Moving the market forward

The core focus of this year’s conference is the strategic development of the Eurasian rail business. Participants will be able to track the latest market developments, including route and volume performance, future innovations, and shifting supply chains resulting from geopolitics and significant investments. In this way, they will be able to get a good understanding of risks, opportunities and the best way to remain competitive.

At the same time, two specialised debates will expand on those topics while keeping Silk Road rail at the centre stage. How can we maintain the viability of the Eurasian rail network in the face of increasing competition? And what is the best way to keep it as a valuable transport solution amid shifting industrial supply chains and geopolitical boundaries? Attendees and speakers will tackle those questions interactively.

Exclusive content

Apart from the conference programme, visitors will also have access to another exclusive product: the freshly printed RF Magazine. The European Silk Road Summit will be the only place where you can get your hands on the first edition of the RF Magazine.

Filled with exclusive content, the RF Magazine will include in-depth interviews, analyses written by industry experts, facts and figures and much more about Eurasian trade and transport. It is an unmissable opportunity!

Site visit and networking

The day before the conference programme (Wednesday 19 November), there will be a site visit to Hupac’s Busto Arsizio–Gallarate Terminal. A guided tour provided by Francesco Russo, Head of Customer Relations at the Swiss-based company, will also include a rooftop view of the terminal. After that, there will be an evening networking soirée at the hotel.

During the conference day on Thursday, 20 November, there will be ample time to catch up with peers during breaks between sessions. Additionally, a time slot will be reserved exclusively for business making and networking right before the closing session. And, of course, once the programme is complete, on Thursday evening, there will be networking drinks at the venue, followed by an exclusive dinner at Osteria del Binari.

Not registered yet? Do it via this link. See you in Milan on November 19 and 20.

The workshops will focus on a variety of aspects of Eurasian transport including containers, cargo documents, sustainability and digitalisation. Some of the workshop experts will come from DB Cargo Eurasia, Gaston Schul, Bahnoperator, Inform and the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations.

Other than the workshops, there will be market analyses by Ganyi Zhang, Research Expert at HHLA Next, and Andrea Giuricin, CEO of TRA Consulting. Zhang will talk about shifts in cargo types and innovative solutions to reinforce the market, while Giuricin will focus on the role of rail in transforming global supply chains amid geopolitical tensions and emerging corridors.

There will also be room for two panel discussions, a staple for ESRS. Moderated by Kris Kosmala, Startup Mentor at D2XCEL, and Alona Toprak, Managing Director/CSO of DB Cargo Eurasia, they will feature speakers from DHL, RTSB and BASF. The panel discussions will be an opportunity to discuss the competitiveness of rail in Eurasia transport and the rise of giant multimodal market players.

The RF Magazine

The European Silk Road Summit will be the only place where you can get your hands on the first printed edition of the RF Magazine. Filled with exclusive content, the RF Magazine will include in-depth interviews, analyses written by industry experts, facts and figures and much more about Eurasian trade and transport. It is an unmissable opportunity!

Site visit, networking and dinner

The day before the programme (Wednesday 19 November), there will be a site visit to Hupac’s Busto Arsizio–Gallarate Terminal. A guided tour provided by Francesco Russo, Head of Customer Relations at the Swiss-based company will also include a rooftop view on the terminal. After that, there will be an evening networking soirée at the hotel. Once the programme is done, on Thursday evening, there will be networking drinks at the venue, followed by an exclusive dinner at Osteria del Binari.

Transport expert and Startup Mentor at D2XCEL Kris Kosmala and Thomas Kowitzki, VP, Global Head of China Rail at DHL Global Forwarding are among the confirmed speakers. Moreover, there will be workshops led by representatives of DB Cargo Eurasia, Gaston Schul and one in partnership by Inform and Conroo.

The RF Magazine

The event will also be a unique opportunity to put your hands on a printed copy of the first-ever magazine produced by RailFreight.com, the RF Magazine. Filled with exclusive content, it is sure to become a collector item. After the event, a digital copy will also be made available to our subscribers. Tickets will be available from next month, and more information will soon follow, stay tuned and up to date on the website and on LinkedIn, see you in Milan!

New digging technique

The section where firedamp was found is thought to be 600 metres long, but there is no certain answer. Thus, if the section is found to be longer, the timeline would be further extended. The new digging method proposed entails controlled explosions and data measurements every 50 metres. Once this starts in April, it will take four or five months to delineate a new timeline for the opening of the Terzo Valico, Rixi specified.

‘Money is not an issue’

Postponing the inauguration of the Terzo Valico might mean that Italy will miss out on European funds coming from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, as the four billion euros allocated are conditional on the 2026 deadline. However, Rixi tried to calm the waters by saying that ‘only’ 200 million would be lost for the still-unrealised projects, which the government can cover.

What about the rest of the infrastructure?

Despite its objective importance for the Italian railway infrastructure, the opening of the Terzo Valico will not solve all the problems along the country’s section of the Rhine-Alpine axis. The new line will run from Genoa to Tortona but, to reach Milan and then the rest of Europe, many other projects need to be completed.

The Tortona-Milan line, for example, needs to quadrupled, just like the Monza-Chiasso section leading into Switzerland. However, the Italian government does not seem to be prioritising these initiatives. The former might be ready in the 2030s, while the latter does not even have a clear schedule. In other words, the Terzo Valico by itself cannot bring all the expected improvements by itself until the rest of the infrastructure is not adapted as well.

Preparing for the Terzo Valico

The line running through Pavia, which is the one affected by the works, will be fully closed between 21 July and 29 August, while only one track will be available between 1 June and 20 July and 30 August and 28 September. Other than replacing the bridge, Italy is also working on quadrupling the whole Milan Rogoredo-Pavia stretch.

All these initiatives are in view of the opening of the so-called Terzo Valico, a rail tunnel connecting Genoa and its port to the Rhine-Alpine axis. Once completed, the new infrastructure will link Genoa to Tortona through the longest railway tunnel in Europe at over 27 kilometres.

“Customers can expect continued support and high-quality intermodal solutions that leverage Hupac’s extensive expertise and Lineas’ proven reliability as a Railway Undertaking,” stated the two companies. On behalf of Lineas, Executive Chairman Bernard Gustin underlined the excitement surrounding this project and the belief that it will succeed, just like the Antwerp-Catalonia initiative.

Michail Stahlhut, CEO of Hupac Intermodal, added: “We appreciate the possibility of running our Belgium-Italy connection via Germany and France and serving terminals in the east and west of Milan. This would increase the resilience and performance of intermodal transport.”

Moreover, it seems that convoys will initially have to run on a single-track, with no clear deadline for when the whole infrastructure will be ready. The main issues causing these delays are of geological nature. Most of the line will be in tunnels, the digging of which has often been disrupted by high pressure of the ground above or the presence of gas. So far, only the northernmost section of the Terzo Valico, linking Tortona with Rivalta Scrivia, has been commissioned.

What about the Tortona-Milan section?

The following section of the corridor, between Tortona and Milan, also needs to be quadrupled to fully exploit the benefit of the Terzo Valico. The timeframe for this project, which was divided into two sections, remains somewhat vague. RFI confirmed that the Milan-Pieve Emanuele section will be completed by 2026, but for the Pieve Emanuele-Pavia section the project is still seeking authorisations and funds. “Without the quadrupling of the Tortona-Milan railway line, the benefits of the Third Valico risk remaining incomplete”, said Italian senator Lorenzo Basso.

Three reasons behind Milan’s lack of capacity

One of the main issues concerning Milan is that it is already at maximum rail capacity for a few different reasons, as Italian media Il Giorno explained. First, all trains need to share the same tracks, without dedicated infrastructure for freight trains or high-speed and international passenger services.

The second reason for congestion in Milan is that most stations are dead-end stations. This means that trains have to stop and restart their journey in the opposite direction, which are time and space-consuming measures. The third main factor in causing lack of new capacity is that over half of the rail infrastructure in Milan, 51 per cent, is on a single track.

Consolidating cargo flows from Türkiye

The main benefit of this initiative will concern traffic coming from Türkiye, as Andrea Spagnuolo, Contship’s Sales & Business Development Manager, pointed out. In other words, the Curtici terminal will become a hub for Turkish cargo destined for Italy. A somewhat similar initiative was launched in May 2023, with the start of a new connection between the Rail Hub Melzo and the port of Trieste. Just like the new Italy-Romania-Hungary link, this service aims to facilitate the entrance of Turkish cargo to Europe.

Also read:

• Italian region near Slovenia shares environmental concerns on Divača-Koper project
• Italian waste goes on the rail to Austria to be transformed into fuel
• 2024 brings new Italy-Benelux rail freight connections

Other than being UPS’ first time using the rail in Europe, it is also CargoBeamer’s first service specifically for parcels. As a spokesperson from the company told RailFreight.com, they have similar partnerships, for example with Amazon, but these services deal with larger goods rather than parcels.

More parcels on rail in Europe?

The initiative of having more parcels travelling by rail rather than road is being pushed by various EU countries, for examplem Germany. At the end of 2022, the German rail freight industry asked the Ministry of Transport to establish a framework to create the conditions for a significant modal shift.

Moreover, various companies have been testing similar projects. DPD launched a service connecting Duisburg and Leipzig at the end of 2022, while GLS introduced a rail connection for parcels between the MegaHub Lehrte and Nuremberg. For both these projects, the companies partnered with Kombiverkher.

Since the end of 2023, parcels are back on the rail also in Ukraine. The national post company Ukrposhta has been cooperating with the National Post of Estonia Omniva, Ukrainian Railways and Slovakian company Interport to find alternative solutions to road transport. This solution, reinstated in Ukraine after 21 years, makes parcel deliveries within and across its borders easier and faster.

Also read:

• DHL’s cargo tram service in German city gets scrapped
• UPM partners with DB Cargo on sustainable supply chains
• Maersk still in the race for DB Schenker’s acquisition, says CEO
• Danish DSV becomes frontrunner for DB Schenker acquisition