Around 2.4m fewer passengers travelled by train in Luxembourg in the third quarter of 2020, according to data published by Eurostat.

The number of train passengers recovered slightly compared to the second quarter of 2020, where they had plummeted by 78% (-4.9m) compared to the same period in 2019.

In the third quarter of 2020, the number of rail passengers decreased the most in Ireland (-73% compared with the third quarter of 2019, -9.3m passengers), followed by Italy (-48%, -96.7m), Spain (-44%, -61.8m), Sweden (-42%, -26.5m). Luxembourg ranked fifth.

Only the Netherlands bucked the European trend, where the number of rail passenger numbers remained relatively stable during the first three quarters of 2020 compared to 2019.

The Eurostat data doesn’t indicate the reason behind the drop in passengers, whether this was because of an increase in remote working, lockdown restrictions on movement or more people switching to their cars, for example.