Last year turnover and net profit of the group Hupac grew respectively by 4.9% and 16.3%

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The Swiss group for combined transport Hupac ended 2010 with net income of 3.2 million Swiss francs on revenues of 504.5 million Swiss francs, with increases of 16.3% and 4.9% on ' previous financial year. Gross profit amounted to 116.9 million Swiss francs (+19.4%) and pre-tax profit of 5.0 million Swiss francs (-0.5%).

Last year Hupac 690,251 road consignments carried by rail, an increase of 13.7% in 2009 ( of 9 February 2011). Presenting the budget statement for 2010 today, the President of Hupac, Hans-Jörg Bertschi, stressed that "the transfer of traffic is growing again."Since 2000 the number of shipments by road combined transport via Switzerland grew by 70% last year alone, growth was 15%, "this - found Bertschi - 130 years old on an infrastructure that is no longer able to meet the needs of freight transport by rail according to today's international standards. "

According Hupac even greater growth in traffic has been impeded by lack of resources in some companies and especially the unavailability of railway wagons caused by lack of maintenance capacity due to new directives, while a positive effect they have had the special funding of the Swiss Confederation by which it could avoid the risk of a re-transfer to road transport.

Last year the Swiss company has made investments to 22.5 million Swiss francs, a figure - said Hupac - rather low due to the persistence of economic crisis, and investments have mainly focused on the purchase of railway wagons the strengthening of the terminal in Belgium and Italy.

For the next year Hupac think are the chances of significant traffic growth and the combined company's goal is a steady increase in transport volumes in the order of 8 to 10% per annum in 2015 to reach a volume of one million shipping traffic with an adequate profit for the year.

According Hupac, so that there are conditions conducive to the development of combined transport and taking into account the difficulties of funding the existing infrastructure in both the north and south of the Alps that delaying the completion of the access routes well beyond 2030, an adjustment should be pragmatic and phasing of the existing infrastructure so that the advantages of the flat rail can be exploited from the moment of the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel. "The freight trans - Bertschi noted - should be handled by rail, but needs an efficient intermodal corridor, suitable for longer trains and heavier, up to four meters high, and the terminal with sufficient capacity."

In particular, Hupac infrastructure adjustments are needed only under a concept of international on the Rotterdam-Genoa corridor, taking into account the specific needs of freight traffic.Specifically: increased length of trains from the current 550 meters to 700 meters to improve productivity and competitiveness of the rail, and adjustment of the Gotthard corridor to international standards of four meters P400 profile that allows the transfer of the important segment of the volume transport ; pragmatic solutions to the immediate south connections using the existing railway lines via Luino, Domodossola and Chiasso, construction of terminal east of Milan for the use of the proposed new route (Chiasso)-Seregno-Bergamo.

Beyond the trans-Alpine traffic, Hupac noted promising developments in other markets, particularly in the new Eastern markets where the company collaborates with Swiss Russkaya Troyka GT and Eurasian Transport Good "record - said Bertschi - a growing interest for transport by rail as far as Russia, China and Korea. "