We offer economic operators the possibility to connect industrial plants, logistic platforms or commercial areas directly to the national railway network through the construction of branch lines. We also provide transport operators with areas equipped for freight services, parking and storage of rolling stock.

Economic operators interested in developing their business through rail transport are able to have access to the National Railway Infrastructure by constructing so-called “Connected Facilities”. These facilities and the related connecting track, known as a branch line, are built at the initiative of the undertaking and are the platform for accessing the railway network by industrial facilities, logistic platforms or commercial areas.

In the event of particularly significant settlements such as industrial areas, development zones, port areas and similar, several private branch lines can run into a single track, which in turn is connected to the railway network.

Industrial branch lines help to transport almost 70% of the total volume of goods transported by rail.

Specific negotiated agreements and infrastructural and technological standards for constructing and managing branch lines govern the relations between RFI and the requesting undertakings, which are drawn up on the basis of current regulations on access to and use of railway infrastructure and rules for the safety of railway operations.

The Provisions, Instructions and Contractual Clauses, updated to June 2023, for constructing and operating branch lines with commercial, industrial and similar establishments (DICC) are provided below, together with the relevant annexes.

Requests for the construction of new lines or for the modification of existing ones should be addressed to the Strategy and Development Planning Infrastructure Hub Department - Piazza della Croce Rossa, 1 - 00161 Rome (pec: rfi-dce@pec.rfi.it).

 

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At some facilities within the network, RFI provides its own areas - not included in the grid of facilities already published in the NP - featuring at least one track for the production of one or more services from those indicating in art. 13 of Legislative Decree no. 112/2015.

The spaces identified are called equipped areas and can be classified, according to the definition contained in Legislative Decree no. 112/2015, as "service facilities".

In this case, the natural contractual expiration will also apply to the infrastructural areas at stations that have so far been authorised for use and classified as “specific points”.

The equipped areas are allocated through a public procedure. The notice with the rules for participation, the criteria for the allocating, as well as the charges - both in terms of responsibility and from a financial standpoint - that the successful bidder will have to bear are published on the website of Ferservizi, the company that manages the sale and rental of real estate assets in the name and on behalf of the FS Group.

At the end of the procedure, the party to whom the area will be assigned must sign a specific contract with Ferservizi (RFI's agent), which includes a Technical Annex, specific for the conditions and methods for the operation of the equipped area. By signing the contract, the contractor of the equipped area assumes the role, pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 112/2015, of facility operator for the supply of services to be provided to third parties.

As provided in paragraph 2.6 of the Network Statement, by 30 April of each year, on the occasion of the Listening Forum, RFI publishes the following documents on this web page:

  1. Areas equipped with a tender procedure already completed, ie areas for which the Manager has already concluded the public tender procedure without having completed the assignment, therefore the interested party can apply for it directly;
  2. Identified equipped areas, ie areas for which the Operator can start a public procedure following an expression of interest. In the course of 2023, tenders will be launched for the areas in which the contract of the former fixed point is expiring / expired or for which requests for use have already been received;
  3. Service plants with provision for decommissioning / conversion.

The lists refer to the areas included exclusively within the RFI asset.

 

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