Sweden’s Rail Liberalisation: A Failed Experiment and a Wake-Up Call for Europe
On UN Public Service Day, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) pays tribute to the vital role public services play in building fairer, greener, and more resilient societies. Few public services are more essential or more misunderstood than rail. As the backbone of sustainable mobility, social cohesion, and territorial integration, rail is not merely a transport mode. It is a public good. A shared asset. A strategic tool for climate action and social justice.
For years, the European Commission has pointed to Sweden as the model for how liberalisation could modernise this essential service. Sweden was the first country in Europe to unbundle their railway system, separating infrastructure management from operations and opening all aspects – freight, regional services, and long-distance routes to competition. The expectation was that market forces would lead to greater efficiency, lower costs, and more passengers and freight shifting to rail.
But a new report from the Swedish think tank Katalys, “Market reforms at the end of the road – How we create a functioning railway for the 2030s” (machine translation), tells a very different story. It confirms what ETF and our affiliates across Europe have been saying for years: liberalisation has not delivered. Instead, it has hollowed out a once-strong public service in the name of market ideology.
Despite decades of competition and market opening, the modal share of rail freight in Sweden has stagnated at around 18%, well below both national ambitions and the EU’s 30% target for 2030. Road haulage continues to dominate, undermining climate goals and creating congestion, pollution, and road safety risks. The promised shift from road to rail has simply not happened. We see a similar situation in the rest of Europe.
In Swedish passenger transport, the modal share of rail has grown only slightly over the course of 15 years, from 8.1% in 2008 to 9% in 2023.[1] At the same time, public money continues to flow into the system, yet it is increasingly used to subsidise private operators rather than invest in public infrastructure or service quality. In passenger transport, profitable mainline routes have been cherry-picked by private companies, often foreign, state-owned enterprises – while loss-making regional services remain dependent on public subsidy. The risks are borne by the taxpayer, while profits are extracted and paid out elsewhere. This is not efficiency; it is exploitation.
Fragmentation of responsibilities for railways has had serious consequences for reliability and resilience: punctuality has suffered, coordination during disruptions has worsened, and Sweden’s strategic capacity to respond to crises, be they climate-related, economic or geopolitical, has been eroded.
Railway workers have borne the brunt of this model. The Swedish experience is marked by disputes, deteriorating conditions, and growing precarity. From the Veolia strike in 2014 to the long-running Arriva conflict from 2019 to 2021, workers have fought to protect their rights in an environment where contracts change hands, terms are undermined, and cost-cutting trumps quality and safety. This is no coincidence. It is a structural outcome of a system that prioritises competition over cooperation, and cost over value.
As the Katalys report makes clear, this approach is failing not only workers, but the public. The railway is not just another market. It is a critical public service. It provides affordable mobility, connects communities, supports regional development, and underpins climate strategy. Yet under the liberalised model, Sweden has lost the capacity to plan, coordinate, and invest with the public good in mind.
The report calls for a decisive shift: a reassessment of liberalisation’s effects, reintegration of operations where fragmentation has harmed performance, and a return to public ownership and democratic control. Crucially, it argues for a new White Paper that puts public service values, rather than market mechanisms, at the heart of rail policy. These are not just technical recommendations, they are ethical and political necessities.
ETF has consistently argued that rail, like all public services, should be designed and governed in the public interest. A well-functioning railway system cannot be built on fragmented contracts and profit incentives. It must be underpinned by stable investment, a skilled and fairly treated workforce, and a clear mission to serve society, not shareholders.
On this UN Public Service Day, we celebrate the workers who keep our railways running—often in the face of mounting pressure, insecurity, and underinvestment. We reaffirm our belief that public services, including rail, are not commodities. They are foundations of democratic life. They should be protected, strengthened, and proudly held in public hands.
Sweden was held up as the perfect example of liberalised rail. The reality now stands as a stark warning: if the flagship model has failed, the model itself must be questioned. It is time for Europe to change track, away from fragmentation and marketisation, and towards an integrated, publicly owned, and socially just railway system fit for the future.
Because rail is a public service. And public services deserve public commitment, not private exploitation.
[1] Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tran_hv_ms_psmod__custom_17108502/default/table?lang=en