Spain: 2025 review of land freight transport

In 2025, the Spanish economy continued to grow at a rate above the European Union average. This dynamism has an impact on the demand for land freight transport, which is not however uniform.

As in previous years, in 2025, the transport dynamics benefited road more than rail, which continues to face structural problems, aggravated by the accumulation of works and damage due to climate incidents. Beyond the statistics, the year 2025 was marked by a series of changes that suggest a major transformation in the years to come.

1/ Road transport: continued overall traffic growth in 2025

The Permanent Survey on Road Freight Transport (EPTMC), published by the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MTMS, per its Spanish acronym), shows that overall traffic continued to grow in 2025:

• In tonne-kilometers, activity increased, but by only 0.4%, reaching 272.6 billion tonne-kilometers.
• In tonnage, growth was more pronounced: 1.6% to 1.7 billion tonnes in 2025, and (Mt) in Q1 2026.

The overall statistic masks two different trends in 2025:

• Internationally, Spanish carriers suffered the repercussions of the poor economic situation in Europe, with declines in traffic both in tonne-kilometres (-1.2%) and in tonnage (-4.6%). Exports declined by 0.9% while imports increased by 2.1%.
• In the Spanish domestic market, activity increased by 1.1% in tonne-kilometres and by 2% in tonnage. However, it is noted that these figures are lower than those observed in 2024 (+2.7% and +2.4% respectively). On the other hand, in Q1 2026, activity declined by 3.85% in tonne-kilometres.

Prices trending upwards

The year 2025 was marked by an increase in transport service prices, rising by 3.6% after already increasing by 1% in 2024. In Q1 2026, there was a clear acceleration (+6.2%), linked to rising fuel prices after the outbreak of the conflict in the Persian Gulf. The price increase was particularly noticeable on the spot market, as shown by the Upply index of road freight rates for the Spanish domestic market.

Source: Upply Freight Index

2/ Rail freight: a difficult situation

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), rail freight traffic reached 9.7 billion tonne-kilometres in 2025, up 5.6% compared to 2024 (after -4.3% in 2024 and -1.7% in 2023), but it plunged again by 16% in Q1 2026. These data do not include figures for companies with traffic volumes below 500 million tonne-km annually.

In 2025, rail activity was disrupted by numerous construction projects.  The works have caused disruptions to traffic, forcing railway companies to seek alternative solutions, or even to interrupt traffic.

The majority private sector

In this challenging context, the transformation of the stakeholder mapping continues. Indeed, we observe:

• A worsening of the decline of Renfe Mercancías. According to figures published by the Ministry of Transport, traffic at the public operator's rail freight subsidiary, Renfe Operadora, decreased by 12.8% in 2025 to 3.4 billion tonne-kilometres, after already falling by 11% in 2024. 

• The continued rise of private operators. According to statistics from the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), private operator traffic increased by 20.9% in 2025 to reach 6.4 billion tonne-kilometres with a market share of 65.3 %. Captrain España, a subsidiary of the SNCF group, is Renfe's main rival. Mercancías with 1.9 billion tonne-kilometres, ahead of Continental Rail, a subsidiary of CMA CGM (1.3 billion tkm), and Medway, a subsidiary of MSC (1,25 Md tkm).

CONTENTS

1. Spanish economic situation

• GDP
• Inflation
• Wages and purchasing power
• Foreign trade

2. Road freight transport

• Continued overall traffic growth in 2025

• Sales figures are increasing

• Prices trending upwards

• Increasing costs

• Margins are down, but capitalisation is high

• An update on regulatory developments

• Driver shortage: a real impact

• The challenge of decarbonisation

3. Rail freight

• Traffic trends in 2025

• The impact of the work

• The majority private sector

• Positive signs

4. Conclusion

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