Mercitalia (FS) launches the challenge to the French SNCF on freight traffic

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After the Frecciarossa of Trenitalia, the cargo convoys of Mercitalia. The pressing of the FS Group (Ferrovie dello Stato) is growing on the French market and towards the transalpine state company SNCF. A few days after the entry of the FS Group into the management of a large European intermodal terminal (Duisburg, Germany), cargo traffic on the Italy-France axis is now also undergoing an acceleration.

A sign that for the Italian railway company the European market is increasingly a domestic market, both in the passenger sector and in the logistics and freight transport sector. The novelties emerged at the Sitl fair, Semaine de l’innovation, du transport e de la logisticique, which took place in recent days in Paris in the presence of over 400 exhibitors and 24 thousand operators in the sector. Paris-Catania, Paris-Marcianise (Caserta) and Paris-Bari are the three new routes announced by FS, which bring the number of weekly trains between the two countries to 24. The convoys travel, both outward and return, in the direction of the French capital, via Modane.

The project

To these trains are added another three weekly from Paris through Switzerland and directed to various terminals in Northern Italy. In addition to this, further trains from the Burgundy area to Novara and between Paris and Padua are due to be activated soon. Three French terminals are involved (Chalon-sur-Saône, Pagny and Macon) and the availability of railway paths by the French national network is being defined. Carlo Palasciano, president of Mercitalia Logistics, the lead company of the logistics hub, says from the FS Group: «We are looking at France as part of a wider project that looks at Europe. As Mercitalia we are present directly in 7 European countries and in 14 through partnerships. We already have a stable presence of Mercitalia Logistics in Paris and now we want to strengthen this presence through new connections with local operators for developments in intermodality.

The example of the Frecciarossa

We are spurred on by the example of the passenger sector with the Milan-Paris Frecciarossa: even if the first steps were a bit complicated, we are now reaping great satisfaction». In France, Mercitalia Logistics offers integrated terminal and logistics solutions with respect to intermodal traffic with an operational headquarters in Paris that allows door-to-door transport via road services that accompany all shipments in the first and last mile. Mercitalia’s organization in France allows the continuation of goods to Benelux, Great Britain and Spain. Gianpiero Strisciuglio, CEO of Mercilitalia Logistics observes: «We want to work with and for French operators to encourage exchanges between the two countries, which already have significant traffic volumes, and to achieve those objectives of modal transfer of goods from road to rail that the ‘Europe asks us’.