The "Cargo International" business area focuses on providing competitive and profitable traction services for intermodal and block trains on the main north–south transit corridor.

[2] SBB Cargo is an active member of the Xrail alliance, which was founded by seven European freight railways in February 2010 with the aim of making international wagonload rail transport more customer-friendly and efficient.

Because a referendum is still possible, the new legislative package will enter into force in 2016 at the earliest and include a restructuring of railfreight's general operating conditions.

To keep wagonload freight in Switzerland profitable and sustainable, solutions for restructuring poorly utilised service points have been devised over recent years.

The tunnel interior is also high enough to accommodate the four-metre-high trailers of articulated lorries, travelling straight through the Alps by train in 35 to 40 minutes.

SBB is currently creating a four-metre corridor on the approximately 270-kilometre-long Gotthard line between Basel and the Italian border on behalf of the Swiss government, to be completed by 2020.

However, SBB Infrastructure will retain responsibility for the marshalling yards themselves, remain the contact partner for rail transport activities and continue to ensure the provision of traffic control, thus guaranteeing equal treatment.

As a registered railway company for freight services, it plans, schedules and operates block trains in Germany to and from Duisburg, Rheinhausen, Siegen, Cologne, Aachen, Ludwigshafen/Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Freiburg im Breisgau, Singen, Lübeck, Bremerhaven/Bremen, Hamburg, Kehl, Gelsenkirchen, Ingolstadt, Neuss, Gießen/Mainzlar and Weil am Rhein, while rail-to-road platforms in Germany are operated in Bremen, Duisburg, Karlsruhe, Worms and Weil am Rhein.

The destinations/departure points for wagon groups or block trains in Italy are Gallarate, Novara, Milano, Melzo, Trecate, Turin-Orbassano, Fossano, Poggio Rusco and Sant'Ilario.

[3] In addition ChemOil provides its customers with a wide range of complementary services on request, such as managing wagon fleets, analysing procedures and processes and advising on how to optimise the supply chain.

Since 2011, the company's ChemLink product has connected key chemicals centres along the north–south corridor using its own scheduled service for consignment handling.

By expanding intermodal transport in Switzerland, SBB Cargo is adding to its existing business in wagonload and transit freight.

[5] In June 2013 the north–south shuttle between Dietikon and Cadenazzo started running on workdays, connecting the economic centre of Zurich with the Ticino region, with an extension to Lugano Vedeggio.

In order to manage growing volumes of container traffic for imports and exports, a new terminal for transshipment between ships, rail and lorries is being constructed in northern Basel in close proximity to the Rhine port at Basel-Kleinhüningen.

In order to continue to meet the requirements of the regional economy in the future, the transshipment centre for intermodal transport in Dietikon is to be expanded and upgraded.

SBB Cargo works together with the international climate protection organisation Myclimate to offer its customers a completely climate-neutral transport service.

Since the 2013/2014 timetable change, SBB Cargo has been transporting a significant portion of DB Schenker Rail’s transit services through Switzerland.

In 2013, SBB Cargo earned consolidated operating revenues of CHF 953 million and carried a traffic volume of 12.3 billion net tonne-kilometres.

In addition to its 75% share in SBB Cargo International, SBB Cargo holds the entire share capital of ChemOil Logistics AG in Basel (transportation of chemicals and petroleum products) and minority interests in RAlpin AG, Berne (30%), Hupac SA, Chiasso (23.85%) and Termini SA, Chiasso (20%).