47-48/2019 From the Mediterranean across the Atlantic
Over the past months the Italian Peninsula has created fat political headlines – which sometimes drowned out the good news concerning economic progress. Railfreight operations, for example, is one of the foci of investment for the state-owned rail enterprise Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, which has launched an ambitious programme of renewal. Some of its infrastructure projects, including completing the Genoa / Terzo Valico intersection, the Genoa–Ventimiglia stretch and increasing capacities on the Venice–Trieste route, will directly benefit railfreight activities. European Union financial support provides an additional dynamic; The continental body is aiming to complete its TEN-T pan-European transport corridors.
It is important that the country’s ports, which have hardly been linked to the national railway network so far, are integrated into these international corridors, as many an Italian shipper is currently intensifying export activities. Italian shipping lines’ great efforts to comply with IMO 2020 standards showed at the XXIII Euro-Med Convention in Sicily. The international perspective is becoming more important for the country.
Thus the Italians’ battle cry is no longer ‘Rome or death’, as was the case during the Risorgimento, but rather ‘Europe and the world’. Read all about it in our Italy Special supplement.
From the Mediterranean across the Atlantic. Andreas Haug registered a lively atmosphere at the Air Cargos Americas 2019. His conclusion after Miami? The airfreight industry is ready for more. Let’s follow its example.
Christian Doepgen
Editor-in-chief
