The Piacenza Intermodal Terminal, located 50 kilometres south of Milan and managed by Hupac, will almost triple the number of containers handled by train by 2025. The facility is currently undergoing a major refurbishment to embrace the modal shift from road to rail.
The project entails the expansion of the terminal, which will go from 105,000 to 180,000 square metres. This space will be used to implement five additional tracks, for a total of eight. Moreover, three new gantry cranes have been already implemented. This should allow the movement of 280,000 containers by rail every year, compared to the current 100,000.
As mentioned by Piacenza’s mayor Piero Solcà in an interview with Il Piacenza, the terminal upgrade should be completed between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025. The main rail connections at the facility are to Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania. Hupac mentioned that it currently moves eight pairs of trains daily via the terminal. However, 70 per cent of the volumes in the terminals travel on the road.
Hupac’s partnership with Ferrovie dello Stato
This upgrade is part of an agreement between Hupac and the Italian railway holding Ferrovie dello Stato to boost the role of railways in intermodal terminals in northern Italy. Other than the Piacenza Intermodal Terminal, the two companies are collaborating on upgrading the Milano Smistamento facility, in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Office of Transport, and building a new terminal in Brescia.
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