Think Railways

On 19 and 20 March 2015, Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc met in Innsbruck with the Transport Ministers of the seven Alpine States – Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to discuss the development of transport solutions across the Alpine region.

The Commissioner and the Ministers confirmed their joint commitment to completing all the key railway projects within the next 15 years and formally signed a declaration to promote sustainable transport in the region and to complete the major Alpine crossing railway tunnel projects in accordance with national plans, in particular the recent joint applications for EU co-funding. The list of projects includes:

- the Gotthard base tunnel – as part of the Rhine – Alpine corridor: by 2016
- the Ceneri base tunnel – as part of the Rhine – Alpine corridor: by 2019
-“Terzo Valico dei Giovi” line – as part of the Rhine – Alpine corridor: by 2020
- the Koralm tunnel – as part of the Baltic Adriatic corridor: by 2023
- the Semmering base tunnel – as part of the Baltic Adriatic corridor: by 2024
- the Brenner base tunnel (Innsbruck – Fortezza – Ponte Gardena) – as part of the Scandinavian Mediterranean corridor: by 2025
- the cross-border base tunnel on the Lyon – Torino connection – as part of the Mediterranean corridor: by 2029
- the cross-border Karavanke tunnel: by 2025

Each of the tunnels requires investments of over eight billion Euro.