News / France-Italy road and rail freight chaos after Alpine rockfall

A major rockfall in the French Alps last week will continue to significantly disrupt road and rail freight routes between France and Italy for some time yet.

An estimated 10,000 m3 of rock fell from mountain sides overlooking the Maurienne Valley in France’s Savoie region. This led to a local road being buried under the scree while one of the bridges on the A43 motorway leading to the Fréjus road tunnel and a nearby railway line were also impacted by the landslide.

The French authorities say there remains a risk of a further 3,000 m3 of rock falling.

Road haulage companies would normally use the nearby Fréjus alpine tunnel to reach Italy, but this has been closed to HGVs since the rockfall. Trucks have re-routed through the Mont Blanc tunnel but this is now subject to significant congestion with reports of HGV numbers doubling on the normal volume of 1,500 vehicles per day leading to major delays on both sides of the border.

A more southerly itinerary, crossing the border from France at the French Mediterranean coastal town of Ventimiglia, is being recommended to road hauliers – but this adds more than four hours to normal transit times.

Meanwhile, traffic (passenger and freight) between the two countries is at a standstill. French state railway SNCF’s rail freight subsidiary Viia normally operates the Autoroute Ferroviaire Alpine (AFA) between Aiton, near Chambéry, in France and Orbassano near Turin, in Italy, with currently three round trips daily for accompanied and unaccompanied semi-trailers and tankers.

The AFA also offers connections to Calais, with possible on-forwarding to the UK.

A spokesperson for Viia confirmed to The Loadstar that the AFA was suspended until further notice, as was the case for all rail services between France and Italy at present.

“Customers using the AFA understand the situation we are in very well and it is particularly difficult for specialists in dangerous goods transport whose only option is to go to by road to Italy via Ventimiglia.”

A spokesperson for Rail Logistics Europe, which groups all of SNCF’s rail freight subsidiaries, said that because of the disruption caused by the rockfall it was “having to consider alternative routes for our customers’ goods to and from Italy, via Switzerland or Nice”.

France’s Transport minister, Clement Beaune, visited the scene of the rockfall last week and following exchanges with local government officials indicated in a tweet “a probable reopening of the A43 motorway within the next week or so” and “a long lead time to resume rail traffic of at least two months.”

He also confirmed the postponement of scheduled renovation work on the Mont Blanc Tunnel – which would have led to its closure for more than three months from today, September 4.