First Steering Committee on the development of the Alessandria Inland Terminal Project. An important meeting on the future role of the rail terminal to serve the logistic requirements of the Ports of Genoa
Uirnet (the State company which oversees the national plan for logistics) and Rfi (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana of the Italian State Railway Group) have reported that a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the new rail freight terminal in the Piedmont Region is set to be signed, with specific focus on the technical and financial specifications of the project. The first Steering Committee, convened by Uirnet in videoconference, brought together the local Piedmont and Liguria government authorities, the Ministry, RFI, the Prefecture of Alessandria and Genoa and the SLALA Foundation (North-Western Italian Logistics Network). A timeframe was established estimating a 10-month timescale for the economic feasibility project, 12 months for the technical-economic fessibility project and 18 months for the completion of the definitive project.
The 2-million euro Alessandria Inland Terminal is to be funded by the financial resources released by the Emergency Law for Genoa 130/2018 and is set to play a crucial role in the development and optimisation of the supply chain activities which depend upon the Ports of Genoa global operations. The Port Authority is instrumental in establishing the strategic rail freight plan which is to oversee the connections between the port facilities and the Alessandria rail terminal.
Between 2011 and 2019, a constant upwad trend in rail freight traffic to/from the Ports of Genoa and Savona was observed in terms of number of trains, rail cars and freight volumes. Whilst over the last two years a range of last mile rail infrastructure projects have been implemented, in collaboration with RFI, in line with works scheduled along the Mediterranean Rail Freight Corridor 6.
The business plans of the Ports of Genoa major terminal operators (Vado Gateway, PSA, Calata Bettolo), have set targets in favour of a sharp modal shift from road to rail, in terms of an estimated capacity of approximately 100 trains/daily.
Within this framework, the strategic areas forming part of the Simplified Logistics Zone, to be phased in by the Emergency Law for Genoa 130/2018, are set to play an important role in the development of rail/intermodal transport as a potential site for logistic service providers and as future buffer zones.
