Positive development of combined transport

Chiasso, 31.1.2014    In the past year, Swiss intermodal transport operator Hupac achieved a 1.7% increase in transports. The weak economy, particularly in Italy, continued to impact market demand. A significant shift effect is expected from the opening of the Gotthard base tunnel and the construction of the 4-meter corridor.

Development of transports  During the past year, intermodal transport operator Hupac of Switzerland transported a total of 656,877 road consignments by rail. This represents an increase of 1.7% compared to the prior year. The weak economy particularly in Italy, the major recipient market of the Hupac transports, continued to impact market demand.

In its core business of transalpine transports through Switzerland, Hupac was able to boost the volume by 1.9% to 380,502 transported road shipments. On many routes, a frequency of five departures per day was offered in each direction. An important new development in the transalpine transports via France is the connection between Busto Arsizio and Barcelona, which went into operation early in the year. The volume of transalpine transports via Austria decreased by 2.1% to 52,288 road consignments.

The development in the Antwerp area was particularly positive. In April a new link between the Antwerp Combinant and Busto Arsizio terminals was started up with four round trips per week. On the AntwerpD Barcelona and Antwerp D Verona lines the number of weekly departures was increased. In response to rising demand higher frequencies were also introduced on the Singen D Busto and Singen D Duisburg routes. Overall the non-transalpine transports in east-west direction grew by 0.9%.

4-meter corridor via Gotthard – investments for modal shift    The opening of the Gotthard base tunnel in 2017 and the Ceneri base tunnel in 2019 will offer new opportunities for the shift from road to rail. “We welcome the recently signed agreement between Italy and Switzerland regarding the building of a 4-meter corridor to the Italian terminals via Luino and via Chiasso”, emphasizes Hupac’s managing director Bernhard Kunz. A high-capacity railway infrastructure improves productivity, reduces costs and strengthens the ability of the railways to compete in the transportation of freight.

The investments in the Italian railway network also pay for Switzerland since they permit to reduce today's operating subsidies to the combined transport. "Today, the federal government lowers the cost of production of combined transport by subsidies. Tomorrow we are able to produce self-sustainably on a modern infrastructure. So the investments in Italy will have a quick payback also for Switzerland", explains Kunz. “We assume that the Luino line will be expanded first because it is not dependent on the completion of the Ceneri base tunnel. This will allow road freight transports to be shifted as quickly as possible to the new railway infrastructures”.