The long-awaited reopening of the Frejus Railway, connecting France and Italy, was finally set for 31 March. However, the situation for the rail freight industry is still possibly problematic, as semi-trailers previously running across the Alpine Rolling Highway (AFA) might remain on the road due to cuts in funding.
AFA used to move 30,000 trucks on the railways across the Alps before a disastrous landslide closed the Frejus Railway in August 2023. Since then, government support from both Italy and France has been somewhat lacking, many industry representatives lamented. In addition, the Italian government decided to cut 2.5 million euros in subsidies for AFA, which is co-owned by Mercitalia and SNCF.
Starting again will be challenging
“Without economic support I don’t see how we can start again”, said the CEO of AFA Andrea Accastelli in an interview with Il Corriere della Sera. He explained that the cuts are due to the fact that trains were not running, because the subsidies were based on how many trains were actually handled.
Ambrogio Trasporti, one of the most active companies in the rail transport of semi-trailers across the Alps, also highlighted the massive damage caused by the unavailability of the infrastructure. “ We expected compensation, instead we didn’t even get a pat on the back”, he underlined.