In 2020 logistics played a key role for the endurance of Italian society and economy during the lockdown and, in this matter, railway freight transport was considered a strategic asset for Italian economy, during health emergency, since it ensured safety to the productive and manufacturing industry.
This is what comes to light from the Osservatorio congiunturale trasporti of Ufficio Studi of Confcommercio, carried out in collaboration with Conftransporto, that, by checking the data concerning the mobility of passengers of 50% on average, highlights more contained contractions for the freight sector, but always exceptional.
In 2020 the negative variations linked to the freight transport, in fact, reported a reduction of 18.7%, achieving -25.8% for on-the-road transport and -23.6% for air-transport, whilst, as mentioned before, for the railway transport the reduction is -7%.
“These data” – Lotras sole Administrator, Mr Armando de Girolamo, said – “unfortunately, are nothing to the heavy crisis that involves also logistics and therefore allow us to express some prospect considerations.
The first consideration concerns the inalienable principles of safety and environmental sustainability which must lead the national and regional governments to implement any initiative aimed at making the incentives structural for the movement of goods from the road and increasing the railway flux. This purpose and, I come to the second consideration, will maintain unaltered the role of other traditional means of transport to which the proximity links with the network of areas and industrial activities throughout the Italian territory, in a system with port, retroport and interport, in favour of the security of the whole society and quality of life of the truck drivers”.
“The third question” – Mr de Girolamo said- “concerns the necessity to continue the so-called iron care, in order to catch up with the gap with other European Countries and intensify a transport modality that during the health emergency was very useful for Italian economy”. We must remember that since 2011 the European Commission fixed the purpose to switch, by 2030, 30% of the freight transport to railway modality in order to achieve 50% by 2050. And this is to confirm that intermodality and multimodality for the freight transport are, not only effective, but also efficient synergies.
