Alpine rolling highway

The Alpine rolling highway (French: autoroute ferroviaire alpine (AFA)) is a combined transport service, in the form of a rolling highway on special wagons traveling a distance of 175 km between France and Italy by the Mont Cenis Tunnel (aka Fréjus rail tunnel).

This service, operated from November 4, 2003 by a private company Autostrada ferroviaria alpina (AFA), a joint subsidiary of the SNCF and Trenitalia, offers four daily shuttles between two loading platforms located in Aiton (Savoie) in the Maurienne valley and Orbassano (a suburb of Turin), using the Culoz–Modane railway and the Turin–Modane railway.

The Alpine rolling highway was subsidised, with the agreement of the European Union, by the French and Italian states for a trial period until 2006.

Despite the sharp downturn in the freight transport (both rail and road), the hundred thousandth truck was carried in July 2009, and the fill rate remained relatively high (above 70%).

However, there were constraints, including the capacity of the line at that time operated in single track mode in the Fréjus tunnel because of construction work, and the need to ensure continuity of existing rail traffic, passenger and intermodal and standard freight.