[200518.EN.BIZ] Trieste to open rail freight village by end of 2018

THE development of rail traffic has enabled Italy's Port of Trieste to outperform its long-standing rival of Venice, after handling 616,000 TEU in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 26.7 per cent.

In the first quarter of 2018, containers, ro-ro, bulk and rail freight have all continued to grow.

Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea president Zeno D'Agostino has unveiled plans to develop a free port that is linked to the regeneration of the former Wartsila area. There is already work in progress, operated by the Fernetti freight village, the first phase of which is scheduled for completion in the autumn, reported Genoa's Medi Telegraph.

Operations will begin at the end of 2018. Many cargo areas will have to be created to handle the cargo. Buildings are being renovated. There is a proposal to build a temperature-controlled warehouse in the free port for perishable and temperature-controlled goods.

"We are beginning to organise not only the port but also the Cervignano freight village. We are considering with our customers about the fact that trains should not come directly to the port but to Cervignano on one side and to Villa Opicina on the other and then from there via Adriafer shuttles to the port of Trieste," said Mr D'Agostino.

"They are embracing this logic. On the one hand, there are areas with strong connections to infrastructure, which have large spaces, with many tracks, outside the port. On the other hand, there are the port terminals where ships call. The logic is to use external spaces that have excellent accessibility by rail and road as buffers to supplement the activities at the port terminals.

"Already today in Fernetti, we are operating a check-in for Turkish trucks that are boarding ships. The trucks stop at Fernetti until they get the green light from the port. The same logic was transferred from a railway point of view using the shuttles of Adriafer, our railway company. The port authority, which also manages these platforms, integrates all of these activities."

Source : HKSG.