Hupac maintains its position in a difficult environment and increases volumes

Traffic development 2025

Last year, the Hupac Group transported around 975,000 road consignments, equivalent to 1,853,000 TEUs in combined road/rail and maritime hinterland transport. This represents an increase of 4.3%, around 40,000 consignments compared to the previous year. In its core business of transalpine transport through Switzerland, Hupac increased volumes despite restrictions due to construction works (+4.5% or +24,100 consignment). This grown is partly attributable to the acquisition of traffic on the Belgium-Italy axis. Without these additional volumes, transalpine traffic through Switzerland would have declined for the second consecutive year.

Transalpine traffic via France and Austria slightly increased (+26.9%, equal to +5,100 consignments). Non-transalpine traffic in the continental and maritime sectors increased to just under 390,000 road consignments.

"The volume development is encouraging overall, especially against the backdrop of major challenges such as the complete closure of the Rhine Valley railway line in the busy month of June. Hupac is continuing to work hard to ensure the best solutions for its combined transport customers under these conditions," says Hans-Jörg Bertschi, Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Ongoing challenges

This year, Hupac is again facing the sometimes problematic state of the rail infrastructure and the resulting construction work. Combined transport is facing major challenges. In Germany, the Rhine Valley railway line will be closed for two weeks in the spring. In Italy, a five-week closure is planned for the line between Iselle and Domodossola in the summer. In addition, there is the Troisdorf-Wiesbaden line, where a long-planned diversion will be put in place in the second half of the year.

Together with its rail partners, Hupac is developing robust diversion concepts. In order to be able to offer marketable solutions for European logistics, Hupac is calling for the following decisive conditions for construction sites and diversions:

• Capacity on the alternative and diversion routes must be at least 90%
• ­International coordination of construction sites to prevent simultaneous construction activities and closures on TEN-T corridors covering the same market areas
• ­Compliance with production parameters in terms of profile, train length and train weight, even on alternative and diversion routes, as well as diversion routes with as few additional kilometres as possible
• ­Reliable operational quality of alternative routes through preventive maintenance and continuous staffing of control centres.

Outlook

Hupac will continue its efforts to stabilise transalpine transport. In addition to the measures required in Germany, this also concerns the left side of the Rhine axis through France, which must be upgraded to a 4-metre corridor in order to enable efficient modal shift.

Hupac is also investing in its services and its own infrastructure to promote the shift to rail. Since the beginning of the year, it has been operating significantly higher-frequency services on its main routes
Köln Nord-Busto Arsizio and Ludwigshafen-Busto Arsizio. "The launch of high-frequency services shows that the negative effects of delays on customers can be minimised. It is clear to everyone that the German network needs to be upgraded. We intend to consistently expand our services in the coming years in order to be able to offer our customers a reliable service even in this challenging infrastructure situation. Maintaining this capacity is essential for the networking of industries in Europe and thus for our customers," explains CEO Michail Stahlhut.

Hupac has successfully expanded its network with Terminal Barcelona Combiconnect. Since the beginning of the year, Hupac and the operator TP Nova have been managing the terminal under the company Combiconnect, thereby connecting the growing Spanish intermodal market more closely with the rest of Europe.

Downward trend on the north-south axis continues

As one of the main providers on the north-south axis through Switzerland, Hupac is monitoring developments on the transalpine corridor with great respect. Since 2021, combined transport volumes have been steadily declining. In 2024, 960,000 truck journeys were recorded. This remains well above the Swiss constitutional target of maximum 650,000 journeys per year. There are currently no signs of a reversal; on the contrary, the situation is likely to have deteriorated further in 2025. The tried-and-tested instruments for promoting combined transport should therefore be maintained. In particular, operating subsidies for transalpine combined transport must be secured beyond 2030. This would send a strong political signal in favour of long-term planning security and help operators at least partially offset the additional costs resulting from the current infrastructure situation.