English - Alps Know-How - Cipra

Chapter A – The Alpine Transport System
Map A1-4: Density of rail network in relation to population (on NUTS-3 level).
A1.3.2 Extension and improvement plans
All Alpine countries aim to improve rail passenger and freight
transport and to increase the share of rail transport.
The existing conventional lines are mainly covered by plans
for optimising them in public-private partnerships between
states and railway operators. The following major extension
and improvement schemes exist for the Alpine railway
system (Alpenkonvention 2006):
Lyon-Turin (LTF)
The Franco-Italian cross-border base tunnel project foresees
a base tunnel of 52 km length establishing a competitive rail
transport link on this important western Alpine corridor. Construction
costs for the whole project of 73 km, including the
cross border tunnel, are calculated at 7 billion EUR and the
tunnel is scheduled to be opened in 2020. The Lyon–Turin
Project constitutes one of the major Alpine transport infrastructure
projects for the next decade both for passenger and
goods transport.
Plan Maurienne Corridor (Aiton – Orbassano rail motorway)
Since November 2003, as an experiment, France and Italy
have operated an Alpine rail motorway between Aiton and
Orbassano, which runs under strict constraints since the historic
Mont Cenis tunnel is not built to the European B1 standard
facilitating the transport of most HDV on piggyback. Use
of this experimental Alpine rail motorway is therefore limited
to tanker traffic only until the tunnel modernising work is completed
(2008), but it made dramatic progress in 2004 and
2005, in particular when the Fréjus tunnel road was closed
on 4 June 2005. For the first time, a rail alternative has been
possible for this corridor, particularly for hazardous materials
(doubling of traffic between June and July, leading to 530
HDV/week).
Brenner 2005
The following essential results were achieved during the first
18 months of project work:
For the core section of the Brenner corridor between
München and Verona, the three rail network operators German
Railway Net (DB Netz), Austrian Railway Net (ÖBB
Netz) and Italian Federal Railway (RFI) have developed socalled
catalogue train paths.
In 2004, the Milano-Segrate terminal which is directly connected
with München-Riem by a train link was established as
a new gateway terminal for the Brenner corridor.
Finally, the BRAVO partners Kombiverkehr, Ferriere Cattaneo
and Combined Transport Management and Transportation
S.p.A. (CEMAT) have developed a new high-capacity
pocket wagon. The Federal Railway Office has approved this
wagon so that in the first half of 2006 the first series of pocket
wagons can be put into service.
The Brenner action plan 2005 and BRAVO have contributed
to the increase in the traffic volume of unaccompanied combined
services between Germany and Italy.
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