The Italian Autonomous Province of Bolzano, in the northeast, will deploy three million euros to incentivise and improve rail freight for European companies carrying out services in the area. To be eligible for this policy, companies need to be headquartered in the European Economic Area and carry out services in the Province via the Brenner-Salorno railway, the main Italian access to Austria.

RailFreight.com had a chat with a spokesperson from the Province to better understand how these incentives work. As the spokesperson pointed out, 2,5 million euros will be allocated to the incentives, whereas the remaining 500,000 euros will be “strategically invested to improve rail freight transportation”. These local incentives are to be added to the ones already planned by the Italian government.

The discussion about financial help from institutions in Italy has been ongoing for quite a while now. Concerning 2023, the Italian government allocated 22 million euros for contribution to the rail freight sector in the country, which was the lowest amount since 2018. However, as Giuseppe Rizzi, managing director of the Italian railfreight association Fermerci told RailFreight.com, local entities can decide to implement additional incentives on top of the ones allocated by the state. This is what the Autonomous Province of Bolzano is doing with these incentives. “I wish all local entities would do the same”, Rizzi claimed.

How do the new incentives work?

The incentives from the Autonomous Province of Bolzano are meant to compensate external costs for rail freight companies and Multimodal Transport Operators. There will be a contribution for every transport unit moved through combined transport, both accompanied and non-accompanied, on the Brenner-Salorno railway. Trips with empty units are not eligible for the incentive.

Eligible companies can apply for these incentives before their activities start. They are required to provide a budget plan for all rail freight services scheduled for the year. Moreover, companies who are granted the incentives must implement a fee reduction to their final customers equal to the amount they will receive via the Province.

The 3 million euros investment will be fully covered by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. These incentives were first launched in 2018 and have been extended since then. As the spokesperson specified, in 2018 and 2019 the Province allocated 1,5 million euros each year and doubled it to three million in 2020, 2021, and 2022. With the 2,5 million euros for the incentives in 2023, the total investment from the Province so far amounts to 14,5 million euros.

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