The Rhine-Alpine corridor, connecting the port of Genoa to the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp is one of Europe’s major transport passageways. Rail freight along this axis has been slowly but steadily declining over the past couple of years. It was no different in 2024, as the latest report from the Rhine-Alpine Rail Freight Corridor highlighted.
The issues hindering the functioning of rail freight remain the same: infrastructure works, scarce cross-border coordination and digital fragmentation. The main problems with infrastructure works is the consequent temporary capacity restrictions, especially tied to Germany’s plans for a massive rail overhaul. Among the most notable closures were the Karlsruhe-Basel, the Frankfurt-Mannheim and Emmerich-Oberhausen lines, which posed significant challenges in terms of re-routing options.
Lower figures in most categories
When it comes to freight trains crossing borders along the Rhine-Alpine Corridor, there was a drop of 9,277 units, from 161,023 to 151,746. The only positive figures for 2024 in this case came from the Netherlands-Belgium borders, where 1,757 trains ran through compared to the 1,510 of 2023 (+16.4%). The closures of key lines and a general economic downturn were addressed as the main causes for this decline.
Similarly, the three main ports along this corridor – Genoa, Rotterdam and Antwerp – also recorded lower rail modal shares in 2024. In Rotterdam the rail modal share decreased from 11.4% to 10.3%, in Antwerp it went from 7.6% to 7.3% and in Genoa it fell from 16 to 15.6%. In all cases volumes were lost to the road, which slightly grew in all three ports. Even transalpine traffic through Switzerland, usually the showpiece of Rhine-Alpine rail freight, lost a few percentage points, from 72% to 70.3%.
ERTMS fragmentation
Another issue highlighted by the 2024 report compiled by the Rhine-Alpine Rail Freight Corridor is the deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). Some of the countries crossed by the corridor, such as Switzerland, Belgium and Italy are on the right track, with the new system installed on all or most of their network in line with the goals set by the Trans-European Transport Network. On the other hand, Germany and the Netherlands are still quite lagging behind. Berlin has delayed the ERTMS implementation plan to 2035, while Amsterdam has still not provided a clear timeline.