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Mobility and Transport

Mediterranean Core Network Corridor

Algeciras – Bobadilla –Madrid – Zaragoza – Tarragona

Sevilla – Bobadilla – Murcia

Cartagena – Murcia – Valencia – Tarragona

Tarragona – Barcelona – Perpignan – Marseille/Lyon – Torino – Novara – Milano – Verona – Padova – Venezia – Ravenna/Trieste/Koper - Ljubljana – Budapest

Ljubljana/Rijeka – Zagreb – Budapest – UA border

The Mediterranean Corridor links the Iberian Peninsula with the Hungarian-Ukrainian border.

It follows the Mediterranean coastlines of Spain and France, crosses the Alps towards the east through Northern Italy, leaving the Adriatic coast in Slovenia and Croatia towards Hungary.

Apart from the Po River and some other canals in Northern Italy, it consists of road and rail. Key railway projects along this corridor are the links Lyon – Turin and the section Venice – Ljubljana.

Mr Laurens-Jan Brinkhorst is the European Coordinator for the Mediterranean Core Network Corridor.

Map: Mediterranean Corridor

The overall TEN-T corridor map

Description

The Mediterranean Corridor will link in the south western Mediterranean region up to the Ukrainian border with Hungary, following the coastlines of Spain, France, and crossing the Alps towards the east through Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

This corridor of about 3,000 km, integrating Priority Projects 3 and 6, ERTMS corridor D and corresponding to Rail Freight Corridor 6, will provide a multimodal link to the ports of the western Mediterranean with the centre of the EU. It will also create an east-west link through the southern part of the EU, contribute to intermodality in sensitive areas such as the Pyrenees and the Alps and connect some of the major urban areas of the EU with high speed trains.

Main missing links

The main missing sections are the new cross border rail links between France and Italy ("Lyon-Turin") and between Italy and Slovenia ("Trieste-Divača") and the finalisation of a completely upgraded rail link between Spain and France. Furthermore the inclusion of Croatia shall be taken into account. Multimodal connections with the ports in Spain have to be developed and some rail­way sections in Italy need to be upgraded in order to re­move key bottlenecks. The coexistence of two gauges: 1668 mm in Spain, 1435mm in the other countries is another challenge for this corridor, which is gradually being tackled during the oncoming Financial Perspectives.

Success stories

The Madrid-Barcelona high speed line was opened in February 2008. This new 621 km line reduced the jour­ney time between the two cities from 5 hours in 1996 to 2 hours 38 minutes today. It has attracted millions of passengers from air and road transport be­cause of the standards of comfort and a seamless city to city connection. This line is now being extended towards France via the Perpignan-Figueras cross-border tunnel, linking Spain to the trans-European high speed network. The Madrid-Barcelona line has drastically cut back passenger numbers on the saturated air route be­tween the two cities.

CEF: Pre-identified projects

Algeciras - Madrid

Rail

studies ongoing, works to be launched before 2015, to be completed 2020

Sevilla - Antequera - Granada - Almería - Cartagena - Murcia - Alicante - Valencia

Rail

studies and works

Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona

Rail

Upgrading of existing lines (gauge, sidings, platforms)

Valencia - Tarragona - Barcelona

Rail

construction between 2014 - 2020

Barcelona

Port

interconnections rail with port and airport

Barcelona - Perpignan

Rail

cross-border section, works ongoing, new line completed by 2015, upgrading existing line (gauge, sidings, platforms)

Perpignan - Montpellier

Rail

bypass Nîmes - Montpellier to be operational in 2017, Montpellier - Perpignan for 2020

Lyon

Rail

Relieving Lyon bottlenecks: studies and works

Lyon – Avignon – Marseille

Rail

upgrading

Lyon - Torino

Rail

cross-border section, works base tunnel ; studies and works access routes

Milano - Brescia

Rail

partially upgrading, partially new high-speed line

Brescia - Venezia - Trieste

Rail

works to start before 2014 on several sections in synergy with upgrading actions undertaken in overlapping stretches as in Baltic Adriatic Corridor

Milano – Cremona- Mantova – Porto Levante/Venezia – Ravenna/Trieste

IWW

Studies and works

Cremona, Mantova, Venezia, Ravenna, Trieste

Inland Ports

Port interconnections, (further) development of multimodal platforms

Trieste - Divača

Rail

studies and partial upgrading ongoing; cross-border section to be realised until after 2020

Koper - Divača - Ljubljana – Pragersko

Rail

studies and upgrading/partially new line

Rijeka – Zagreb – Budapest

Rail

Studies and works (including construction of new track and second track between Rijeka and HU border )

Rijeka

Port

Infrastructure upgrading and development, development of multimodal platforms and interconnections

Ljubljana – Zagreb

Rail

Studies and works

Ljubljana node

Rail

rail node Ljubljana, including multi-modal platform; rail airport interconnection

Pragersko - Zalalövö

Rail

cross-border section: studies, works to start before 2020

Lendava - Letenye

Road

cross-border upgrading

Boba- Székesfehérvár

Rail

upgrading

Budapest-Miskolc-UA border

Rail

upgrading

Vásárosnamény-UA border

Road

cross-border upgrading

Forum meetings 2014

  • 4th Forum Meeting of the Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 20th November 2014

Agenda

  • 3rd Forum Meeting of the Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 9th October 2014

Agenda

  • 2nd Forum Meeting of the Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 19th June 2014

Agenda

  • 1st Forum Meeting of the Mediterranean Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 2nd April 2014

Agenda