Description
“The total length of the Rhine - Alpine corridor (RALP) is 3 460 km long, including the Connecting Europe Facility 2 (CEF 2) extension. It crosses 5 countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The RALP CNC constitutes one of the busiest freight routes in 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 Rhine-Ruhr and the Rhine-Main-Neckar regions and the agglomeration of Milan in northern Italy. It also provides connections to several east-west axes.” (European Commission)“
The main branches of the Rhine-Alpine Corridor are:
- Genova – Milano – Lugano – Basel;- Genova – Novara – Brig – Bern – Basel;
- Basel – Karlsruhe – Mannheim – Mainz – Koblenz – Köln;- Köln – Düsseldorf – Duisburg – Nijmegen/Arnhem – Utrecht – Amsterdam;
- Nijmegen – Rotterdam – Vlissingen;
- Köln – Liège – Brussels – Ghent;
- Liège – Antwerp – Ghent – Zeebrugge”
(Study on the TEN-T Core Network Corridor Rhine-Alpine Final Report 2017: 9)
“The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is one of the EU instruments established to provide financial support for the implementation of the corridors. Currently, for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor there are 79 Grant Agreements in place allocating €705 million of actual CEF Transport Funding related to a total investment of €2.01 billion” (CEF 2020: 21)
The Rhine–Alpine Corridor was discontinued in 2024.
References
- https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-modes/rail/ertms/who-involved-ertms-deployment/corridors/rhine-alpine-corridor_en
- European Commission: Innovation and Networks Executive Agency, CEF support to Rhine - Alpine Corridor, Publications Office, 2020, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2840/095001
- https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/58b18c6d-cde5-43ab-a0c7-56f657d55676_en?filename=ralp_corridor_final_report_2017.pdf