TEN-Ts: Commission finances over €1.7 billion in railway projects

Source: European Commission (EC) i, published on Friday, December 5 2008.

Vice-President Antonio Tajani i responsible for Transport signed today 11 financing decisions under the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-Ts) programme for the period 2007-2013. The decisions concern important railway works in Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Slovenia and Hungary. The signature took place in Verona at a conference discussing the future of TEN-T policy.

"I am particularly proud to announce the adoption by the Commission today of these 11 funding decisions. They will greatly contribute to making the Brenner Tunnel and the Mont Cenis Tunnel, between Torino and Lyon, a reality and to start with the preparation of the railway line between Trieste and Divaca. Investing in key European transport infrastructure today is a demonstration that the European Union can respond to the economic crisis, in the short term by accelerating infrastructure projects, and in the medium term by creating the core rail network that will sustain Europe's competitiveness and meet the challenge of climate change", said Vice-President Tajani.

At today's conference in Verona, transport minister from Italy, Altero Matteoli, and State Secretary ( Dr Igor Jakomin from Slovenia, representatives of the French and Austrian administration, , Paolo Costa, Chairman of the Transport Committee of the European Parliament, and Mauro Moretti, CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato, discussed the future of European TEN-T policy. The event was organised jointly by the Province of Verona, the Brenner Aktionsgesellschaft and European coordinator Karel van Miert.

During the conference, Paolo Costa highlighted the support of the European Parliament for the trans-European networks, while Karel van Miert underlined the importance of a coordinated approach to the development and implementation of these priority projects from one end of the line to the other.

The 11 financing decisions concern the following projects:

  • - 
    Railway line Lyon-Turin: access route to the base tunnel in France (€ 4 700 000)
  • - 
    Railway line Lyon-Turin: studies and works for the cross-border section (€ 671 800 000
  • - 
    Design studies for the section between Ronchi dei Legionari Sud and Trieste (€ 24 000 000)
  • - 
    Design and studies for the cross-border between Trieste and Divaca (€ 50 700 000)
  • - 
    Preparatory studies for the line between Budapest-Keleti/Miskolc-Nyíregyháza (€ 8 000 000)
  • - 
    Studies/works for the south access to the Brenner Tunnel between Fortezza e Verona (€ 58 810 000)
  • - 
    Works on the section between Erfurt and Halle/Gröbers( € 57 000 000)
  • - 
    Works on the section between Kundl/Radfeld and Baumkirchen (€ 58 300 000)
  • - 
    Works on the Brenner Base Tunnel (€ 592 650 000)
  • - 
    Studies for the Brenner Base Tunnel (€ 193 350 000)
  • - 
    Railway node Genoa: studies on the modernisation of Genoa Voltri-Genoa Brignole (€ 5 050 000)

Verona was chosen to host the conference because it is at the crossroads between the Berlin-Palermo (Priority Project No1) and the Lyon-Budapest which also crosses Trieste and Divaca (Priority Project No 6) railway axes. It plays a central role in North–South and East–West traffic. The Commission has decided to finance, over the period 2007-2013, significant shares of the projects that make up these two railway axes.

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