TRIESTE – Italian interports remain central to national logistics, but their economic balance increasingly depends on warehouse rents and less on rail activity. This is one of the main findings emerging from the 2026 report by the Fedespedi Research Centre dedicated to Italian interport management companies.
The study highlights a paradox: while in recent years the weight of intermodal transport within total rail freight traffic has grown, rail freight transport in Italy has slowed. Between 2021 and 2024, rail volumes fell from 104.2 to 94.6 million tonnes (-9.2%), penalised above all by infrastructure worksites, punctuality problems and rail last-mile issues in ports and terminals.
Fedespedi stresses, however, that intermodal now accounts for around 60% of rail freight traffic, compared with less than half up to 2010. This result is linked to investments in terminals and to growing environmental awareness among shippers and logistics operators.
The report also highlights the strong geographical concentration of the system. 82% of Italian rail freight traffic comes from northern Italy, and just three interports — Verona, Padova and Novara — generate around half of the trains in the entire national interport system, equal to more than 26,000 trains out of around 53,000 handled overall in 2024.
Verona leads the ranking with 14,600 trains a year, ahead of Padova with 8,000 and Marcianise with 4,000. They are followed by Novara and Parma, with 3,800 trains each.
According to Fedespedi, many Italian interports are increasingly taking on the role of logistics real estate platforms. The report openly speaks of a “logistics landlord”, explaining that revenues mainly derive from the ownership and management of warehouses and logistics areas, while in many cases rail terminals do not generate direct income because they are managed by RFI or by third-party operators.
The economic snapshot of the sector shows an overall positive 2024. The 24 interports analysed recorded stable revenue of 214 million euros (+0.8%), but with profits up 8.7% to 10.6 million euros. Direct employees total 742 across around 34 million square metres of managed areas.
Among the main operators, Rivalta Scrivia stands out with more than 52 million euros in revenue, Padova with 40 million and Interporto Sud Europa in Marcianise with 18 million. Padova is also among the interports showing the strongest growth: turnover up 12.2% and profits up 65.7% in 2024. Verona, meanwhile, recorded the best percentage increase in net profit among the major operators (+241%).
The report also devotes significant space to the new law on interports, Law 177/2025, which redefines interports as infrastructure of national importance managed as businesses. Fedespedi, however, highlights several critical issues, especially the risk of excluding from the regulatory system large private rail terminals that today handle volumes higher than many traditional interports.
Finally, Fedespedi warns of the risk of developing new interports without adequate traffic flows and without a real industrial fabric to support them. According to the report, some facilities were built without sufficient analysis of local logistics and rail demand.
