“The Mediterranean Corridor is the main east-west axis in the TEN-T Network south of the Alps. It links the Spanish ports of Algeciras, Cartagena, Valencia, Castellὀn, Tarragona and Barcelona with Madrid and along the Mediterranean coastline through southern France- Marseille and Nice until Italy Genoa and La Spezia. It runs from Marseille towards Lyon across the Alpes and northern Italy via Turin, Milan, Verona, Bologna, Padova, Venice and Trieste. It links also with Ljubljana and a branch via Croatia (Rijeka, Zagreb), to Budapest and to Lviv in Ukraine. The Corridor is approximately 3 000 km long. It covers rail and road, airports, ports, freight multimodal terminals, RRT's and, in Northern Italy, also the Po river inland waterway. Key projects are the gauge change to European standard guage in Spain, the new high-speed line Montpellier-Perpignan, the Lyon-Turin railway base tunnel, the second rail track on the Koper-Divaca line and the overall modernisation of railways infrastructure in the Eastern part of the Corridor.” (European Commission)
“As a result of CEF II Regulation (2021 – 2027)8, the Mediterranean Corridor was extended in Spain, France and Italy and reached the total length of 11410 km. The Corridor is composed of the following branches:
- Algeciras – Bobadilla – Madrid – Zaragoza – Tarragona;
- Madrid – Valencia – Sagunto – Teruel – Zaragoza;
- Sevilla – Bobadilla – Murcia;
- Cartagena – Murcia – Valencia – Tarragona/Palma de Mallorca - Barcelona;
- Tarragona – Barcelona – Perpignan – Narbonne – Toulouse/Marseille – Genova/Lyon – La Spezia/Torino – Novara – Milano – Bologna/Verona – Padova – Venezia – Ravenna/Trieste/Koper - Ljubljana – Budapest;
- Ljubljana/Rijeka – Zagreb – Budapest – UA border.”
(Fifth Work Plan of the European Coordinator Iveta Radičová: 2022: 13-14)“
Following amendments and closures, the actual funding going to this Corridor is €2.9 billion, corresponding to €6.3 billion in eligible costs. It is important to note that the major part of the reductions is re-injected in the 2019 CEF Transport calls.” (CEF 2020: 15)
References
- European Commission: Innovation and Networks Executive Agency, CEF support to Mediterranean corridor, Publications Office, 2020, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2840/956130
- https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t/mediterranean-corridor_en
- https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/1a159cac-63de-41b4-baef-40d00a2405d2_en?filename=5th_workplan_med.pdf
Corridor trend or concept line