FerMerci: we need a change of pace, increase the transit of goods by rai 28/02/23

Source: https://finanza.repubblica.it/Pages/News/Item.aspx?ID=105_2023-02-28_TLB

(Original in Italian, translation: Google translate)

FerMerci: serve cambio di passo, aumentare transito merci su ferrovia

(Teleborsa) - Facilitate the transport of goods by rail through an agreement between big industry and logistics operators , which favors the increase in volumes transported by rail and the implementation of the modal shift strongly advocated by the EU. This was asked by FerMerci, an association that represents railway operators in the transport of goods, on the occasion of the presentation of the first Annual Report on Italian Rail Freight Transport .

"We must favor the transport of goods to large industry which still today uses road transport for the most part. For this reason we propose a Pact between companies in the sector and large industry", explains the president of FerMerci, Clemente Carta, convinced that it is an effort by the entire national logistics system is necessary, with the support of client industries, starting with the large state-owned enterprises and who4, in addition to the already known and foreseen supports, must in every way favor access of the goods to the train .

The Report on rail freight transport offers some useful food for thought for the future of the entire sector, beyond the numbers that characterized the first two decades of the century.

The report shows that, after the collapse in volumes recorded after the 2008 crisis , the sector experienced a recovery starting from 2015 , which was halted due to the pandemic . However, in the last year there has been a new increase in traffic volumes in terms of trains/km of 12% held back by the increase in energy costs and geopolitical tensions.

The stability of rail traffic - emerges from the Report - is clearly in contrast with the serious fall in industrial production(on which the transport demand directly depends) and the dynamics of the national railway system are substantially consistent with those of the main European competitors and in some cases even better. This demonstrates that the direct support measures for rail transport launched by the European Union and implemented by the national government and the Regions work and have played a decisive role in preventing the collapse of rail transport that was taking place in the first decade of the current century .

Employees and Infrastructures, on the other hand, had the merit of materially supporting the overall stability of the railway carrier. Despite this, they are two assets that present critical issues, in the first case the lack of train drivers , in the second the physiological interruptions which, to allow the works and the efficiency of the Railway Network, slow down the traffic.

We find ourselves in a context in which a change of pace is needed, a new paradigm for the sector, useful for concretely achieving the objectives set by the European Green Deal. Hence the idea of ​​a logistics-industry agreement which would allow these objectives to be achieved and the use of the railway to be increased.