IronLev, an Italian company specialising in magnetic levitation solutions, has recently carried out tests to apply its technology on existing railways without any need to upgrade the current infrastructure. RailFreight.com had a discussion with IronLev co-founders Adriano Girotto and Luca Cesaretti to better understand how the technology works and how it can be advantageous for…
Category: Italy
New Italy-Serbia service for the sake of intermodality
A new intermodal rail freight service connecting the Cervignano Intermodal Terminal, near Trieste, and the Pančevo Dry Port Terminal, near Belgrade, will start operations on 11 May. The service can be seen as the evolution of a block train service which was running between the terminal in Italy and the Indija terminal in Serbia. A…
Hannibal to launch new Italy-Hungary-Romania connection
Hannibal, the multimodal subsidiary of Contship, will launch a new rail freight service connecting Milan to Budapest and Curtici. The company expects to commence operations by the end of this year. The service will connect the Rail Hub Melzo, east of Milan, with the BILK terminal in Budapest and the Arad terminal in Curtici. The…
Italian region near Slovenia shares environmental concerns on Divača-Koper project
The Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG), which borders Slovenia, asked for more details concerning the environmental impact of the doubling of the Divača-Koper line. “The Region considers that technical investigations into the documentation received from Slovenia are necessary”, the region claimed. FVG is asking for more detailed information to be included in the…
Italian waste goes on the rail to Austria to be transformed into fuel
“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, says an ancient proverb. This still seems to be applicable when it comes to Italian waste, some of which will be turned into alternative fuels in Austria. Rail Cargo Group (RCG) launched a multimodal service to transport waste from the Maddaloni-Marcianise terminal, near Naples, to Combi Cargo Terminal…
60 per cent of Italian railways to be closed in 2024
The next couple of years will be quite burdensome for the Italian rail freight industry as traffic along many lines will have to be interrupted for upgrade works. Just throuhgout 2024, 60 per cent of the Italian rail lines will be subject to partial or total closure, for a total of 4,100 days. Over 200…
Italy wants to prioritise rail freight once Frejus Railway partially reopens
Italy will try to have a few freight trains running again through the Frejus Railway, the main border crossing to France, before its full reopening. The line has been completely closed since August 2023 due to a massive landslide in Saint-André à La Praz, roughly 20 kilometres from the French border with Italy. Predicting when…
Italy awards contracts worth 477 million euros for Rome-Pescara line upgrade
Italian rail infrastructure manager Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) has awarded two contracts, which are worth 477 million euros, for upgrades along the Rome-Pescara line. According to RFI, the upgrades will have numerous benefits, among which is the potential growth of freight traffic. The two contracts concern upgrades between the intermodal hub Interporto D’Abruzzo and Manoppello,…
Subsidy for rail freight rolling stock in Italy will remain after all
Despite recent concerns, the Italian government will not cancel a measure aimed at helping companies purchasing rail rolling stock. A total of 115 million euros, thus, will still be deployed to cover 20 per cent of the costs retroactively to 2021. Fears of a cancellation of this measure surfaced in March, when the Italian Chamber…