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Intermodal Forum, Lugano, 13 May 2022

After the long Covid pause, Hupac has again organised its “Intermodal Forum”, a cross sector conference attended by the whole range of actors of the intermodal value chain: shippers, logistic service providers, intermodal operators, railways, terminals and policy makers.

How to fill the gap between political and industry expectations and market reality? This was the central question debated by Luigi Ferraris, CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Peter Füglistaler, Director of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport, Tabita Verburg, Director Logistics of Dow Chemicals, Karl Schauer, Director Operations of LKW Walter, Gianpiero Strisciuglio, CEO of Mercitalia Logistics, and Michail Stahlhut, CEO of Hupac .

Indeed, while the European Green Deal and the Swiss policy set ambitious targets for modal shift from road to rail, the capacity of rail and terminal infrastructures is lagging behind. In addition, construction works impair the quality of rail services.

“Rail and terminal infrastructures are key – we need to build them, to maintain them, but also to make them available to logistics in a stable and reliable way”, Hupac president Hans-Jörg Bertschi underlined. He announced a number of measures to make the intermodal network of Hupac more resilient and to allow growth in line with the Green Deal climate targets:

• investments in additional reserves and backup solutions
• investments in market expansion and partnerships for modal shift
• digital transformation and driving of sector standards.

Terminals are becoming the crucial factor for the success of intermodal transport. Hupac is participating in seven terminal projects to be commissioned in the next few years for a total capacity of 1,3 million loading units: Brwinów/Warsaw, Duisburg DGT and Basel GBN in the north as well as Milano Smistamento, Piacenza, Brescia and Novara extension in the south.

“Switzerland is going to co-finance the Milano Smistamento terminal with CHF 70 million”, Peter Füglistaler revealed at the Forum. Good news also from Luigi Ferraris who announced a clear logistics-oriented strategy of the Italian Railways.

“Can we reach the ambitions climate targets of NetZero by 2050, as well as minus 55% of CO₂ emissions by 2030?” event moderator Majorie van Leijen asked. Yes we can, all panellists agreed, if we cooperate cross-sector and move on the ground of partnership. “No one can do it on his own – only together we can make intermodal a success story”, Bertschi concluded.