In the first half of 2025, the share of intermodal transport in total rail freight reached 16.6% by transport performance and nearly 12.8% by weight. The growth in the sector’s share in rail freight was also influenced by a decline in the transport of other cargo groups, including fossil fuels.
Compared to the first half of 2024, the number of transported units increased by 1.8% (15.2 thousand units), and in terms of TEU, by 3.3% (43.3 thousand TEU). During the first six months of 2025, railways transported over 863.7 thousand intermodal units, corresponding to 1.36 million TEU. The total cargo weight decreased by 2.3%, and transport performance dropped by 3.3%.
Thus, intermodal rail transport grew year-on-year in terms of the number of units and TEUs, although the shipments were slightly lighter and routes shorter.
Intermodal operators transported goods with a total weight of 13.4 million tonnes, 0.3 million tonnes less than in the same period of 2024. The transport performance amounted to 4.4 billion tonne-kilometers, which is slightly below last year’s result by almost 0.2 billion tonne-kilometers. These figures indicate stabilization in this type of transport.
“Intermodal transport is today one of the pillars of modern railways. Data for the first half of 2025 confirm that the intermodal transport market remains stable. This is a positive signal for both the transport sector and the entire economy.
On the other hand, the rail freight market in Poland is currently in a difficult situation. Therefore, special support for intermodal transport is needed – for example, through the construction and expansion of terminals, modernization of railway lines, and improving freight train parameters such as speed, axle load, and train length.
The railways should carry more units – not only containers but also semi-trailers and entire road sets. Otherwise, it will be difficult to significantly increase the absolute values of transport parameters in intermodal freight,”
emphasized Dr. Eng. Ignacy Góra, President of the Office of Rail Transport (UTK).
In the first half of 2025, the Polish intermodal transport market remained diverse and competitive – the segment leaders were PKP Cargo (19.1% share by weight, 18.6% by transport performance) and PCC Intermodal, which strengthened its position, achieving the highest shares – 19.9% and 22.5%, respectively.
DB Cargo Polska maintained a stable role (approx. 11.8% by weight and 13.6% by transport performance), while smaller yet active operators such as LTE Polska, Metrans Rail, Alza Cargo, and LTG Cargo Polska achieved results of several percent market share.
The growing presence of new players indicates strong interest in this segment.
More information on intermodal transport in the first half of 2025, development opportunities, intermodal connections in Poland, conditions on selected transport corridors, and the results of market consultations can be found in the report “Intermodal Transport in the First Half of 2025.”
Second Quarter of 2025
In the second quarter of 2025, railways in Poland transported 430.9 thousand intermodal units, corresponding to 683.5 thousand TEU.
The total weight of goods reached 6.78 million tonnes, and the transport performance amounted to 2.27 billion tonne-kilometers.
Compared to the first quarter of 2025, there was an increase in weight (+2.2%), transport performance (+2.4%), and the number of TEUs (+0.4%), while the number of transported units fell slightly (–0.4%).
Compared to the second quarter of the previous year, the number of transported TEUs increased by 3%, and the number of container units by 2.4%.
Detailed data on intermodal transport are available at dane.utk.gov.pl.
In the Intermodal Transport section, the website clearly presents up-to-date statistics on the intermodal transport market as well as historical data.
