Competitiveness needs for the Italian regions along the North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean Corridor

Corridor Conference in Milan, 25 September 2024

As announced in our last newsletter, we are happy to share further insights from our Rhine-Alpine Corridor Conference held on 25 September 2024! Today, with an insight from Giuseppe Russo, managing director of Centro Einaudi.
Russo highlighted the economic outlook and competitiveness needs for the Italian regions along the North Sea-Rhine-Mediterranean Corridor, stressing the importance of infrastructure investments to enhance growth and productivity. Northwestern Italy, which generates 33% of the national GDP, is the country’s most developed area but must make significant strides to close the productivity gap with the Eurozone and the USA.
To achieve this, the region needs an additional 5 billion euros in infrastructure investments each year, focusing on transport/logistics as well as green, energy, and digital transformation. Infrastructure is essential for supporting the industrial and agricultural sectors, which are vital to the region’s economy. Russo emphasized that without proper infrastructure, the region will struggle to meet its competitiveness and growth goals.

Advancing Multimodal Transport: Key Takeaways from the MultiRELOAD Consortium Meeting

Symbolic picture by Erwin van der Linden

The MultiRELOAD Consortium Meeting in Basel, held in September 2024, provided an in-depth review of the project’s progress, current challenges, and next steps. The MultiRELOAD project aims to enhance the collaboration between European freight nodes to develop sustainable and efficient multimodal transport solutions, reducing reliance on road transport by shifting to rail and inland waterways.

The meeting highlighted the continuous work being done to develop port solutions for efficient and sustainable multimodal transport. Significant updates were presented across multiple work packages, focusing on key deliverables such as the development of predictive maintenance models for port equipment, innovative business models for technological uptake, and the creation of digital dashboards to track the project’s performance indicators.

Collaboration
Throughout the two-day meeting, various workshops encouraged collaborative discussions. For example, the group explored the feasibility of multimodal transport solutions through a detailed examination of the CargoBeamer demonstrator, which aims to optimize logistics by shifting cargo transport from road to rail. Participants discussed potential business cases and the challenges of market adoption. Similarly, a second round of workshops delved into transferability analysis, focusing on how innovations from the MultiRELOAD project could be replicated in other European ports and transport hubs.

Several challenges were addressed during the meeting, including delays in some technological implementations and issues related to data collection. However, the project has achieved important milestones, with several deliverables submitted and advancements made in predictive maintenance systems, operational efficiency tools, and the standardization of multimodal logistics processes.

Demonstrators
The next steps for the project involve finalizing the demonstrator models, particularly focusing on digital tools that enhance port operations and corridor management. The consortium is also preparing for additional workshops, aiming to validate business models and ensure market readiness. These workshops will be key in refining the transferability of solutions and gathering input from industry experts. The meeting concluded with a clear outline of future actions, including the continued development of monitoring dashboards and preparations for the project’s final phase in 2025. The EGTC team will organize two advisory board meetings with the aim of collecting reflections from regulatory bodies on the outcomes of the project.

For studies and reports, please visit www.multireload.eu