CEF support to Rhine-Alpine Corridor - May 2020
CEF support to Rhine-Alpine Corridor - April 2018
CEF Transport projects by country
Overview
The Rhine-Alpine Corridor constitutes one of the busiest freight routes in Europe. It connects key North Sea ports of Belgium and the Netherlands with the Mediterranean port of Genoa. The regions it encompasses count among the most densely populated and economically strong in Europe. Altogether, more than 70 million people live, work and consume in the catchment area of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor, which is also home to a number of leading manufacturing and trading companies, production plants and distribution centres. The corridor runs through the so-called “Blue banana”, which includes major EU economic centres such as Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium, the Randstad region in the Netherlands, the German Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Neckar regions, the Basel and Zürich regions in Switzerland and the Milano and Genoa regions in Northern Italy. This multimodal corridor incorporates the Rhine River as the key inland waterway in Europe, as well as important tunnelling projects in Switzerland, including the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel, the Gotthard Base tunnel.
Main bottlenecks and missing links
The Rhine-Alpine is a mature corridor and as such, does not have major missing links. Rather, the main challenges for the corridor constitute bottlenecks emanating from increased traffic flows. The main bottlenecks exist in Germany and Italy where capacity upgrades are required. A better connection between the Belgian and Dutch networks with the German network is needed, particularly between Emmerich and Oberhausen. In addition, the access routes to the Swiss tunnels in EU territory (Karlsruhe - Basel and Swiss border - Milan/Novara) 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 2019/20. Capacity upgrades as well as better multimodal connections in the ports are also necessary.
Success stories
The Gotthard Base Tunnel, situated beneath the Swiss Alps, opened on 1 June 2016. With a route length of 57 km, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel and – together with Lötschberg and Ceneri Base tunnels - represents a significant step towards increasing the competitiveness of rail for the transport of goods and passengers on the corridor. With the upcoming completion of the New Rail Link through the Alps programme, the journey time from Zurich to Milan will be cut by an hour by 2020.
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 has increased and is expected to increase yet further thanks to the completion of the Maasvlakte 2 project, which will see a significant increase in freight traffic to and from the Port of Rotterdam.
CEF: Pre-identified projects
European Coordinator for the TEN-T Rhine-Alpine Corridor, Mr. Paweł Wojciechowski
Prof. Wojciechowski was born on 3 January 1960, in Warsaw, Poland.
He was appointed European Coordinator for the TEN-T Rhine-Alpine Corridor on 27 May 2015.
Previous assignments
2014-2020: Chief Economist of the Polish Social Insurance Institution
2010-2014: Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Poland to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
2009-2010: Undersecretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Poland
2007-2009: CEO, Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency
2006-2006: Minister of Finance, Poland
1999-2005: CEO, PTE Allianz Polska S.A.
1996-1999: CEO, PBK ATUT Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A.
1995-1996: CEO, Polish Fund Management Group and Director at the Polish Development Bank S.A.
1992-1994: Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Privatization, Poland
1989-1991: Analyst, Center for Regional Economic Issues, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.
Current tasks
Chief Economist at Employers of Poland
Director at Whiteshield Partners, London, U.K.
Senior Fellow at Casimir Pulaski Foundation, Warsaw, Poland
Senior Fellow at Center of International Relations, Warsaw, Poland
Professor at Wszechnica Polska University in Warsaw, Poland
Mr Pawel Wojciechowski, European Coordinator
To contact Mr Wojciechowski, please use the advisor email below
Ms Beata Tuszynska, Adviser of the European Coordinator
beata [dot] tuszynska
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (beata[dot]tuszynska[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Postal address
Rhine-Alpine CNC / TEN-T
Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport
Rue de Mot 28
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Maps
Workplans
1st Rhine-Alpine Corridor work plan
2nd Rhine-Alpine Corridor work plan
3rd Rhine-Alpine Corridor work plan
4th Rhine-Alpine Corridor work plan
5th Rhine-Alpine Corridor work plan
Studies
Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor Study (2014)
Rhine-Alpine Core Network Corridor Study (2017) Final report