Corridor description
The Scandinavian -Mediterranean Corridor railway, included in the Core Network Corridor (SCM CNC), is over 9,400 Km long and crosses 7 countries: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Italy.
The SCM CNC is a crucial north-south axis for the European economy.
Crossing the Baltic Sea from Finland to Sweden and passing through Germany, the Alps and Italy, it links the major urban centres and ports of Scandinavia and northern Germany to continue to the industrialised high production centres of southern Germany, Austria and northern Italy and further to the Italian ports and Valletta.
The most critical projects in this corridor are the fixed Fehmarnbelt crossing and Brenner base tunnel, including their access routes.
The longest of the Core Network Corridors starts at the Finnish-Russian border and goes via Helsinki, Stockholm and Malmö to the European mainland. There it continues via the German seaports of Hamburg and Rostock, following the major traffic flows in the west of Germany, via Hannover, and the east, via Berlin and Leipzig. The eastern and western sections come together in Nuremberg and continue to the south to Munich, following the Brenner Corridor to Verona. In Italy, the corridor continues via Bologna, Rome and Naples, with branches to the ports of Genova, Livorno, Bari and Taranto, before going to Palermo.
The SCM CNC includes the following sections:
- Russian border – HaminaKotka – Helsinki – Turku/Naantali – Stockholm – Malmö
- Oslo – Goteburg – Malmö – Trelleborg
- Malmö – København – Kolding/Lübeck – Hamburg – Hannover
- Bremen – Hannover – Nürnberg
- Rostock – Berlin – Leipzig – München
- Nürnberg – München – Innsbruck – Verona – Bologna – Ancona/Firenze
- Livorno/La Spezia - Firenze – Roma – Napoli – Bari – Taranto – Valletta
- Napoli – Gioia Tauro – Palermo/Augusta – Valletta
ERTMS deployment on the corridor
There are 9,462.74 km where ERTMS is expected to be deployed in the SCM corridor by 2030; 7% is already in operation with ETCS, 87% is in operation with GSM-R and ETCS is under construction in 11% of the length. The SCM corridor is the longest of the CNCs, and the low rate of ETCS deployment is cause for concern.
Defining the short term deployment as the length to be deployed by 2023 according to the EDP (1,936.14 km, just 20% of the total length of the corridor), 33% is in operation while 32% is under construction.
No section in the SCM corridor is planned to be deployed in Finland, Norway and Sweden by 2023. In Austria, short-term ETCS deployment has been achieved. Germany and Italy are progressing well with only a few more sections to be deployed by 2023. In Italy, the Firenze – Settebagni section is delayed from 2018 to 2021.