Rhine-Alpine News

08.08.2022

3 Key Issues for the Rhine‐Alpine Corridor in the TEN-T revision

The Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor (EGTC) welcomes the legislative proposal of the European Commission from 14 December 2021 for a revised Regulation on Union guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network. The EGTC supports the high ambitions of the EU on sustainability and the Commission proposal to boost the TEN-T by including new and more ambitious standards in view of reaching a highly competitive and interoperable transport network, which embeds urban nodes and multimodal terminals.

The Position Paper of the EGTC on the proposed TEN-T Regulation revision focuses on 3 Key Issues for the Rhine‐Alpine Corridor in the TEN-T revision: Governance, Communication and Operational.

Governance:

Merging of the Rhine-Alpine with the North Sea – Mediterranean to the new “North Sea-Alpine Corridor”
We do acknowledge the expected positive effects to foster interoperability and resilience between the two corridors. Further merging two of the strongest corridors in one big network structure would require well-defined functional links and governance mechanisms, thus, strengthening cooperation and coordination among RFC organisations, national governments & the EGTC and its regions. We would consider this as prerequisite and an integral part of a TEN-T policy, if the merger will be pursued.

Communication:

Naming/Labelling of the new “North Sea-Alpine Corridor”
The existing name “Rhine-Alpine Corridor” is a strongly expressive title combining the Rhine as the main artery with a strong historic dimension for transport in Europe with the geographic challenges of the Alps as natural barriers for seamless transport. It visualises the dominating effects of natural landscapes on spatial development patterns.

  • The outstanding role of the Rhine axis for sustainable multi-modal transport and its linkage function should be recognized and reflected in the title of the corridor, e.g. “North Sea-Rhine-Alpine (NSRA)”.

Operational:

Fostering resilience
Interoperability and resilience are key challenges for efficient and reliable transport networks of the future. The main bottlenecks are well known. Strengthening technical, infrastructural and operational links between the main corridors and significant bypass options is inevitable. This asks for flexible solutions most effectively to be achieved thanks to a bottom-up approach to be strengthen and sustained in such a mega-network.

  • A resilient network requires flexible solutions at regional scale thus, strengthening the nodal areas and their functional links among the corridors. Effective cooperation with and among the regions is indispensable for the coordination.

The Position Paper is available for download here:

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