The Alpine rolling highway (french: autoroute ferroviaire alpine (AFA)) is a combined transport service, in the form of a

rolling highway In rail transportation, a rolling highway or rolling road is a form of combined transport involving the conveying of road trucks by rail, referred to as Ro-La trains. The concept is a form of piggyback transportation. The technical challen ...

on special wagons traveling a distance of 175 km between

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

by the Mont Cenis Tunnel (aka Fréjus rail tunnel). The service has been operated since 2003 by ''Autostrada ferroviaria alpina'' (AFA), a subsidiary of SNCF and Trenitalia.

History

This service, operated from November 4, 2003 by a private company ''Autostrada ferroviaria alpina'' (AFA), a joint subsidiary of the

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...

and

Trenitalia Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, the company was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail transp ...

, offers four daily shuttles between two loading platforms located in Aiton (Savoie) in the Maurienne valley and Orbassano (a suburb of

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

), using the

Culoz–Modane railway The Culoz–Modane railway (sometimes called Ligne de la Maurienne) is a long railway running from Culoz, near Chambéry, through Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Modane in France. Together with the Italian Turin–Modane railway it is often called " ...

and the Turin–Modane railway. Given the limited loading gauge at the beginning of the service only tankers could be transported. The Alpine rolling highway was subsidised, with the agreement of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

, by the French and Italian states for a trial period until 2006. In fall 2008, the fill rate approached 100% for four daily shuttles. Despite the sharp downturn in the freight transport (both rail and road), the hundred thousandth truck was carried in July 2009, and the fill rate remained relatively high (above 70%). Following the fire in the

Fréjus road tunnel The Fréjus Road Tunnel is a tunnel that connects France and Italy. It runs under Col du Fréjus in the Cottian Alps between Modane in France and Bardonecchia in Italy. It is one of the major trans-Alpine transport routes between France and It ...

on 4 June 2005 which led to the closure of the

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

and the drastic reduction in road transit capacity across the Alps between France and Italy, including the ban on the transport of dangerous substances in the

Mont Blanc tunnel The Mont Blanc Tunnel is a highway tunnel between France and Italy, under the Mont Blanc mountain in the Alps. It links Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France with Courmayeur, Aosta Valley, Italy, via the French Route Nationale 205 and the Italian T ...

, various measures were considered to increase the capacity of the service, in particular the establishment of a fifth daily rotation. However, there were constraints, including the capacity of the line at that time operated in single track mode in the Fréjus tunnel because of construction work, and the need to ensure continuity of existing rail traffic, passenger and intermodal and standard freight. Although the Mont Cenis tunnel was modified to GB1 loading gauge in 2010, allowing the transport of trucks loaded with ISO containers, the necessary modifications on the approaches were only completed in June 2012. This has allowed the service to replace the flagging tanker truck business with new container business. July 2012 was the all-time record month with 2788 trucks carried, beating the previous October 2008 record of 2600.

Rolling Stock

Modalohr wagons, designed and built by the Alsatian company Lohr Industrie are used. These are low-floor wagons with pivoting platform for the simultaneous loading of the whole train. They can ship the complete trucks (tractors with trailers uncoupled) or trailers alone, unaccompanied, like standard rail-road intermodal. These wagons are hauled by a series of BB 36000 locomotives modified for operation in Italy, the BB 36300. There is a passenger carriage for drivers.

Notes and references

External links

AFA website
Savoie Transport in Turin

History

Rolling Stock

See also

Notes and references

External links