TRIESTE – The Udine–Tarvisio rail line will be closed from 22 August to 20 September 2026 for infrastructure works. The Region has already opened talks with RFI and operators to route around half of the freight traffic via the Brenner corridor.
The announcement came on the sidelines of a meeting at the Pordenone inland terminal attended by Regional Councillor for Infrastructure Cristina Amirante, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), rail operators, port authorities and companies. The full suspension of the route for around a month will have a direct impact on freight flows in a region that concentrates three ports and four inland terminals closely tied to corridors towards Austria and Germany.
For cargo, the only structured alternative identified is the Brenner crossing. RFI has indicated the availability of 150 trains per week along that axis, equal to about 50% of the region’s total rail freight traffic. Operators have been asked to define priorities quickly, so that the available train paths can be allocated and the re-routing of flows planned.
The Udine–Tarvisio line is a natural gateway to Austria and Central Europe, also used by traffic to and from Northern Adriatic ports. The shutdown comes in a context already shaped in recent months by the closure of Austria’s Tauern corridor for scheduled works. In that case too, freight flows were redistributed onto alternative routes, increasing pressure on Brenner and other Alpine corridors.
The risk now is an overlap of disruptions in a system that is already under strain. For this reason, the Region has announced it will convene the Transport and Logistics Steering Committee, with the aim of bringing operational decisions forward and limiting the economic impact on manufacturing companies and port terminals.
On the passenger side, a separate roundtable with Trenitalia is planned to define replacement services, with buses envisaged for the entire duration of the works.
Planning infrastructure works along the Alpine axis remains unavoidable to modernise the network. But the close sequence between the Tauern closure and the summer shutdown on the Udine–Tarvisio line brings the focus back to the resilience of North-East rail corridors and the ability of the regional logistics system to absorb prolonged diversions without losing competitiveness.
