News is shaking the world of logistics and freight transport: Interporto Servizi Cargo (Isc), a private railway company founded in 2009 and 100% owned by Interporto Campano di Nola, will stop trains from 1 January 2023. Isc specializes in rail transport terminal to terminal in Italy and abroad. It remains to be clarified whether it is a temporary suspension of the service, pending the signing of an alliance with a significant partner that guarantees the continuation of the activity, or whether Isc will definitively cease operations. In this case, a protagonist of the liberalization of rail freight transport in Italy would be missing. The company employs around 100 workers, including staff and machinists.
In 2021, Isc handled 2,620 trains, transporting any type of goods and connecting Nola with the large interports in the North: Orbassano (Piedmont), Segrate (Lombardy), Verona-Quadrante Europa (Veneto), Interporto Bologna (Emilia Romagna). There are also daily connections between Nola Interporto and Giovinazzo (Bari). In a letter sent to customers, which Il Sole 24 Ore has received, the company explains that «because of the concurrence of lawsuits, both pertaining to the company and the context in which it operates, it has found itself in a situation of financial strain”. The customers of the Campania railway company are hauliers, logistics operators, shipping companies and shippers. In order to best pursue the recovery of this imbalance and the continuation of its activities, on 22 June Interporto Servizi Cargo presented a request for access to the new procedure for the negotiated settlement of business crises.
Then, the crucial passage of the letter: «As part of this procedure, after months of intense work, due to the unexpected and recent failure to enter into a partnership agreement with a primary market operator, we are forced, reluctantly, to consider a different hypothesis of intervention. Due to the events – continues the letter – we communicate that the company is able to guarantee its operations until 31 December 2022″. In order to safeguard business continuity and commercial relations with customers, Isc is nonetheless evaluating alternative hypotheses, which make it possible to ensure the service even after the indicated date. The story, therefore, is all in progress.
The coincidence of events is also striking: Isc is forced to stop a few days after the disappearance of Giuseppe Sciarrone, one of the founders of Italo (high-speed rail), as well as the first managing director of Ntv. In 2015, Sciarrone, a staunch supporter of railway liberalization, had assumed the position of CEO of Isc, which at the time had just completed its start-up phase and aimed to consolidate its growth in the rail freight market. And precisely as the head of the Interporto cargo services company, in an interview with Sole 24 Ore, Sciarrone had launched the idea of using the high-speed network not only for passenger transport, but also for cargo (with trains goods carried out at night so as not to hinder the Frecciarossa and Italo convoys). A project that Interporto cargo services was also working on, but which has not yet seen the light.