Rhine-Danube Corridor

“The Rhine-Danube Corridor is the main west-east transport axis across Continental Europe and features the longest inland waterway segment of all TEN-T corridors. It includes 9 EU Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia) and 2 neighbouring countries (Serbia and Ukraine). The northern segment, newly included in the corridor in 2024, originates at the German ports of Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, Hamburg and Rostock. It passes through Hannover, Berlin, Dresden and Prague before continuing eastward via Žilina and Košice to Lviv in Ukraine. This segment also includes a connection from Prague to Vienna and Bratislava. The traditional southern segment starts in Strasbourg and branches out at Karlsruhe. One branch runs from Karlsruhe to Mainz and Frankfurt, following the Main River, the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal, and the Danube River before joining the other branch in Austria. The second branch connects southern Germany, including Stuttgart and Munich, and continues eastward. Both branches proceed to Vienna, Budapest, Bratislava, Belgrade and Bucharest, eventually reaching the Black Sea port of Constanța. The corridor encompasses rail, road, ports, airports, road-rail terminals and the inland waterways of the Elbe River, Elbe Lateral Canal, Elbe Midland Canal, Weser and Vltava River in the northern segment as well as the Main River, Main-Danube Canal, the entire Danube downstream of Kelheim and the Váh, Sava and Tisa rivers in the southern segment. The corridor facilitates multimodal transport, strengthens cross-border connectivity, and improves access to key maritime and inland waterway hubs. The key infrastructure projects are the railway sections Dresden – Prague, Stuttgart – Ulm, Munich – Freilassing, Prague – Vienna, Prague – Bratislava, Vienna – Bratislava – Budapest and Budapest – Bucharest as well as efforts to increase the resilience of the Danube and other inland waterways to the impacts of climate change.” (European Commission)“ According to CEF Regulation 1316/2013, the alignment consists of the following five main parts: - Strasbourg – Stuttgart – München – Wels/Linz; - Strasbourg – Mannheim – Frankfurt – Würzburg – Nürnberg – Regensburg – Passau – Wels/Linz ; - München/Nürnberg – Praha – Ostrava/Přerov – Žilina – Košice – UA border - Wels/Linz – Wien – Bratislava – Budapest – Vukovar; - Wien/Bratislava – Budapest – Arad – Brasov/Craiova – București – Constanta – Sulina. (Rhine-Danube Core Network Corridor Study Final Report December 2014: 41) “Following amendments and closures, the actual funding going to this Corridor is €3.4 billion, corresponding to €6.9 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: 18). References: - https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/infrastructure-and-investment/trans-european-transport-network-ten-t/rhine-danube-corridor_en - European Commission: Innovation and Networks Executive Agency, CEF support to Rhine - Danube Corridor, Publications Office, 2020, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2840/930934 - https://transport.ec.europa.eu/document/download/729d6636-7edc-4c8c-bf4f-d72c7f363530_en?filename=rhine-danube_study.pdf