In terms of train-kilometres, FS Group freight trains achieved a total of 46 million. This number is down by 5.1% compared to 2024. Similarly to the tonne-kilometre performance, foreign operations did marginally better, shrinking by 4.6%. “The result was affected by the weak macroeconomic environment, characterised by high uncertainty due to both the protectionist trade policy of the new U.S. administration, and pre-existing geopolitical tensions”, FS explains.

The financial picture

In financial terms, the company’s net loss amounted to 124 million euros in 2024. FS Group, which includes rail freight companies like Mercitalia and TX Logistik, therefore improved its net result by 22.6% in 2025.

FS Group’s freight operating result (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation, EBITDA) looks much better: 105 million euros in the positive. That is an increase of 41.1%. This is mostly attributable to a higher revenue (+48 million euros, achieved by TX Logistik, Mercitalia’s shunting and terminal branch and intermodal recovery).

At the same time, the company faced higher operating and personnel costs, which exerted downward pressure on EBITDA.

By enabling the use of 750-metre trains, the IV Rail Module should raise the maximum capacity at the facility. The upgrade is also supposed to increase the number of trains handled per day by building new tracks. Verona Interporto currently has 37 main operational tracks and six support tracks across several terminals, as well as a shunting area.

The upgrade comes in expectation of the Brenner Base Tunnel opening – a vital link on the Scandinavian-Mediterranean TEN-T corridor. This opens up new opportunities for international rail freight operations and an increase in traffic. The Verona Interporto hub is also located on the Mediterranean TEN-T corridor.

Adria Port to play key role

This project is part of the IMEC corridor, connecting India to Europe via the Middle East, the ADM said. A key role will also be played by Adria Port, the future rail terminal that the Hungarian government is building within the port of Trieste. The facility, which should be ready in 2028, will provide the landlocked country with an outlet on the sea.

The state-owned company owning the terminal already signed agreements with two operators for services: Gysev Cargo and Rail Cargo Hungaria. The latter is part of the Austria state-owned Rail Cargo Group, which already deploys a customs corridor between the port of Trieste and the Logistik Center Austria Süd in Villach/Fürnitz.

How are they increasing?

In the three Benelux countries and the DACH countries, the fuel fee for trucks will rise by 7%, just like the one for barge and BCO, while the one for RCO by 4%. In both areas these increases will be valid between 30 March and 13 April. In Poland, for trucking services the rises will be +12% while for RCO 6% during the same period.

For Italy, 8% and 3% but they will be effective from 1 April and will be reviewed two weeks later. In Slovenia, Maersk will implement a 4% Intermodal Fuel Fee but only for trucks which will be applied for the whole month of April and will then be reviewed on a monthly basis.

‘Unprecedented cost environment’

The war on Iran and the consequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz has choked the passageway of 20% of the world’s fuel supply, causing prices to skyrocket. The situation is dire, and an end does seem to be in sight. Maersk defined it as an “unprecedented cost environment” that “continues to place significant pressure on logistics and intermodal transportation markets”.

Cooperation between the two companies is “evolving into an even more concrete industrial synergy”. Access to the Segrate and Verona hubs comes with intermodal connections to Central and Northern Europe. According to FS Logistix, this helps to boost the integration between ports, inland terminals and the market. It is also said to contribute to more efficient, competitive and sustainable logistics.

The newly announced services follow an earlier commercial agreement signed in May 2025. That deal provided for “the integration of complementary expertise to offer rail-road transport solutions on an increasingly extensive, high-frequency, high-quality network.” FS Logistix took responsibility for rail operations, Logtainer acts as the sole commercial interface to the market.

“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.

It is doubtful that the rail freight industry will take a similarly positive view on the matter. Despite Europe’s modal shift goals, the road sector captured a bigger share of the pie in 2024. Its freight volume grew by 5.2% to 1,110.5 million tonnes.

Rail wins internationally…

Rail freight is already known to be mostly about international flows of goods, and the Italian strongly confirm this. Let’s take a look at domestic freight first: trucks transported 1,084,249 tonnes of goods in Italy in 2024. By contrast, trains only managed 35,706 tonnes, a tiny fraction of the road sector.

Internationally, the picture looks much different. Here, the road sector moved 26,243 tonnes. Rail freight transported more than double that: 58,898 tonnes.

Clearly, international traffic is vital for Italian rail freight. For large railway companies (as per the definition used by Istat), international transport accounts for 64.6% of their total activity.

… but trucks still take the performance prize

A small ‘sobering’ remark must be made here, however: trucks still outperformed trains internationally when measuring their activity in tonne-kilometres. In raw tonnage, rail does better, but trucks transport their goods over longer distances.

The Italian data also confirm the importance of intermodal business. Among the types of goods transported, the “other” category accounts for 59% in tonnes and 49% in tonne-kilometres. This includes containers and swap bodies.

Metals and agricultural products, hunting and forestry also grew their volumes in 2024. The former increased by 6% in terms of tonnes of 8.6% in terms of tonne-kilometres. The latter grew by a modest 1.5%, but tonne-kilometres saw a positive +18.2% dynamic, which indicates an increase in the average transport distances for these products.

“Lanzi Trasporti is a key partner in making this route possible by managing the local operations. Their expertise and commitment to quality made them the ideal partner for this route between Italy and Sweden, delivering efficient, reliable and sustainable logistics that the market demands”, commented Marjut Linnajärvi, VP, International Rail Operations and Sales at Nurminen Logistics.

The enthusiasm seems to be no less among the Italians. “This development”, says CEO Leonardo Lanzi, “is something we have worked on for a long time. For us, it is not just a new and strategic service, but a real step up in the quality of our offering. It marks the transition from established conventional intermodality to the full handling of load units via complete, dedicated trains.”

A more complete service offering

Lanzi’s container management services have taken place on mixed trains up until now. With the Parma-Örebro service, the company is introducing full dedicated trains. That allows Lanzi to offer greater loading capacity and greater punctuality.

However, as the Italian company points out, the real challenge lies in the so-called last-mile operations. “Many Italian companies do not have loading bays for direct container unloading; for this reason, we go beyond rail transport, taking care of every aspect of the supply chain and aiming for high performance at every stage”, the company writes. The service offers complementary unloading and storage services and distribution in both Italy and Sweden.

From containers to semi-trailers

For the time being, Nurminen and Lanzi offer their service to containers only. However, they are planning to extend the service offering to semi-trailers already in 2026. That will allow them to capture more freight from the road sector. “More on this very soon”, says Lanzi.

“This connection is not only a new achievement for Lanzi Trasporti, but also a real opportunity for many companies in Northern Italy. We encourage them to get in touch with us to explore the advantages of this rail bridge bringing Italy closer to Northern Europe”, Lanzi Trasporti adds.

The Italy-Sweden service was preceded by a long period of preparations. It is made possible by Lanzi Trasporti investments over the past two years, which saw the construction of new tracks to expand manoeuvering capacity. It also added a container storage and management area.

After hitting 53,8 million trains-km in 2021, the performance of rail freight has been spiralling downward, hitting 49,3 million trains-km in 2025 after constantly decreasing, according to data from the Italian infrastructure manager RFI. This is 3.5% less than in 2024 (51,1 million tonne-km) and 8.4% less than in 2021, Rizzi pointed out, which highlights the alarming fragility of the sector.

Bittersweet port development

The situation is arguably just as dire for rail freight in the main Italian ports, where the number of freight trains has been going down since 2022. The year that just finished brought a new low, with 44,152 trains – 2.5% lower than 2024 and 8.5% lower than 2022. The steepest declines between 2024 and 2025 were recorded in the ports of Ravenna (-6.9%) and especially Genoa Voltri (-26.7%).

Despite the general negative trend, a handful of smaller ports posted positive numbers, the data showed. Livorno (+16%) and Genoa Marittima (+16.3%) both handled around 3,000 trains in 2025. The port of Monfalcone, part of the same port authority governing Trieste, handled more than 2,000 train for the first time thanks to a +21.1% increase. Finally, the port of San Fernando (Gioia Tauro), reached 1,063 trains handled, 31% more than in 2024.

If for rail freight in general there is not much optimism for the near future, things may be a little different for freight trains in ports. The European Commission recently approved a financial aid scheme proposed by the Italian government to subsidise shunting operations in Italian ports. More specifically, 30 million euros are allocated for the next five years, with a cap of 500,000 euros per company.

The project was launched in April 2024 and it is now nearing its end. Once the tests are carried out, the last step entails the “evaluation of the impact of the digitisation of railway procedures at the border on the territory of the Programme Area”. The initiative is requiring a little over 1,1 million euros, with almost 900,000 coming from the European Regional Development Fund.