{"id":466827,"date":"2026-06-30T21:42:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railfreight.com\/?p=72262"},"modified":"2026-06-30T21:42:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T11:42:02","slug":"france-italy-rolling-highway-call-to-tender-coming-soon-but-will-traffic-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=466827","title":{"rendered":"France\u2013Italy rolling highway: call to tender coming soon, but will traffic return?"},"content":{"rendered":"

France and Italy are poised to issue a call to tender for the re-launch of the Alpine Rolling Highway which has been closed to traffic since August 2023 following a major landslide in the Maurienne Valley. The announcement was made at a bilateral summit at the end of last week. Still, it is unclear whether demand for the service will resurface.<\/strong>
\n<\/span>A senior industry source has warned that it is far from certain that shippers and forwarders will be ready to return to rail from road given the service\u2019s long hiatus and the now-established shift<\/a> in freight to road.<\/p>\n

Also known as the Autostrada Ferroviaria Alpina, the service operated multiple daily round trips between Aiton near Chamb\u00e9ry in France, and Orbassano, in proximity to Turin, in northern Italy, for accompanied and unaccompanied semi-trailers as well as tankers. France\u2019s Ministry of Transport said the service had enabled the transfer of 25,000 to 30,000 trucks each year from road to rail since 2003.<\/p>\n

New aid scheme<\/h2>\n

When the line through the Maurienne Valley re-opened at the end of March last year, the rolling highway did not resume. The JV company informed customers that the lack of public funding was making the business economically unviable.<\/p>\n

In response to questions from RailFreight.com, the French transport ministry said a new aid scheme has been agreed with the Italian authorities. It makes provision for the payment of direct grants to all railway undertakings operating the service, in proportion to the number of kilometres travelled.<\/p>\n

The aid will cover part of the operating costs of the subsidised service(s), up to the maximum annual budget available, which is 2.5 million euros per Member State. The maximum support will amount to 15 euros per train-kilometre for each of the Member States concerned \u2014 30 euros in total.<\/p>\n

The relaunch represented a significant step forward for the modal shift in freight transport and will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution caused by road traffic in the Alpine valleys, the ministry added.<\/p>\n

The service was previously operated by a joint subsidiary of French and Italian state railways, SNCF and Trenitalia. The opening date of the call to tender process and the deadline for applications has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing is more uncertain\u2019<\/h2>\n

Asked whether DB Cargo France would be submitting a bid to operate the Alpine rolling highway, its President and CEO, Alexandre Gallo, told RailFreight.com: \u201cI am unable to give you an answer at this stage. I need to be able to look at the call for proposals before I make up my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to warn that it was not a given that traffic would return when the service was operating again, after an absence of what is likely to be in excess of three years. \u201cNothing is more uncertain\u201d, he underlined.<\/p>\n

He pointed to other French-Italian rail routes that had been severely affected by the closure of the Maurienne line following the landslide. \u201cOn these routes, some freight flows have permanently shifted back to road haulage. We\u2019ve gone from 30 combined transport trains to just 12 today.\u201d<\/p>\n

HexaFret not in the running<\/h2>\n

A spokesperson for Rail Logistics Europe, which brings together the rail freight interests of the SNCF Group, confirmed to RailFreight.com that none of the entity\u2019s subsidiaries, notably HexaFret, the company borne out the discontinued Fret SNCF, would be allowed to provide traction for the Alpine rolling highway.<\/p>\n

This was because the agreement between France and the EU on the break-up of Fret SNCF stipulated that HexaFret would be prohibited from operating regular, full-train services, using dedicated resources, including combined transport trains that meet these criteria, for a period of 10 years.<\/p>\n