The two main Italian rail freight associations, Fermerci and Fercargo, asked their Ministry of Transport Matteo Salvini to urgently intervene “to avoid a disastrous crisis with unpredictable consequences” for the industry. The interruptions due to infrastructure works and the closures of lines crossing the Alps are placing a nearly unbearable burden on the sector as a whole, putting roughly 15,000 jobs at risk.
When it comes to infrastructure works, Italy has to implement various projects quite quickly to be able to finance them through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. Carrying out a great number of initiatives in a relatively short period of time will lead to massive reductions in available capacity until at least 2026.
Concerning transalpine traffic, Italy is currently dealing with traffic issues both to France and Switzerland. The main border crossing to France, the Frejus Railway, has been closed since August 2023 and will be until early 2025. Moreover, the main line to Switzerland, the Gotthard Base Tunnel, has been working at partial regime for one year and will get back at full capacity in three weeks.
This year will be worse than the last
“These problems, together with natural events such as the floods in Emilia Romagna and Tuscany and the Red Sea crisis, are causing a collapse in rail freight traffic”, Fermerci and Fercargo stated in their letter to the Ministry. The Italian rail freight sector has already been declining, with a 3,2 per cent decrease in volumes between 2022 and 2023. However, things seem to be even worse this year, with an expected decrease of 6,7 per cent in 2024 compared to 2023. “The estimated economic damage for 2024 is about 90 million euros, with similar prospects for the next two years”, the associations stressed.