Rail transport Liguria joins alliance for the completion of the NRLA
The alliance calling for the completion of the Gotthard-Alpine transversal NRLA has broadened. The Liguria region has signed a corresponding letter to the Swiss and European authorities. Piedmont had already joined the alliance.
31.03.2025, 17:34
SDA
Ticino, Lombardy, Piedmont - and now also Liguria - want to jointly promote the Genoa-Rotterdam freight corridor. On Monday, the President of the Ligurian Legislative Assembly, Stefano Balleari, met with the President of the Ticino Grand Council, Michele Guerra, to sign a joint letter. The signing took place on the fringes of a meeting of Genoese freight forwarders in Genoa.
The letter emphatically calls for the completion of the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA). 90 percent of goods coming from Italy to Switzerland are transported via the Gotthard axis - with a trade volume of over one billion euros per week.
Freight trains run too slowly in Italy
Nevertheless, the Italian section is still "insufficiently developed", the Italian news agency Ansa quotes Balleari. Freight trains travel here at an average speed of just 64 kilometers per hour, which has a negative impact on efficiency and competitiveness.
Ticino and Lombardy agreed on the letter around three weeks ago. The letter, accompanied by three resolutions, will be sent by Ticino to the federal government and by Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria to the European authorities.
The opening of the Ceneri Tunnel marks the completion of the NRLA. However, work is still underway on some access routes in the north and south of Switzerland. This applies in particular to the 4-meter corridor for freight trains on the Lötschberg-Simplon axis as far as Novara. Italy had committed to upgrading this route by 2028.
Work in the north is likely to take even longer: Germany is upgrading various sections of the Rhine Valley line between Karlsruhe and Basel to four tracks. The work should be completed by 2040.
