In the rident Italian region of Tuscany, a brand new rail freight connection was recently inaugurated connecting Prato to the port of Livorno. The first user of this route is Acqua Panna, part of the Nestlé group, which will send its water from its facilities near Florence to Livorno by rail, where it will be moved onto the ship for international transport.
Initially, there will be one weekly roundtrip between the two Tuscan hubs. It will carry 25 containers, which means that 1,500 trucks will disappear from the region’s roads. However, there is the intention to increase the weekly roundtrips to three, as Italian news media Supply Chain Italy underlined.
Rail transport of water in Italy
Trying to transport more bottled water on the railways is not necessarily a new solution, whether it concerns Nestlé or Italy. When it comes to Italy, a similar service was launched by Sant’Anna Waters, another large Italian water company. Their connection links Cuneo, in the northwest, with Treviso, in the northeast.
Nestlé pushing for a modal shift
Nestlé launched the so-called Glass Train Project to transport its products to and from its production facilities in France. This service saw Vittel and S. Pellegrino, while the one in Italy concerns Acqua Panna, all grouped under Nestlé. Concerning the transport of Vittel products, Nestlé is also cooperating with Alstom and ENGIE to start using hydrogen-powered trains in 2025. Moreover, the company reinstated an old railway line between its Perrier factory in Vergèze and the port of Fos-sur-Mer.