Baltic-Adriatic Corridor

The Baltic-Adriatic Corridor or Baltic-Adriatic Axis (German: Baltisch-Adriatische Achse) is a European initiative to create a high capacity north-south railway corridor connecting Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea with Bologna and the Adriatic. The line traverses Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Italy, connecting heavily industrialised areas such as Warsaw and the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Vienna and south-east Austria, and Northern Italy. It developed from the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) project No. 23 of a Gdańsk-Vienna railway axis set up in 2003. Carrying 24 million tons of freight per year, the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor is considered among the most important trans-Alpine lines in Europe.

Following an initiative by the Austrian transportation ministry in 2006, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Italy signed a Letter of Intent to expand the TEN-T railway project 23, in order to form the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor. The goals of the initiative were to eliminate bottlenecks, create intermodal linking of traffic flows and connect with other European main corridors, eliminate structural and geographical disadvantages for under-served areas (such as the southern Austrian states of Styria and Carinthia), increase the competitiveness of rail with roadway (truck) transport and to realize the market development potentials of passenger traffic along the corridor.

14 European countries signed a declaration calling for implementation of the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor between Gdańsk and Bologna in 2009. Work began in late 2008 on the first phase of the Austrian Koralm Railway between Graz and Klagenfurt, including the 33 km (21 mi) long Koralm Tunnel, the largest infrastructure element of the line. It is expected to be operational by 2022. In 2012 construction of the Semmering Base Tunnel started, expected to open in 2024, bypassing the gradients of the Semmering Pass.

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