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Mobility and Transport

Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor

Genova – Milano – Lugano – Basel

Genova –Novara – Brig – Bern – Basel – Karlsruhe – Mannheim – Mainz – Koblenz – Köln

Köln – Düsseldorf – Duisburg – Nijmegen/Arnhem – Utrecht – Amsterdam

Nijmegen – Rotterdam – Vlissingen

Köln – Liège – Bruxelles/Brussel – Gent

Liège – Antwerpen – Gent – Zeebrugge

The Rhine-Alpine Corridor constitutes one of the busiest freight routes of Europe, connecting the North Sea ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to the Mediterranean basin in Genoa, via Switzerland and some of the major economic centres in the Rhein-Ruhr, the Rhein-Main-Neckar, regions and the agglomeration of Milan in Northern Italy.

This multimodal corridor includes the Rhine as inland waterway. Key projects are the base tunnels, partly already completed, in Switzerland and their access routes in Germany and Italy.

Mr Paweł Wojciechowski lukasz [dot] wojtasatec [dot] europa [dot] euis the European Coordinator for the Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor.

Map: Rhine-Alpine Corridor

The overall TEN-T corridor map

Description

This north–south corridor will integrate Priority Projects 5 and 24, ERTMS Corridor A and Rail Freight Corridor 1. It constitutes one of the busiest freight routes of Europe, connecting the North Sea ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to the Mediterranean basin in Genoa, via Switzerland and some of the major economic centres of the western EU. This multimodal corridor that includes the Rhine basin, will also provide connections to several east–west axes.

Missing links

The main missing links on this corridor are the bottlenecks in Germany and Italy, where capacity upgrades are required, and a better interconnection between the Belgian and Dutch networks with the German one, particularly between Emmerich and Oberhausen. In addition, the access routes to the Swiss tunnels on EU (Karlsruhe-Basel and CH-Milano/ Novara) territory need to swiftly progress, as the Gotthard and Monte Ceneri tunnels will create a flat trajectory for rail freight through the ecologically sensitive Alps as of 2019. Capacity upgrades as well as better multimodal connections in the ports are also necessary.

Success stories

  1. The Betuwelijn (Betuwe Line - Priority Project 5)

The Betuwe Line is a 143 km long, two track railroad dedicated to freight linking Rotterdam harbour to the German border. It was put into service in June 2007. Since then, traffic on the Betuwe Line is progressing. A further increase of demand for train paths is expected to occur due to the entry into service of the Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam. The cost of the infrastructure amounted to €4.7 billion, with EU contributions amounting to €179 million since the year 2000.

  1. The Lötschberg Tunnel

Part of the AlpTransit Project, the Lötschberg Base Tunnel is a 35 km long railway tunnel cutting through the Swiss Alps. It is currently the world’s longest land tunnel in use and accommodates both passenger and freight trains. Breakthrough was made in April 2005 and construction ended in 2006 for a full scale operation in December 2007. It is a centrepiece of the corridor: built to ease lorry traffic on Swiss roads, the tunnel allows an increased number of lorries and trailers to be loaded onto trains in Germany, pass through Switzerland on rail and be unloaded in Italy. It is also used for bringing tourists to the Alpine resorts by train as well as for local commuting. About 110 trains per day use the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, including passenger trains and intermodal freight transport plus heavy freight trains.

  1. A success story under construction: the Gotthard Tunnel

Also part of the AlpTransit project, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is a railway tunnel beneath the Swiss Alps. With a route length of 57 km and a total of 151.84 km of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world’s longest rail tunnel. The construction works of the tunnel began in 1996 and the tunnel should be operational in 2017, cutting the 3.5-hour travel time from Zurich to Milan by an hour.

CEF: Pre-identified projects

Genova

Port

Port interconnections

Genova - Milano/Novara - CH border

Rail

studies; works starting before 2020

Basel – Antwerpen/Rotterdam - Amsterdam

IWW

works for better navigability

Karlsruhe - Basel

Rail

works ongoing

Frankfurt - Mannheim

Rail

studies ongoing

Liège

Rail

port and airport rail connection

Rotterdam – Zevenaar

Rail

studies ongoing, upgrading

Zevenaar - Emmerich - Oberhausen

Rail

works ongoing

Zeebrugge – Gent – Antwerp - DE border

Rail

Upgrading

Forum Meetings 2014

  • 4th Forum Meeting of the Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 19th November 2014

Agenda

  • 3rd Forum Meeting of the Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 1st October 2014

Agenda

  • 2nd Forum Meeting of the Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 16th June 2014

Agenda

  • 1st Forum Meeting of the Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor, Brussels, 4st April 2014

Agenda