Across a sizable investment programme, the Port Authority completed the infrastructure construction works in December of last year, with the installation of nine 500-metre long tracks, whilst the port terminal operating companies invested in next generation handling equipment, including the delivery of two A-RMGs (Automated Rail Mounted Gantry), manufactured specifically to the terminal’s requirements, boosting efficiency and safety overall.
Another key element of the new layout is provided by the installation of an innovative railroad switch which enables the locomotives to be guided automatically from one track to another, thereby optimising operations by avoiding the need to perform complex manoeuvres, with the option to use standard locomotives, in addition to the switcher locomotives deployed for shunting operations.
The new Rugna rail yard is today equipped to operate up to twenty train couples daily, doubling the logistics capacity of the area and catering for the full range of commodity sectors, from containers to liquid bulk. In fact, the technologically-advanced facility serves both the full-container terminals located at Calata Bettolo and Calata Sanità and, across rail tank cars, the liquid bulk hub sited in the Sampierdarena basin.
The railway yard is directly connected to the planned Campasso freight station, across the new railway lines under construction in the Molo Nuovo tunnel, to the Fuorimuro station and, from there, via the Sommergibile rail line, to the Terzo Valico hi-speed/hi-capacity line, near completion, a rail corridor crucial to the transport of cargo overland between the Port of Genoa and the prosperous manufacturing and consumer area of Northern Italy.
