From 21:00 on 23 July to 20:59 on 24 July, railway unions CUB Trasporti and SGB staged a 24-hour nationwide strike affecting companies that perform freight and regional passenger operations, while ORSA-Fast-Confsal called a parallel walk-out of maintenance staff at RFI’s Verona infrastructure unit. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport’s strike bulletin lists the action as ‘national relevance’, though long-distance Trenitalia AV services are running with minimal disruption thanks to law-mandated guarantee windows. The stoppage is primarily about staffing levels and weekend pay for freight crews, but it has a ripple effect on supply chains relying on rail-road intermodal hubs at Verona Quadrante Europa and Bologna Interporto. Logistics providers report average delays of 4–6 hours on north-south freight corridors and postponed last-mile deliveries to Milan and Padua fashion warehouses. For commuters the impact varies by region: Veneto and Friuli saw cancellations of up to 40 % of regional trains during the morning peak, whereas Lombardy kept services at around 70 % thanks to bus substitutions. International travellers using ÖBB Nightjet services between Munich and Venice were advised to check re-routing options via Innsbruck. Under Italian strike legislation (Law 146/1990) minimum services must be guaranteed between 06:00–09:00 and 18:00–21:00, but business travellers scheduling same-day meetings should still verify real-time updates on the Trenitalia and Italo apps. Companies shipping time-sensitive goods such as pharmaceuticals or automotive parts should switch to road transport or air-freight until normal operations resume after 21:00 on 24 July. Looking ahead, social partners meet at the Transport Ministry on 29 July; failure to reach agreement could trigger additional actions in September, overlapping with the start of the post-holiday business season.
