“The Ministry of Transport expresses its deep satisfaction with this long-awaited measure, which strengthens the Alpine rail highway between Italy and France with a market-based instrument and replaces the previous model based on the monopoly of a single concessionaire, which has been at a standstill for over a year”, the Italian side commented.

The service could restart in September, according to the managing director of the Orbassano interport (SITO), Enzo Pompilio D’Alicandro. It would aim to load up to 100 trucks per direction per day. “Operators are looking with interest at this service, which makes it possible to increase the load by 15% in intermodal mode”, D’Alicandro is quoted as saying in Italian media.

DB Cargo France CEO Alexandre Gallo agreed with Doutrebente’s analysis but reckoned that current rail freight traffic volumes were probably closer to 40% of pre-closure levels (than 50%). At the end of last month, the line suffered another setback with severe weather and a mudslide leading to its closure. The incident brought into sharp relief the line’s apparent susceptibility to extreme meteorological episodes which, to a backdrop of climate change, could become a more regular occurrence.

Restricted traffic for a while longer

Passenger traffic resumed on 5 July, followed by freight activity on 7 July albeit with restrictions. Gallo revealed that freight trains were presently operating to limited schedules because not all of the service tracks had been restored after the mudslide. “

We are also having to deal with track works in the Maurienne Valley, so we can’t run trains when we’d like to. We have resumed traffic for our customer T3M (part of the Open Modal group), but are having to deal with a strike by Captrain Italia set to last until 11 July”, he said. SNCF Réseau, France’s infrastructure manager, is said to be expecting a full return to normal by the middle of this month but this has not been confirmed.

Reverse modal shift

The 19-month closure of the line saw some shippers transfer cargo to other rail routes to Italy via Switzerland or Nice and the French-Italian border at Vintimille. However, the vast majority switched to road haulage routing loads through the Fréjus and Mont-Blanc road tunnels. A major question now is whether these shippers that have switched to trucks will return to rail when their contracts with road hauliers, generally covering a period of one year, expire.

“For now, shippers are honouring their commitments to road hauliers and what combi operators are hoping for is a recovery of traffic by the end of the year and early-2026,” Doutrebente noted. Gallo, who is also president of rail industry association, AFRA, is certainly not under-estimating the challenge of convincing shippers who switched to road haulage during the line’s closure to return to rail. “They say it takes six months to attract a customer to rail and six days to lose them. But if I weren’t an optimist, I wouldn’t be in this business!”, Gallo concluded.

“DB Cargo France is again impacted by the closure of line, again cut for more than a week, after being closed for 18 months. Since the reopening we are struggling to have the volumes from the previous years back, and this episode is not good news. SNCF Réseau is announcing to resume the operations this week-end, we are scheduling to have our trains back on track on Monday”, added DB Cargo France CEO Alexandre Gallo.

Damages also on the Italian side

Other than the issues in France, there were some flooding events on the Italian side of the railway as well. On 1 July, the railway near Bardonecchia, 20 kilometres from Modane, was temporarily closed, but has since been reopened. These kinds of extreme weather events are occurring in a more frequent and violent manner in many European places.

This area between Italy and France specifically saw a massive landslide closing the railway between August 2023 and March 2025. This development has had terrible consequences for the Italian industry and economy in general, and a great impact on the European economy as well. The situation should improve once the Turin-Lyon new link opens, but that will be well into the 2030s.

The death of AFA services

Meanwhile, more information has emerged on the closure of one of Europe’s pioneering combined rail-road freight transport services, the Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine (AFA) or Alpine Rolling Highway. This service used to move semi-trailers between Aiton, near Chambéry in France, and Orbassano, in proximity to Turin, in northern Italy, but was halted effective 21 April.

In a message to customers, AFA confirmed that the service has been discontinued, with no prospect of a resumption at present. “Although the company has been given the chance to restart with three guaranteed daily train paths, the lack of public funding is making the business economically unsustainable,” it said. Launched back in 2003, at its height it was transporting up to 240 accompanied and unaccompanied semi-trailers and tankers daily. The AFA also offered connections to Calais, with possible on-forwarding to the UK.

France criticses Italy

Local French MP Emilie Bonnivard told the France 3 TV channel that she and colleagues had been meeting with the French Transport minister over the past months to try and find a solution with the European Commission which would allow the AFA to continue. She criticised the Italian authorities for not showing the same commitment to save the service.

The AFA is said to have employed around 100 staff on the Italian side and a slightly smaller workforce in France. “As far as we’re concerned, at all levels – elected representatives, the ministry and the intergovernmental commission – we remain mobilised,” Bonnivard added. According to other media reports, the AFA had liabilities totalling 4 million euros.

This was also confirmed by Alexendre Gallo, CEO of DB Cargo France, one of the most active companies along the Frejus Railway. In a recent interview with RailFreight.com, Gallo explained that many shippers made agreements with road hauliers until the end of this year. Thus, the company will run a significantly reduced number of trains during the initial months after the reopening.

Italy most impacted

The interruption of traffic along the Frejus Railway was particularly impactful for Italy. This is especially true considering that less than three weeks before the landslide in France, a train derailment in the Gotthard Base Tunnel significantly impaired traffic between Italy and Switzerland until September last year.

According to estimates, the closures of the Frejus and Gotthard axes led to 50 million euros in losses per year. The halt along the line between Italy and France has had the highest impact, experts noted, as the Gotthard Tunnel was at least partially available. Considering the difficulties in bringing customers back to the rail, these losses may be even greater.

DB Cargo France’s intermodal services on the route are likely to gradually resume with three weekly round trips instead of five previously, Gallo explained. As for the company’s trains transporting new vehicles, the number will be reduced mainly because of the downturn in the automotive market, he added. In an interview with Railfreight.com in January this year, Gallo said DB Cargo France had taken a significant financial hit from the closure of the France-Italy mainline, estimating the cost in lost revenue over the period since end-August 2023 at nearly 15 million euros.

New services postponed

After the news in November 2024 of the company closing hubs and handing over traffic to SNCF’s new rail freight subsidiary, Hexafret, this year the accent is on expansion. However, the launch of two intermodal services which were planned for early-2025 – one linking Metz and Nancy in eastern France with Valenton, near Paris and a second between Valenton and Daventry, in Northamptonshire, England, via the Channel Tunnel – were “a little behind schedule.”

He continued: “The Metz-Paris service starts on 30 June and it will be September for the other route.” Asked how the first quarter of the year had played out for DB Cargo France in particular and for the French market in general, Gallo replied: “I’d say in line with our forecasts. It’s still a bit early to get an idea of where the market is.”

No to a second Mont Blanc tunnel

They also go a good way to explaining why local climate protection groups and the public authorities are firmly behind moves to transfer freight from road to rail. Earlier this month, the French government closed the door on a proposal by Italy to build a second tube through the Mont Blanc tunnel. In a tweet to a local MP, French Transport minister, Philippe Tabarot, said France position’s was unchanged and that it continued to oppose such a proposal.

The creation of a second tunnel under Europe’s tallest mountain has been suggested on several occasions by Italy in response to the growth in cross-border road traffic, notably of trucks and was put to the French again at a recent bilateral summit in Nice. France has consistently argued that increasing capacity at the tunnel would lead to a deterioration in air quality.

The MP for the town of Chamonix, located in close proximity to the Mont Blanc tunnel, Xavier Roseren, said he was satisfied with the minister’s response on a second tube which described as an idea from another age. “At a time when our priority must be to decarbonise transport, particularly by rail, it is unthinkable to reopen this debate,” he underlined.

A strong hit for rail freight companies

In an interview last month with Railfreight.com, Alexandre Gallo, head of DB Cargo France and president of industry association, AFRA, said his company had taken a significant hit as a result of the France-Italy rail line closure with some 40 trains taken out of its schedule each week, representing nearly 15 million euros in lost revenue (over the period of the closure). While it was clearly good news that the line is scheduled to re-open on 31 March, he warned that the challenge will be to convince shippers who have switched to road haulage during the closure to return to the train.

The event has been having a tremendous impact on the rail freight industry between Italy and France, as it served as the main artery for transport services. Losses were estimated in the realm of the tens of millions of euros per year, with industry associations from both countries urging for financial support from their governments.

More work than expected

Working to bring traffic back on track has been more difficult than initially anticipated, as 5,000 cubic metres of rock had to be purged from the mountains affected by the landslide. This even demanded the use of dynamite. On top of this damage, a 300-metre rail tunnel was completely buried and destroyed under the rockfall.

Throughout these 17 months of closure (which in total will be 19), estimations for a reopening date kept shifting, leaving operators in a complicated situation. Recent rumours claimed possible reopenings for March and now Krakovitch’s post clearing away any doubts. France-bound passenger trains from Italy should also restart traffic on 1 April, while there is not clear information regarding rail freight.

That is until now. The tunnel “should” reopen in March, according to statements made by French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau to RailTech.com.

Shut down for over a year

The rail link through the Frejus tunnel was shut down for over a year after a landslide at the end of August 2023 paralysed the connection. The incident upended the main border crossing between Italy and France.

In October of 2024, it became clear that works to secure the cliff above the Frejus railway would last until December. Only after that, the French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau could begin railway restoration operations.

Major complications

That was not an easy task, it turned out. Major complications – “unstable and deep cavities discovered in the central area of the slope required additional work” – meant that the full reopening was pushed back to the first quarter of 2025.

In October of 2024, it became clear that works to secure the cliff above the Frejus railway damaged by a landslide in August 2023 would last until December. Only after that, the French infrastructure manager SNCF Réseau could begin railway restoration operations.

Major complications

That was not an easy task, it turned out. Major complications – “unstable and deep cavities discovered in the central area of the slope required additional work” – meant that the full reopening was pushed back to the first quarter of 2025.

It was a post on the Italian rail operator FS’s webpage that revealed the expected reopening of the tunnel, writes RailTech.com. The high-speed line between Paris and Milan is making a return, which means that the Frejus tunnel will also have to be in use. There has been no official announcement of the reopening as of yet, so an exact date is still unknown.