Since 2002, the Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning (ÖIR) has regularly conducted studies on cross-border freight transport in the Austrian Danube corridor. The current survey dates from April 2008 and depicts the transport development in the Danube corridor in the period from 1994 to 2007. During this period, the overall cross-border freight transport volume has increased from 31.4 million tonnes in 1994 to 80.7 million tonnes in 2007, which is equivalent to a transport growth of 157%. Hence, the Danube corridor is the fastest growing freight-transport corridor in Austria, exceeding even the transport growth within the Brenner corridor.  

Regarding the growth rates within the different transport modes, by far the strongest increase was recorded for road transport. While in 1994, goods transported on the road amounted to 10.6 million tonnes, in 2007 the figure had already risen to 42.2 million tonnes (+298%). In the same period, rail freight transport increased from 13.5 million tonnes to 26.7 million tonnes (+97%) and freight transport on the Danube rose from 7.2 million tonnes to 11.8 million tonnes (+64%).  The modal split clearly developed in favour of road transport: in 2007, 52.3 % of the overall freight transport volume was registered for the road, 33.1% for  rail transport and 14.1% for waterway transport on the Danube. In 1994, the modal split in the Austrian Danube corridor was 43.1 % rail, 33.8 % road and 23.1% Danube.  The following diagrams show the cross-border transport development in the Austrian Danube corridor and reveal particularly strong growth rates in road transport. The increase of transit transport through the Austrian Danube corridor in the period from 1994 to 2007 amounted 590%!  

The following diagram shows that the transport volumes at the western border of the Danube corridor are higher than at the eastern border. On the other hand, the relative growth rates are higher at the eastern border.