The port of Venice, in northeastern Italy, launched a new rail freight connection for steel and metal products to Montirone, near Brescia. With this new connection, the port can now be linked to the Benelux and the United Kingdom thanks to a service connecting Montirone to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

The initiative is being launched by Magli Group, an Italian company specialised in the logistics of steel and metal products, PSA Italy, which manages the Vecon terminal in the port, and GME Metals, a construction company from Brescia. The initial plan is to have 50 yearly trains running between Venice and Montirone, which should remove roughly 2,000 trucks from Italian roads. In addition, the companies involved are ready to extend the service to containerised cargo.

Rail freight at the port of Venice

Freight trains going to and from the port of Venice do so via the Marghera Scalo station, opened in 2006 and solely reserved for freight traffic. According to data from 2023, the port ranks fifth in Italy concerning the number of freight trains operated, behind Trieste, Ravenna, La Spezia and Genoa. Despite the past couple of years have seen a decline in freight train traffic in Venice, the President of the Port Authority Fulvio Lino Di Blasio said that, throughout the first nine months of 2024, 1,6 million tonnes have been moved by rail, 6 per cent more than the same period last year.