VIDEO | Giuseppe Rizzi (Fermerci): “The Pnrr construction sites are causing interruptions in rail transport”

Giuseppe Rizzi, general director of the Fermerci association, interviewed by the Dire agency

ROME – Until 2026, the railway interruptions, necessary to allow the implementation of the Pnrr works on the railway infrastructure, risk being devastating for the sector if not adequately managed. In 2024, the planned disruptions will lead to a reduction of up to 60% in Italian rail freight transport capacity.

Despite the remodeling of the interruptions planned for the months from July to September 2024 to allow the strengthening of the Genoa railway hub, announced by the Infrastructure Manager, the situation remains critical for the territory and port facilities of the North-West of the country. Giuseppe Rizzi, general director of the Fermerci association, says this in an interview with the Dire agency.

“Many positive interventions for the sector are in the Pnrr in terms of infrastructure, in 2027 we will have a railway network totally different from the current one, with European standards, we will be able to transport more goods with fixed costs but greater volumes”, he reports Rizzi, “but so far the construction sites that will carry out the infrastructural works of the Pnrr are causing an interruption of up to 60% of the line capacity in some areas of the country, not of the lines but of the line capacity. Many territories will have less connection, because to carry out the work the railway network manager must interrupt circulation”.

So, “we have to get to 2027, but in the meantime production costs increase, also because alternative itineraries that are longer than the original ones cost more in terms of crews and use of the machine. This is a cost multiplier that increases the cost/kilo in an immeasurable way”, warns the CEO of the Fermerci association.

“This prevents us from being competitive on the market and generates diseconomies, and now the sector alone without incentives, without help, with the costs it has is unable to sustain itself. There is a very strong suffering in the market because everyone operators, all of them, including the best, have difficulties”, warns Rizzi. “The indicators coming from the ports give the first signs of optimism and it is reasonable to think that there is something moving in the global economy, the first 4 months of the year seem to be of recovery, but if we face it with the unusable railway lines of the Where do the goods pass in whole or in part? We will find ourselves with roads clogged with trucks, and it will almost certainly happen next summer in the north-west quadrant for important works in Genoa. The network manager has done what he could but the works must start , because there is the PNRR deadline of 2026. The result will be very heavy congestion despite the openings granted, with damage to traffic, localities and the environment”.

In 2023 the rail freight transport sector recorded a loss of 3.2% compared to the previous year due to multiple contingencies, some of which were unforeseen.
The crisis experienced by the sector was further aggravated by tensions international geopolitics which have led to a decline in rail freight traffic in almost all national ports.
“The state of health of the freight transport sector is not very good, for many years the sector has struggled to recover modal shares of traffic which it has seen collapse with the economic crisis of 2008”, explains Giuseppe Rizzi, general director of the Fermerci association.

“There has been a recovery from 2015 onwards with a series of incentives which for us are investments, because they give results in terms of reducing environmental impact and energy costs, just to name two – explains Rizzi – Basti to think that a 600 meter long freight train transports goods compared to the same volume of Euro 6 trucks, saving 85% in energy terms alone, and we are not talking about the CO2 whose emissions avoided are even greater”.

That said, “we are not in conflict with tire transport, for true intermodality rail transport must deal with the backbone of the transport relationship, first and last mile via truck”, warns the general manager of the Fermerci association. However, “today in Italy there are not great numbers for volumes, the sector lost 3.2% in 2023 compared to 2022 in terms of trains/kilometre. Numbers that could even get worse”, warns Rizzi.

“In the second half of last year, external events such as interruptions of tunnels such as the Frejus and the San Gottardo, important for exports and imports, interrupted by landslides and notable and exceptional flood events. Then the Red Sea crisis impacted the second mid-2023. A true perfect storm. Fortunately, some data from ports such as Livorno, La Spezia and Naples indicate a recovery, so we hope for growth”, concludes Rizzi.