VIIA is an SNCF Group company that operates rail motorways—a new road-rail transport option that easily carries semi-trailers by train and reduces road congestion. There’s a strong business case for this service, and it aligns perfectly with the EU’s pledge to cut CO₂ emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. VIIA already operates 6 lines and is preparing to launch new ones over the next few years.

A: For road hauliers, we offer a flexible road-rail service with real economic advantages. Until now, they couldn’t ship freight by combined road-rail transport without making an upfront investment in swap bodies or cranable trailers, and they were unwilling to do that because of the cost. The whole purpose of the rail motorway concept is to overcome this reluctance. We give road hauliers an incentive to choose rail—without more investments.

A: First, we offer an innovative solution because our rail motorways can carry standard semi-trailers, which account for 90% of Europe’s road fleet. We load them horizontally to avoid damaging them.

A: No. Our terminals are open 24/7 so that hauliers don’t have to reorganize their schedules for loading and unloading their customers’ goods. We offer 2, 3 or 4 daily departures, so if one option doesn’t work, they can choose another. That gives them flexibility.

A: Above all, we have a different philosophy and different way of approaching the market. This isn’t a battle between road and rail—on the contrary. We’re trying to build a shared service that combines the accessibility and responsiveness of road with the very high volumes that long-distance rail can deliver.

A: True. Because our trains have to operate on a timetable, they’re scaled for very large volumes of freight. We’re betting that once road hauliers see the advantages of rail—without the upfront costs—they’ll naturally gravitate towards logistics that are greener than end-to-end road transport.

A: To set up and run our business, we need wagons, terminals and rail traction. We get these primarily from Fret SNCF, but we also work with Mercitalia Rail¹ in Italy and Renfe² in Spain.

A: Our partnership with SNCF Réseau is obviously very important. And we actually use the network more like a passenger: we run shuttles on our rail motorways at regular intervals³, which makes us different from rail freight. We need train paths that are spread throughout each week and each day, and that can get complicated if there are works on the line. Our trains have to run for long distances every day, at all hours.

A: I’m convinced—and the Covid pandemic strengthened this belief—that rail motorways have more growth potential than conventional rail freight service. Of course, we want to position ourselves for the projects the French government has announced for the Sète–Calais and Barcelona–Perpignan–Rungis lines, and we’re also looking at partnerships between Cherbourg and Mouguerre.

A: In the next few years, combined transport will be a powerful solution for the environmental challenges we face. We want to shift a large volume of freight from road to rail, but we want to work with road hauliers, not against them. Until just 2 years ago, our customers didn’t seem to care about the environmental performance we offer, but now this selling point is gaining ground with shippers—our customers’ customers. Of course, price is still the deciding factor, but concern for the environment has clearly increased.

A: In general, combined transport is thought to save 85% of CO₂ compared with road, but we think it’s simpler to say that we’re aiming for zero CO₂ impact. To reach carbon neutrality, we’ve rolled out an ambitious plan to decarbonize our operations as completely as possible. Since 2021 we’ve been carbon-neutral thanks to offsets, but our real long-term goal is to get our carbon emissions as close to zero as possible without using offsets.

A: We’ve developed a wide-ranging plan of action. For example, VIAA and Fret SNCF are planning to buy electricity that’s even more decarbonized, and we’re trying to use electricity whenever possible. We’ve begun using electric tractors to handle freight at our terminals, we’re rethinking our platform lighting, and we’re using electric vehicles at our facilities. Today, around 30% of our company cars are electric. That’s how we’re gradually eliminating all sources of CO₂ emissions. It’s a long-term project, and until it’s complete, we’ll use offsets. That’s how we can say that we’ve been carbon-neutral since 2021.