Rome, 11 October 2022
New intermodal land and maritime services in Italy and to Europe plus the development and management of terminals to increase the quality of intermodal transport and expand the rail traffic network in order to reach the European targets in Italy and achieve 30% of goods transported by rail by 2030.
These are the objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in Rome between the FS Italiane Group, represented by CEO Luigi Ferraris, and Mercitalia Logistics CEO Gianpiero Strisciuglio, along with the Hupac Group represented by Michail Stahlhut, CEO of Hupac Ltd, in the presence of Hupac Ltd President Hans-Jörg Bertschi and Bernhard Kunz, a member of the Group’s Board of Directors.
First of all, the document shall serve to verify the possibility and mutual interest in implementing a commercial and operational partnership project aimed at developing logistics solutions plus rail and intermodal freight transport, particularly regarding the Italy-North-Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Europe-Balkans relations.
Activities will focus on land-based intermodal services and the expansion of freight traffic to and from national and international ports, availing of rail and land-based intermodal connections.
Cooperation between the FS Group and Hupac is nothing new, there being – amongst others – ongoing projects through the company Teralp (Terminal AlpTransit), with Hupac and Mercitalia invested in the construction of three new terminals in Italy: Milan shunting (where an initial module will be realised by 2025 then completed by 2026), Brescia to be completed by 2026, and Piacenza set to be done by 2024.
The management of logistics and freight transport through Switzerland is a virtuous example in the European landscape. Indeed, in 2021, 75% of all freight moved was by train, between conventional and intermodal rail, with growth in the latter mainly at the expense of road transport over long distances.
“With the signing of this MoU,” stated Luigi Ferraris, FS Group CEO, “we are expanding and strengthening our cooperation with Hupac in line with an overall strategy that aims to develop intermodality and the objective of doubling the share of freight transport by train over distances of more than three hundred to four hundred kilometres, along with developing an increasingly sustainable and innovative logistics system. Through the Logistics Hub, the FS Italiane Group thus aims to become a system operator and – thanks to the important national and trans-European railway infrastructure it is building – to expand its offer by making Europe its domestic market.”
“The FS Italiane Group,” says Hupac Ltd President Hans-Jörg Bertschi, “has been our historical partner for decades. Together, we have succeeded in continuously increasing the transfer of freight from road to rail along the North-South axis. The PNRR (Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan) and in particular, work on the Terzo Valico dei Giovi, shall render the rail freight system even more competitive. Together with the FS Group, we want to make an important contribution to further growth and to achieve the environmental objectives that Europe, Italy and Switzerland have set themselves.”