The Italian railway company FS Group has started renewing the fleet of freight wagons of Mercitalia Intermodal, its freight operator.

The investments, planned throughout the next decade, will include 57 million euros for the acquisition of new wagons as well as 70 billion euros for the renewal of its current fleet.

What is the plan?

Since the beginning of the year, 78 new T3000e wagons have been delivered. The last 26 wagons are scheduled to be ready by September for a total of 104 new additions. In total, through the Industrial Plan, FS will buy 3,500 new wagons and 300 new generation locomotives.

The T3000e wagons will ensure higher safety standards and lower noise pollution levels when braking. The cars have been built according to the European rail interoperability guidelines.

Moreover, by 2030, FS plans to purchase around 500 wagons equipped with onboard telematics and monitoring systems. These technologies are already applied to over 400 Mercitalia cars, and the plan is to equip over 90 per cent of the fleet by 2025.

These new systems will allow for more efficiency, thanks to the digitisation of procedures and documentation. One of the goals of this project is to boost non-accompanied combined transport on the main Italian rail corridors.

Other FS Logistics Pole projects

In 2020, FS Group started a modernising process on Mercitalia’s 240 Sgnss intermodal wagons. The project, currently in its concluding phase, consists of replacing cast iron brake blocks with synthetic, less noisy ones.

The FS Logistics Pole is also planning to keep carrying Smart Train tests. Smart Train is a project launched in January by Mercitalia Intermodal and TX Logistik AG to implement new digital technologies in freight transportation. The results of these tests should be expected in 2023.