The first piece of the Terzo Valico (also known as Genoa Junction), a new railway connecting the port of Genoa to the rest of the TEN-T Rhine-Alpine Corridor, is now up and running. The 8.5 kilometre-line between Rivalta Scrivia and Tortona, which is Terzo Valico’s northernmost section, has been inaugurated on Friday 12 January. There also are some advantages for rail freight thanks to the upgraded terminal in Rivalta Scrivia site which now has four tracks to accommodate 750-metre-long freight trains.
The upgrade works in Rivalta Scrivia also entailed creating a link to the Rivalta Terminal Europa and the Interporto Rivalta Scrivia, two rail freight terminals in the area. The rail yard at the Rivalta Scrivia site will now be equipped with “a modern fire-fighting system to handle the transportation of dangerous goods”, as WeBuild, the company tasked with the project, specified. Concerning the southern part of the Terzo Valico, a tunnel was upgraded in August to allow the the transit of 4-metre-high road trailers on the rail to the port of Genoa. This infrastructure provides first and last-mile rail access to the port.
‘RFF deadline will be met’
“The Government has secured all the necessary funds to complete the work within the timeframe set by the Recovery and Resilience Facility”, the Italian railway holding Ferrovie dello Stato specified. Back in 2022, a few worries surfaced concerning the timely commissioning of the project due to a number of tunnel-boring machines not functioning due to geological conditions. Moreover, to speed up the completion of the Terzo Valico, WeBuild and the Italian infrastructure manager Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, injected 700 million euros into the project. The whole line should be commissioned by the end of 2025, with operations starting in mid-2026.
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