The Italian rail freight sector remained stable in 2024. The total volume transported was virtually unchanged compared to 2023. Conversely, the road sector grew by 5.2%. This confirms a trend which we already knew about all too well, namely that the modal shift is failing. However, trains do beat trucks in one segment.
In total, rail moved 94.6 million tonnes of freight in Italy in 2024. The Italian statistics agency Istat published these numbers earlier in the week. This is a decline of 1.2 million tonnes compared to 2023, which Istat calls a sign of the “substantial stability” of rail activity.
It is doubtful that the rail freight industry will take a similarly positive view on the matter. Despite Europe’s modal shift goals, the road sector captured a bigger share of the pie in 2024. Its freight volume grew by 5.2% to 1,110.5 million tonnes.
Rail wins internationally…
Rail freight is already known to be mostly about international flows of goods, and the Italian strongly confirm this. Let’s take a look at domestic freight first: trucks transported 1,084,249 tonnes of goods in Italy in 2024. By contrast, trains only managed 35,706 tonnes, a tiny fraction of the road sector.
Internationally, the picture looks much different. Here, the road sector moved 26,243 tonnes. Rail freight transported more than double that: 58,898 tonnes.
Clearly, international traffic is vital for Italian rail freight. For large railway companies (as per the definition used by Istat), international transport accounts for 64.6% of their total activity.
… but trucks still take the performance prize
A small ‘sobering’ remark must be made here, however: trucks still outperformed trains internationally when measuring their activity in tonne-kilometres. In raw tonnage, rail does better, but trucks transport their goods over longer distances.
The Italian data also confirm the importance of intermodal business. Among the types of goods transported, the “other” category accounts for 59% in tonnes and 49% in tonne-kilometres. This includes containers and swap bodies.
Metals and agricultural products, hunting and forestry also grew their volumes in 2024. The former increased by 6% in terms of tonnes of 8.6% in terms of tonne-kilometres. The latter grew by a modest 1.5%, but tonne-kilometres saw a positive +18.2% dynamic, which indicates an increase in the average transport distances for these products.