{"id":216200,"date":"2025-05-13T18:58:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=62355"},"modified":"2025-05-13T18:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T08:58:18","slug":"rhine-alpine-corridor-continues-to-experience-the-usual-rail-freight-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=216200","title":{"rendered":"Rhine-Alpine Corridor continues to experience the usual rail freight problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rhine-Alpine corridor, connecting the port of Genoa to the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp is one of Europe\u2019s 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.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Lower figures in most categories<\/h2>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Number of trains per border crossings along the Rhine-Alpine Corridor. Image: \u00a9 Rhine-Alpine Corridor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Similarly, the three main ports along this corridor \u2013 Genoa, Rotterdam and Antwerp \u2013 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%.<\/p>\n

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Modal split of Rhine-Alpine ports. Image: \u00a9\u00a0Rhine-Alpine Corridor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n