A debate has erupted online after Spain’s transport minister Óscar Puente claimed that his country has the second-most punctual mid and long-distance trains in Europe.
“Our punctuality ratio, the punctuality ratio of Renfe [Spain’s national state-owned railway company], is the second-highest in Europe, after the Swiss company and far ahead of Germany, Italy or France, which have punctuality rates inferior to ours,” he said on 4 September.
It’s true that non-EU member Switzerland consistently ranks as having some of the most reliable trains on the continent, according to various reports and travel companies that rank services based on their own criteria.
In a recent survey by campaign group Transport & Environment, for example, the Swiss Federal Railways Company came in first for reliability among rail operators in Europe, alongside Dutch railway operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen and just ahead of Belgium’s SNCB and Spain’s Renfe. Italy’s Trenitalia ranked best overall when criteria such as ticket prices and booking experience were also taken into account.
The European Commission, however, also collects its own data on the punctuality of EU countries’ train services, although it notes that different definitions of punctuality apply in member states, making it hard to fully compare each country.
Nevertheless, according to data published in July, the Netherlands had the most punctual long-distance and high-speed passenger train services in the EU, with 88% of its trains arriving on time in 2022.
The European Commission classifies “punctual” as trains arriving with a five-minute delay at most.
The Netherlands was followed by Belgium, also with 88% but brought down slightly in the ranking due to its results in previous years, and Bulgaria with 87%.
Denmark came fourth and Spain came in fifth, so it does rank as having some of the most punctual long-distance train services in the EU, and it does outrank the German, Italian and French services, as Puente suggested.
The EU average for high-speed and long-distance trains that arrived on time was 87%, according to the Commission.
It’s a different story for local and regional trains, though: in this category, Latvia, Estonia, Austria, Finland, and Denmark make up the top five most punctual train services. Spain, meanwhile, comes in ninth place among EU member states.
Spanish regional passenger trains once again rank above the rest of the Big Four EU countries. Local German and Italian trains score particularly low when compared to the rest of the bloc, according to numbers from the Commission.
They are both still significantly more punctual than Romania’s passenger trains though, which are by far the least punctual in both the long-distance and regional categories.
How do European railway stations rank?
Certain associations also compile league tables of the quality of train stations around Europe.
Advocacy group Consumer Choice Center recently released its European Railway Station Index for 2025, looking at Europe’s 50 busiest stations by passenger volume, and found that Switzerland once again reigns supreme when it comes to train travel.
Specifically, Zürich Hauptbahnhof came in as Europe’s best railway station overall when it comes to categories such as ticketing options, accessibility and rail coverage.
Poland’s Wrocław Główny followed, with Switzerland’s Bern Hauptbahnhof in third place. Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Germany) and London Paddington (UK) rounded out the top five.
Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands all had two stations in the top 10.
Spain’s best-performing station, and its only one to feature, was Madrid Puerta de Atocha in 18th place in the ranking.
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