The Gruppo FS 2025 annual financial report shows that the freight division closed the year against the trend of a weak macroeconomic environment that weighed on traffic volumes. In 2025, demand fell by 3.8% in tonne-kilometres and supply by 5.1% in train-kilometres, yet the Freight Transport division increased operating revenues to €1.4 billion, up 4% or €48 million. The most significant figure concerns EBITDA, which rose to €105 million, marking a 72% increase, equal to €44 million more than in 2024.
This result highlights an ability to adapt that is highly relevant for transport and logistics operators. According to the Gruppo FS accounts, profitability was supported by improved train load factors, fewer cancellations and higher tariffs. Within this context, TX Logistik and Mercitalia Shunting & Terminal played a key role, identified as the main drivers of the operational recovery thanks to the rebound in intermodal transport. The divergence between declining volumes and rising margins therefore points to a more selective supply structure, focused on capacity utilisation and the economic sustainability of services.
The freight segment’s performance sits within a very solid year for the entire Gruppo FS. The 2025 annual financial report shows consolidated operating revenues of €17.3 billion, up 4% on 2024, and a return to net profit of €30 million, following a loss of €208 million the previous year. This comes against a backdrop of significant technical investment, which reached €18.3 billion, while around €16 billion has been reported under the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan), with all scheduled European milestones achieved. For the freight sector, this context is significant as it confirms financial strength and continuity of industrial commitments even in a phase of non-expanding demand.
The same approach is reflected in investments allocated to the Freight Transport division. In 2025, technical investment increased by 8% to €322 million, with resources directed towards fleet renewal and the maintenance of locomotives and freight wagons. This represents an important operational step for a sector that must contain operating costs, improve reliability and safeguard service regularity in a market still exposed to industrial and geopolitical instability. In this perspective, rolling stock renewal is not only a balance sheet measure but directly affects service quality and network productivity.
Another signal of the central role of freight transport concerns the structure of financial sources. Gruppo FS indicated that, within two financing agreements totalling €250 million, €150 million has been allocated to the purchase of new rolling stock for the freight segment. This decision suggests that financial sustainability is increasingly linked to the ability to modernise logistics and rail assets, with potential effects on the competitiveness of intermodal transport along national and international corridors.
Alongside rolling stock and infrastructure, the Group is also placing growing emphasis on digital infrastructure. The report highlights progress on FS Logistix, a platform designed to support the integration of freight flows and intermodality at ecosystem level. For the market, this is far from marginal: the efficiency of rail freight increasingly depends on connectivity between terminals, traction, shunting, planning and data exchange across the logistics chain. In this sense, the performance of the FS freight division in 2025 provides a clear indication: in a phase of weak volumes, the competitive lever shifts towards the quality of industrial organisation, capacity utilisation, intermodality and process digitalisation.
M.L.
