Baltic-Adriatic axis

The Baltic-Adriatic axis is a traffic corridor between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic, the course of which roughly corresponds to the ancient "Amber Road". The axis is one of 64 projects outside the 30 priority projects of the EU's Trans-European Networks . The railway line runs from Gdansk to Rimini on one of the most important north-south transversal routes in Europe. The countries connected on the route are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Italy. The Koralmbahn between Graz and Klagenfurt and the Semmering base tunnel are currently being built in Austria for the expansion of the BAA .

history

Due to an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology in 2005, the BAA was further developed from the 2004 TEN projects 23 and 25 Gdansk-Vienna. In a special meeting of the steering committee for the Pan-European Corridor VI, with the involvement of a delegation from Italy, on 1. and. June 2006 in Graz unanimously decided to extend the two priority TEN projects 23 and 25 (road, rail) Danzig - Vienna from Vienna via Graz, Klagenfurt, Villach and Udine to Trieste or Venice and Bologna. On October 12, 2006, the Transport Ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Italy signed the Letter of Intent in Luxembourg for the establishment of the "Baltic-Adriatic Corridor". In 2009, a total of 14 European countries expressed their interest in establishing the Baltic-Adriatic axis between Gdansk and Bologna . On October 19, 2011, the European Commission added the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor to its agenda as one of the future nine core network corridors of the EU.

In 2008, with the construction of the Koralm Railway in Austria, the construction of one of the first new lines required for the project began. In 2011 it was decided to link the Baltic-Adriatic axis with Rail Baltica in Warsaw , which means that Kaunas , Riga , Tallinn and Helsinki will also be accessible from the Baltic-Adriatic axis . In 2012, the construction of the Semmering Base Tunnel began, with which the last point on the route that is impassable for heavy freight trains, the Semmering Railway , is bypassed.

In 2012, the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport confirmed its intention to create a connection from the Baltic-Adriatic axis to Ancona , 325 km south of Venice. On the Baltic-Adriatic axis there are freight train connections between the important Baltic Sea port of Rostock and the logistic hub and deep-water port of Trieste . Rostock and Trieste are considered to be connecting points for the Baltic Sea region and the direction of the maritime Silk Road .