In Europe, the rail freight transport sector he is going through serious difficulties. The director underlined this General of the Fermerci Association, Giuseppe Rizzi, in a meeting which took place yesterday in Brussels with MEPs Carlo Fidanza and Flavio Tosi, the latter rapporteur for the Transport Directive arranged. "European rail freight transport - said explained Rizzi - is in a continuous storm: constraints of capacity, backlog in maintenance, widespread construction sites, Poor cross-border coordination and new access requirements to the Swiss rail network, undermine the competitiveness of the sector, with the real risk of a retreat towards the exclusively road transport mode. Especially - specified the general manager of the Fermerci Association - in the Alpine corridors and on the Italy-France and Italy-Switzerland axis, the interruptions have already shown dramatic effects, such as demonstrated by the closures of the Modane and Gotthard passes to following the landslide and accident that occurred in 2023. To this added to this is the complex German situation, which sees in perspective from 2027 to 2030 complete closures for 40 lines railway services up to five months each and recent interventions regulations issued by the Federal Office of Transport of the Swiss Confederation that will cause the blocking of traffic of a large part of the wagon fleet currently circulating"

In addition, Rizzi pointed out that, while in Italy the critical issues related to the infrastructure transition caused by the implementation of the PNRR works will most likely end at the end of 2026, in Germany, Italy's main logistics-rail partner, 2026 to 2030, rail disruptions will increase dramatically due to network modernisation works. Rizzi noted that this is a very critical future scenario and impossible to sustain for all companies in the logistics sector railway, national and international.

Noting that the Italian infrastructure manager is by all available means - wide openness to the comparison and coordination with companies and other network operators - critical phase for the sector, Rizzi explained that the same does not apply to other countries: "without an integrated approach, international coordination, adequate funding and Common rules, the rail freight sector risks losing further capacity and competitiveness".

On the occasion of the meeting, Fermerci also reiterated its need for a balanced revision of the Directive on combined transport that takes into account differences in competitiveness between Member States and adequate regulation of the Weights and Dimensions Directive, so that it does not widen the gap with the railways in favour of transport on rubber.