge. Operators introduced ten new traffic flows during 2025. The Alpine rail motorway between France and Italy resumed operations after the Maurienne railway reopened; a landslide had closed the line since August 2023.

New infrastructure added capacity. A rail motorway terminal opened in Cherbourg in March 2025, serving a connection with Bayonne. In November, operators inaugurated a Sète–Calais rail motorway service.

Combined transport now forms 46% of the French rail freight market, up from 34% in 2019. Over those six years, combined volumes climbed 34% while conventional rail freight contracted 17.2%.

How strong was domestic traffic?

Domestic rail freight posted its best year since 2012. Traffic between French origins and destinations rose 7.6% to 21.6 billion tonne-kilometres.

International flows diverged sharply:

• Outbound traffic increased 9.2% to 5.7 billion tonne-kilometres
• Inbound traffic declined 3.7% to 4.5 billion tonne-kilometres
• Transit traffic fell 13.5% to 2.6 billion tonne-kilometres

Transit has now dropped 41.7% since 2019.

Total tonnage rose 2% to 80.4 million tonnes. Average load per freight train hit a record 632 tonnes, compared with 580 tonnes in 2019 — a 9% gain in productivity per train. Average distance travelled rose from 380 km to 427 km over the same period. Combined transport services ran an average of 606 km in 2025.

Which commodities moved?

Manufactured products, machinery and transport equipment remained the largest category at 42% of activity, with transport performance up 6.2%. Construction materials took an 18% share and grew 9.2%, though volumes sat 12.3% below their 2019 level. Agricultural and food products moved the other way, falling 9.9%; their share dropped two percentage points to 13%, partly reflecting France's poor 2024 cereal harvest.

Who gained market share?

SNCF's freight arm, Rail Logistics Europe, lost ground despite the growing market. Its share fell from 62% in 2024 to 58% in 2025, measured in tonne-kilometres. DB Cargo France gained, rising from 17% to 20%.

The shift follows the restructuring of Fret SNCF, replaced in January 2025 by Hexafret for freight operations and Technis for rolling stock maintenance. Fret SNCF had already transferred 23 traffic flows to competing operators during 2024.

Rail Logistics Europe's revenue fell 1.8% to €1.8 billion in 2025, even as the overall market expanded.

Freight rail prices rose 2.8% during the year, including a 4.7% increase for international services. Since 2019, average French rail freight prices have climbed 27%, against 17.3% for road freight — a widening cost gap that will test whether rail's renewed growth can be sustained.