Intermodality

Autostrada del Brennero is the only Italian motorway concessionaire that has also been involved in rail freight transport for many years. Through STR – Brennero Trasporto Rotaia and STR2, it controls InRail and RTC – Rail Traction Company, which, together with the associated company Lokomotion, operate almost 30,000 trains a year thanks to the work of over 800 employees. This means that every day, around 1,500 heavy goods vehicles are transferred from road to rail, helping to reduce CO_₂ emissions by around 300,000 tonnes each year along the Brenner corridor.

From road to rail

As early as the 1990s, the Company’s directors realised that the motorway would reach capacity. And they had an important insight: long-distance freight traffic needed to be gradually shifted to rail. Hence the decision to invest in the sector. This led to the creation first of STR SpA, and then of RTC SpA and Lokomotion GmbH, intended to operate on either side of the Brenner Pass and the Tarvisio border respectively. On 15 October 2001, the first freight train left Munich Riem station bound for Verona. This marked the beginning of a new phase of continuous growth. On 15 October 2021, exactly twenty years later, the Board of Directors of A22 approved a capital increase for STR to acquire a 75 per cent stake in another railway company, In Rail SpA. The existing routes have been consolidated and new ones added: the result is a strengthening of the railway assets, in which the Company intends to continue investing.

Already today, thanks to the Group, Autostrada del Brennero is transferring around 1,500 heavy goods vehicles a day to rail. However, with the completion of the Brenner Base Tunnel – to which Autobrennero has been contributing since the late 1990s – these figures are set to improve further. Thanks to the BBT, the railway line’s capacity will in fact increase by 60–90 trains a day. Once the obstacle of gradients has been removed, these trains will be able to be longer and carry 20 per cent more freight.