First meeting of the Baltic Sea-Adriatic Sea European Transport Corridor Forum

The first meeting of the Baltic Sea-Adriatic Sea European Transport Corridor (BSAS ETC) Forum was chaired by the European Coordinator, Ms Anne Elisabet Jensen, and involved representatives of the Corridor Member States and Regions, as well as Railway, Port, Airport and Rail-Road Terminal Infrastructure Managers, the Rail Freight Corridor Baltic-Adriatic, European Institutions (DG MOVE, CINEA), and the Corridor Study's Contractor (Tplan, NDCon, Panteia, University of Maribor, iC, Hacon).

Preliminary findings of the BSAS ETC study

One of the main discussed items were the results of the ongoing 2024-2026 BSAS ETC study. The study is based on a common approach and methodology to be applied to the nine ETCs towards the elaboration of the work plans by the European Coordinators, to be finalised during 2026. The preliminary findings of the study concerning the status of the corridor infrastructure and its performance in 2023 are summarised below with reference to BSAS ETC indicative specific objectives, identified on the basis of the objectives and general priorities of the TEN-T network set in articles 4 and 12 of Regulation (EU) 1679/2024, as well as the general priorities for the European Transport Corridors defined in article 13 of Regulation (EU) 1679/2024.

Bridging missing links, developing a high-performance freight and passenger network (including at high-speed), to increase the competitiveness and share of rail transport. Missing lnks involve about 300 km of core lines to be in operation by 2030, such as the Koralm railway line and tunnel and the Semmering Tunnel (Alpine crossings) in Austria, the new lines interconnecting to the ports of Koper in Slovenia and Rijeka in Croatia and the new high-speed line between Brno and Břeclav in Czechia; and over 450 km of extended core network lines to be completed by 2040 in Poland, Czechia, Austria, Slovenia and Italy. Further to rail missing links, the BSAS ETC also involves “missing nodes”, such as the Central Communication Hub airport and rail-road terminal close to Warszawa and the Zajączkowo Tczewskie rail-road terminal in Poland, as well as the Zagreb rail-road terminal in Croatia. The development of these missing links and nodes is critical to complete the BSAS ETC according to the alignment defined in Regulation (EU) 1679/2024, solving current and potential capacity issues along the corridor and developing high-speed lines connecting main urban nodes and existing and future large airports along the corridor.

Developing a high-performance freight and passenger network, modernising the infrastructure, and removing bottlenecks, to increase the competitiveness and share of rail transport; and contributing to mitigating exposure of urban areas to the negative effects of transiting rail transport. 7% of the BSAS ETC rail network is not electrified (notably in Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Croatia); 15% of the rail freight network has an axle load standard below the 22.5 t requirement (specifically in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia); and 11% of the rail freight corridor also present limitations in terms of intermodal loading gauge profile (particularly in Austria, Italy and Croatia, whereas the Polish rail network is not codified for this parameter). Furthermore, speed limitations may exist on a significant portion of the freight corridor lines (segments with a maximum operating speed below 80 km/h exist along 1,800 km of corridor sections, covering over 15% of the country corridor network in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia), as well as along the passenger freight corridor (segments with a maximum operating speed below 120 km/h exist along 1,800 km of corridor sections, covering over 15% of the country corridor network in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia). Only 2% of the BSAS ETC rail passenger TENtec sections allow for a maximum operating speed of at least 200 km/h, whereas only on 21% of the sections is it possible to operate with a speed of at least 160 km/h. All the other sections involve segments of lower speed. Infrastructure gaps also affect cross-border sections, many of them presenting more than one issue, particularly the ones involving Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Infrastructure limitations also affect the corridor capacity along many corridor sections and at many railway nodes, whereas congestion due to traffic is not a widespread issue along the BSAS ETC. Modernisation of railway lines, particularly in cohesion Member States but also upgrading of some railway lines in Austria and Northern Italy, is critical to solving infrastructure gaps and improving the rail network's capacity.

Improving the performance of rail freight transport, optimising the use of the infrastructure and ensuring efficient border crossing for freight transport to increase users’ benefits, competitiveness and share of rail transport. The indicators produced so far by the Rail Freight Corridor  Baltic-Adriatic concerning maximum dwelling time at borders, maximum delay of cross-border freight trains and operation of 740-meter-long trains seem to confirm the need to improve the performance of the BSAS ETC with respect to all three items. Whilst the BSAS ETC rail freight governance is supposed to assist the European Coordinator in this task, the methodology and data sources to support the elaboration of the KPIs are currently under discussion. Considering that the information to calculate these KPIs is not publicly available, it would be important to supplement the provision of these KPIs with a detailed and consistent analysis of the operational and administrative barriers affecting the operation of international freight trains along the BSAS ETC. This would also allow a better understanding and identification of the operational bottlenecks and the magnitude of their impact on the corridor performance.

Completing the BSAS ETC road network as a safe and secure one, and contributing to mitigating exposure of urban areas to the negative effects of transiting road transport. The corridor road network is not at standard with reference to the configuration of the road infrastructure, i.e. separate carriageways (4%, issues present in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Austria and Croatia) and presence of at grade intersections with other roads and transport modes (6.4%, gaps existing in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Austria). Issues also affect two corridor cross-border sections, i.e. Bielsko-Biała (PL) – Žilina (SK) and Brno (CZ) – Wien (AT). The latter cross-border section also seems to be affected by current capacity constraints. Solving these gaps is critical to complete the corridor at standard, specified that most of the gaps affect the core network corridor sections and need to be completed by 2030. The analysis of the performance of the BSAS ETC in terms of traffic flows demonstrates that further to the A5 motorway segments along the itinerary of the above-mentioned Brno (CZ) – Wien (AT) cross-border section, capacity bottlenecks may exist on the S6 express road in the area of Tricity, in Poland, on the D1 motorway in Bratislava and A2, A23-24 motorways in the Wien area, as well as along the M1 motorway in Hungary, between Győr and Tatabánya, and on the A4 motorway in Italy, between the A4/A57 junction and Sistiana-Visogliano. Capacity bottlenecks may also be present and intensify in the future in major urban nodes, which may require the development of bypasses.

Improving road transport sustainability to increase users’ benefits by improving road safety/security, as well as the quality of services and social conditions for transport workers, and by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. The information available about the deployment of telematic applications along the BSAS ETC road transport network in line with ITS Directive (EU) 2661/2023 and Regulation (EU) 886/2013 is partial and should be confirmed. Regarding the additional standards, such as availability of rest areas every 60 km, safe and secure parking areas every 150 km and weigh-in-motion stations every 300 km, it is noticed that the BSAS ETC does not seem to present issues with reference to the first requirement, whereas the information available on the two additional requirements is also partial. All these parameters are relevant to improving the sustainability of road transport towards a reduction of the external costs of this transport mode by reducing accidents and emissions, as well as improving the quality of driving and travelling along the roads and social conditions/security of road drivers. Accordingly, monitoring these parameters and achieving these requirements are paramount.

Greening logistics and urban nodes, promoting the intermodal integration of the entire logistic chain, interconnecting efficiently in the transport and urban nodes and deploying the necessary infrastructure, which ensures a seamless circulation of zero and low-emission vehicles. Significant gaps apparently exist in terms of capability of handling intermodal loading units and 740-meter-long trains at multimodal freight terminals located in logistics transport nodes. Furthermore, gaps exist in terms of availability of alternative clean fuels at logistics nodes and for heavy vehicles in urban nodes. Pre-conditioned air supply is also unavailable at core airports with more than 4 million passengers per year, whereas electricity supply to aircraft is only available at 4 out of 16 airports. Concerning urban nodes, Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans or equivalent strategies are generally available in the corridor urban nodes, specified that they might differ in terms of territorial coverage (urban, metropolitan and regional administrative areas or functional urban areas…). An analysis of the content of these documents regarding the provisions included in Annex V of Regulation (EU) 1679/2024 was also not performed as part of the nine ETC studies. Concerning the other requirements assessed as part of the BSAS ETC study and not mentioned in this paragraph, nodes are already compliant, or gaps appear marginal.

Aligning national planning documents and TEN-T policy to fulfil the requirements set in the Regulation (EU) 1679/2024. The review of the national plans and documents seems to show an overall coherence between the national plans and the TEN-T policy. In terms of topics covered by the national plans and strategies, military mobility and social aspects of transport, including gender, age and reduced mobility inequalities, passengers rights and transport poverty appear to be evident, specified that the absence of military mobility from the national plans could be related to the responsibility on this subject matter by the Ministry of Defence and the possible confidentiality of the defence strategies. Strategies concerning the availability of alternative clean fuels are also usually not included or well addressed in national transport and mobility policies and a possible reason for this, might be the consideration of these themes in other sector policies, such as energy. Concerning the requirements for multimodal freight terminals, it is worth noticing that except for Slovakia, no other Member State has already elaborated the market and prospective analysis foreseen to be submitted to the European Commission by 19 July 2027. The availability of such studies would be critical to assess the need of multimodal freight terminal infrastructure, including in urban nodes, and possibly define rail last mile connections to those terminals involving rail transport, which might be relevant to assess other TEN-T requirements and performance of the BSAS ETC freight corridor. Last but not least, national SUMP programmes to facilitate and follow up the implementation, monitoring and updating of SUMPs exist in Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Italy, but not in Poland, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.

Promoting resilience awareness to keep the existing infrastructure operational, and improving or maintaining its quality in terms of safety, security, efficiency of the transport system and transport operations, climate and disaster resilience, environmental performance, and the continuity of traffic flows. Risk resilience is included among the general objectives for developing the TEN-T network outlined in article 4 of Regulation (EU) 1679/2024. Preparing and implementing resilient infrastructure projects, supporting mobility even in the event of natural or man-made disasters, and ensuring accessibility to emergency and rescue services, is a critical user benefit associated with the development and availability of the TEN-T network. As also stated in a recent study by the European Commission Support study on the climate adaptation and cross-border investment needs to realise the TEN-T network, there appears to be a need to raise awareness for climate resilient infrastructure in the European corridor countries and the designation of investments as climate resilience measures. One proposed method in this study is to facilitate the exchange of best practices for increasing the climate resilience of infrastructure. In this respect, it is worth noticing that a publicly available inventory of practices at the national and international levels does not seem to be available. Accordingly, at the first Corridor Forum meeting of the BSAS ETC, the Contractor already asked the infrastructure managers of the linear (e.g. road, rail) and nodal infrastructure (e.g. ports, rail/road terminals, airports) to submit relevant examples.

Coordinator dialogues on Interoperability, Interconnectivity and Innovation

At the start of her new mandate as European Coordinator of the BSAS ETC, Ms Anne Elisabet Jensen decided to continue organising Coordinator Dialogues along the Corridor to discuss with local stakeholders the challenges and opportunities associated with the implementation of the TEN-T policy towards the completion of the BSAS ETC at standard by the relevant time horizons. The dialogues are hosted by the corridor stakeholders at specific locations and take the form of a meeting involving all relevant stakeholders and a visit to the corridor infrastructure and projects. Three dialogues were organised from the start of the new mandate in September 2024 up to the date of the Corridor Forum. The first one was held in early October 2024 in Kraków, hosted by the RFC BA Executive and Management Boards and involved the Railway and Terminal Advisory Groups (RAGs and TAGs) of the RFC BA and RFC Amber. This meeting, which represents a continuation of the Working Group of the Corridor Ports and Rail-Road Terminals, extended to the railway undertakings, was an occasion to discuss the future rail freight corridor governance following the adoption of Regulation (EU) 1679/2024, update the stakeholders on the new operational requirements for rail freight transport foreseen in Regulation (EU) 1679/2024, and their possible measurement by the RFC BA; the future work on the analysis of the operational and administrative barriers affecting international rail freight transport along the BSAS ETC. Another Coordinator Dialogue was organised in Slovenia in the second half of October, involving all the local stakeholders. Finally, the Coordinator participated in the 11th Corridor Forum of the Polish Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, organised by the Association of Polish Regions in Koper, Slovenia, also in October. Mr Alessandro Turconi, Executive Manager of the RFC BA, Mr Franc Žepič, Secretary at the Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure, and Mr Ludwik Szakiel, Plenipotentiary of the Association of the Polish Regions of the Baltic Adriatic Corridor, provided a summary of the outcome of these events. Dedicated articles for each of these events are included in this newsletter.

2023 and 2024 CEF Transport Calls

Michal Žiliak, technical adviser for the BSAS ETC at CINEA, presented the outcome of the latest Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) 2023 transport calls. Under the general envelope, 94 GAs have been signed for a total value of CEF funding exceeding 3.5 billion euros. Most of the funds were allocated to projects to develop the core network, i.e. over 2.7 billion euros. Under the cohesion envelope, 38 GAs have already been signed, and one GA is under finalisation. The total CEF funding allocated to the cohesion envelope is more than 3.4 billion euros. Similarly to the general envelope, most funds have been allocated to projects to develop the core network, i.e. over 3 billion euros. An overview of the funded projects of relevance for the BSAS ETC was given, which is preliminary as CINEA is also reviewing their tools to reflect the changes in the alignments of the corridors. 14 GAs have been signed, totalling almost 0.5 billion euros of CEF funds; six projects under the general envelope and eight projects under the cohesion envelope. Regarding the transport modes, most projects address railway infrastructure developments, aligning with the EU policy's objective of promoting environmentally friendly modes. Four projects concern road infrastructure; two relate to port developments, and the other to multimodal transport infrastructure. Examples of the co-financed projects include: Development of reception of waste facilities at the Świnoujście port, in Poland; Upgrade of Česká Třebová railway junction, in Czechia; Upgrading a safe and secure parking area in Tata, in Hungary; Enhancing the Graz (AT)-Maribor (SI) cross-border railway line between Leibnitz and the Slovenian border, in Austria; Upgrade of the railway line Ljubljana – Divača, in Slovenia; Upgrade of Rijeka port infrastructure with On-shore Power Supply, in Croatia; Safe and secure truck parking area in Latisana, in Italy; ETRMS deployment addressing rolling stock upgrade, in Slovakia.

Furthermore, Mr. Žiliak reported on the open 2024 CEF transport calls, expected to be closed in January 2025. A summary of the main features of these calls was provided to the Forum participants according to the call documents available on the CINEA 2024 transport calls dedicated webpage.