On the Mediterranean Corridor's rails

European Rail Freight Corridors’ job is very demanding.

To better achieve the goals established by European Directives and Regulations, not limiting to theoretical matters and simple data collecting, we do need to stay in touch with the operative structures of our?Infrastructures Managers, Railway Undertakings, Terminal Authorities, etc., that daily operate on the field.

In this manner, we'll be able to realize what the most important problems are and try to put forward and develop solutions.

This is the reason why, at MED RFC, we planned several visits to the most relevant knots located on the Mediterranean Corridor, and meetings with our main stakeholders.

We started this week focusing on the western side of the corridor, visiting the ADIF exchange platform in Port Bou (Spain), the terminal container in Perpignan S.Charles, and the operative structure managing the long high-speed railway tunnel between Figueras and Perpignan.?Eventually, we paid a visit to the huge Port of Barcelona.

We listened to the railway undertakings operating along the western section of the

Mediterranean Corridor, the infrastructure managers from Adif, LFP, Sncf Resau, the Port Authority of Barcelona, etc.

We recorded their opinions, their alarms, the origins of their satisfaction, and their requests aimed at further improving operations.

We engaged ourselves to put forward solutions to solve ongoing impasses, as best as possible.

We want to thank Mr. Manuel Besteiro Galindo, Manager at ADIF (Spain) and President of our MED RFC EEIG, Mr. Petros Papagiannakis, Director at LFP, Mr. Jordi Torrent, Strategy Director at the Port of Barcelona, Mr. Jorge Laguna of the Mediterranean Government Commissioner (Barcelona) for the time they spent with us and the useful information made available.

Finally, thanks a lot to our colleagues of SNCF Fret: Mohamed Boukada, Sebastian Cheutin, and Angelo BERIO for guiding us through the visits.

Over the next weeks, we'll continue going through our corridor eastwards, focusing on Modane (Fr), Villa Opicina??(I), and Sezana (SL), and we'll keep on listening to stakeholders, and trying to find together reasonable solutions.????????