For the fourth year in a row, rail freight in Italy continued to decline. The number of trains handled in the country’s main ports continues to decrease as well, highlighting challenges all across the supply chain.
Unfortunately, the situation is not expected to improve until 2027, when many of the construction sites across the Italian rail network will be completed. “2026 will be another year marked by traffic interruptions and operational challenges”, underlined Giuseppe Rizzi, managing director at Fermerci, the main industry association in Italy.
After hitting 53,8 million trains-km in 2021, the performance of rail freight has been spiralling downward, hitting 49,3 million trains-km in 2025 after constantly decreasing, according to data from the Italian infrastructure manager RFI. This is 3.5% less than in 2024 (51,1 million tonne-km) and 8.4% less than in 2021, Rizzi pointed out, which highlights the alarming fragility of the sector.
Bittersweet port development
The situation is arguably just as dire for rail freight in the main Italian ports, where the number of freight trains has been going down since 2022. The year that just finished brought a new low, with 44,152 trains – 2.5% lower than 2024 and 8.5% lower than 2022. The steepest declines between 2024 and 2025 were recorded in the ports of Ravenna (-6.9%) and especially Genoa Voltri (-26.7%).
Despite the general negative trend, a handful of smaller ports posted positive numbers, the data showed. Livorno (+16%) and Genoa Marittima (+16.3%) both handled around 3,000 trains in 2025. The port of Monfalcone, part of the same port authority governing Trieste, handled more than 2,000 train for the first time thanks to a +21.1% increase. Finally, the port of San Fernando (Gioia Tauro), reached 1,063 trains handled, 31% more than in 2024.
If for rail freight in general there is not much optimism for the near future, things may be a little different for freight trains in ports. The European Commission recently approved a financial aid scheme proposed by the Italian government to subsidise shunting operations in Italian ports. More specifically, 30 million euros are allocated for the next five years, with a cap of 500,000 euros per company.