As announced by DB InfraGO, the state body that manages German railways, the first of twelve phases of maintenance work scheduled for 2025 on the German Rheintalbahn railway began on 17 January 2025. This railway is one of the main connection lines between Italy and Northern European ports. The work involves the railway section immediately after Basel, specifically between the German municipalities of Schliengen and Heitersheim, and until 7 February the line will be completely closed during the night, between 00:45 and 04:45. Some railway operators have diverted traffic to alternative routes via Gäubahn-Singen, which is however closed to P400 semi-trailer traffic, or through the Brenner Pass, investing in additional resources in terms of locomotives and drivers.
According to TrasportoEuropa, despite this, a large portion of train paths has been cancelled, particularly night-time ones, and passing trains have often suffered heavy delays leading to further chain cancellations, whilst passenger trains always maintain priority over freight. In this context, the railway capacity has been significantly reduced and has caused congestion in all railway terminals in northern Italy, blocked by stacks of hundreds of containers full of goods destined for northern Europe.
Terminalitalia Segrate has announced a halt to acceptances due to lack of storage space, and the same has occurred at the Brescia intermodal terminal. The congestion also affects the Rhm terminal in Melzo, Eurogateway in Novara and the Busto yard. The remaining active departures are insufficient to clear the enormous quantity of export goods, to such an extent that the main railway operators have announced a backlog of between three and seven trains, with the number of waiting containers varying from 80-90 up to 200 for each route.
The most affected line appears to be the one between Novara and Ludwigshafen, with delays of over seven days. To reduce the impact on customers and goods, railway operators have requested extra paths from DB InfraGO, but in most cases have failed to receive responses. One of the few reactivated trains was the Melzo-Rotterdam service managed by Hupac, which will have an extra path in the middle of the first week of February.
The enormous number of blocked containers has also caused an imbalance between arrivals and departures, leading to a shortage of empty units and therefore the need to postpone loads. Imports, which are historically lower than exports for Italy, are also suffering from the many cancellations and the entire supply chain has reached a standstill, with full containers waiting to depart in both directions but without the possibility of quick departure. With saturated terminals and a lack of empty units, work has also decreased for road hauliers throughout northern Italy, directly affected by the standstill.
The situation was further aggravated by the strike called on 25 January by the Cub and SGB unions. The expected impact was minimal but, in reality, it then caused further cancellations on the few trains still running, worsening an already very serious situation. During the first weekend of February, construction work also began in the Rotterdam port area, following which the cancellation of all passing trains was announced. Following the numerous reported incidents, the restoration of regular rail traffic through Germany will take several weeks, but from 14 February the second phase of work on the Rheintalbahn will begin and transit times are likely to be longer until the first week of March.
