The Italian railway group Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and its logistics division Mercitalia Logistics have subscribed today in Rome a memorandum of understanding with the company Swiss intermodal transport Hupac. The agreement has between the objectives the creation of new intermodal land services and seafarers in Italy and towards Europe, the development and management of terminal to increase the quality of transport intermodal and the expansion of the rail traffic network for achieve european targets in Italy and reach 30% of goods transported by rail by 2030.

The agreement provides in the first instance for a verification of the possibility and mutual interest in achieving a commercial and operational partnership project aimed at development of logistics and rail transport solutions and intermodal of goods, in particular on relations Between Italy - North-eastern Europe and between south-eastern Europe and the Balkans. The activities will concern in particular the services intermodal land and the expansion of freight traffic to and from national and international ports, using connections rail and intermodal land.

The new MoU is part of the historical cooperation between the FS group and Hupac which sees, among other ongoing projects, the company Teralp, (Terminal AlpTransit), owned by Hupac and Mercitalia, engaged in the construction of three new terminal in Italy: Milan sorting (a first module will be built by 2025, but the completion of the work will take place by 2026), Brescia, which will be completed by 2026, and Piacenza, by 2024.

Today's meeting in Rome was attended by the FS group Italian CEO, Luigi Ferraris, for Mercitalia Logistics the MANAGING DIRECTOR, Gianpiero Strisciuglio, and for the Hupac Group the president, Hans Jörg Bertschi, the managing director, Michail Stahlhut, and the member of the Board of Directors Bernhard Kunz.

"With the signing of this MoU - explained Luigi Ferraris - we expand and strengthen our collaboration with Hupac in consistency with an overall strategy that aims at development intermodality and the objective of doubling the share of the transport of goods by train over distances exceeding 300-400 kilometers and the development of an increasingly logistic system sustainable and innovative. The FS Italiane group, through the Polo Logistics, aims to become a system operator and, thanks to the important national railway infrastructures and trans-European that it is realizing, to expand its offer by making of Europe its own domestic market'.

"The FS Italiane group - recalled Hans Jorg for Hupac Bertschi - has been our long-standing partner for decades. Together we have managed to continuously increase the transfer of goods from road to rail on the North-South axis. The PNRR, and in particular the work of the Third Pass of the Giovi, will make the rail freight system is even more competitive. Together we want to make an important contribution to the FS Group for further growth and to achieve the environmental objectives that Europe, Italy and Switzerland have set themselves up."