Mercitalia Fast: from October, goods will travel at high speed

Milan, 6 April 2018

Goods transported at high speed in a fast, punctual, and ecological way: Mercitalia Fast is the new Mercitalia Group all freight cargo service (Italian FS Group) executed with an ETR 500 train and using the Italian HS/HC network.

The service will be operational from October 2018 on the Caserta - Bologna line and vice versa, from the Caserta Marcianise and Bologna Interporto terminals. Travel time is 3 hours 20 minutes at an average speed of 180 kilometers per hour, from origin to destination.

The new service and operating results of Mercitalia Hub's first year of activity were illustrated today in Milan by Renato Mazzoncini, Chief Executive and General Manager of the FS Italiane Group, Ivan Soncini, President of Mercitalia Logistics, and Marco Gosso, Chief Executive of Mercitalia Logistics. Also present was Maurizio Maresca, member of the technical mission structure of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.

"In its first year of activity, the Mercitalia Hub - underlined Renato Mazzoncini, Chief Executive of FS Italiane - focused on the economic and industrial results achieved, both in terms of investments made and in regards to objectives indicated in the 2017-2026 Business Plan. Thus, we started the relaunch of the goods and logistics sector in Italy and abroad. The restructuring and reorganisation of the Group's industrial cargo and logistics industries - continued Mazzoncini - has generated less operational superstructures and greater production efficiency. In the sector, we have planned investments of 1.5 billion euros in ten years. In a year we have already activated investments of 500 million euros which, thanks to the strengthening of inter-modality and the development of markets with ‘high value added goods’ transport offerings, will lead us to reach revenues of 2.1 billion in 2026 ".

"With the new Mercitalia Fast service we will use the High Speed / High Capacity network for freight transport", highlighted Marco Gosso Chief Executive of Mercitalia Logistics. "Our goal is to offer a tailor-made service to customers who need to deliver goods quickly, reliably and on time. Today we are the only railway company that can guarantee this business. We will begin next October with the Caserta - Bologna connection from the Caserta Marcianise and Bologna Interporto terminals. In the future we plan to extend the offer to other terminals in main Italian cities reached by the HS/HC network: Turin, Novara, Milan, Brescia, Verona, Padua, Rome and Bari ».

The new Mercitalia Fast service is designed to transport time sensitive products, in short and defined times, for customers such as express couriers, logistics operators, producers, distributors and real estate developers, and can be tailor-made.

Goods will travel on board an ETR 500 (12 cars for a transport capacity equivalent to 18 lorries or two Boeing 747 Cargo airplanes) specially equipped for the transport of roll containers (70x80x180 1m3 / 220 kg), easy and quick to load, unload and stow.

Thanks to Mercitalia Fast, carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere will be reduced by 80% compared to traditional road transport.

Mazzoncini and Gosso also illustrated the operating results of the first year of activity of the Mercitalia Hub, created in January 2017 by the grouping of FS Italiane Group companies operating in the freight transport and logistics markets.

In particular, the Mercitalia Hub is reaching objectives indicated in the FS Italiane Group's 2017-2026 Industrial Plan: investments already allocated amount to 500 million euro out of a total of 1.5 billion of planned investments over ten years and, for the first in the history of the Italian Railways freight business, positive cash flows of €40 million were generated in 2017.

The investments, kick-started after decades, and the activities launched show the strong desire of FS Italiane to relaunch the sector. From contracts for the supply of 125 new electric locomotives, 10 shunting locomotives and over 300 last generation wagons for combined and conventional transport, to agreements signed for the development of logistics in Italy and abroad.