The rail transport market - Italy

1.1 Definition and presentation

Rail transport is the aggregation of the production, marketing, and maintenance of vehicles that are used to transport goods or people by rail.

Worldwide, sales in the rail transport market are growing steadily. In Europe, business is driven by maintenance activities and the renewal of existing trains in a very mature market. On the other hand, the fastest-growing markets for new equipment are Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Passenger transport accounts for a far more important activity that appears way more necessary than freight in most of the major European countries.

In Germany freight reaches approximately only 20% of goods transport totals and 10% in France, numbers that are less important than road transport by a mile.

In Italy, rail transport is particularly well-developed on the peninsula, and is witnessing a growth of its business, benefiting from both a strong demand and a less dynamic air traffic than other European countries. The emergence of the covid-19 pandemic has not dampened the sector's good momentum: distances covered by trains have thus increased by 12% in 2021, compared to 2020, a year which had already shown how thick the skin of rail transport was (+8% compared with 2019). Rail transport should also benefit from Italy's stimulus plan, which focuses on infrastructures, while the easing of sanitary measures has enabled tourists to storm back on the peninsula in 2022.