Berlin–Palermo railway axis

The railway axis Berlin- Palermo, the TEN Project No. 1, which stands for the establishment of a 2200 km long high-speed railway line between Berlin and Palermo.

Sections and expansion

The following diagram shows the curve of the high-speed railway route is shown:

Germany

In Germany, this railway axis begins at Berlin's main train station and performs on the rail line was completed in 2006 Berlin-Halle/Leipzig. From there, the new line is under construction connects to Erfurt. The completion of this route is planned for the year 2015. The following year, the extension of this line is to be completed in the south to Nuremberg. Until the completion of these routes the trains over the curvy Hall train are east of Erfurt between Nuremberg and Leipzig Jena. From Nuremberg to Munich this route over the high -speed line, which opened in 2006 Ingolstadt runs. The section from Munich Central Station to Grafing has already expanded to four tracks. Thus, the long-distance transport is unbundled from the capacity-intensive suburban railway traffic. About Rosenheim, the route to the Austrian border at Kufstein.

Austria

The core of the Austrian section is the new Unterinntalbahn ranging between Wörgl Hbf and tree Churches in particular has the highest Zugaufkommen the entire TEN. This capacity bottleneck results from the superposition of the Austrian National East - West traffic with the international north - south traffic. Most of the new Unterinntalbahn is already completed and in operation since December 2012 ( Kundl Tree churches). The shorter section Kufstein (or Brann castle in Bavaria ) Kundl is planned. The Austrian section can be driven up to 250 km / hr. In tree churches, the new high-speed line opens with a link structure in the Innsbruck by-pass and thus into the Inntaltunnel, which is already in operation, but has yet to be retrofitted for passenger, or in the stock route to Innsbruck Hbf The Inntaltunnel later goes seamlessly into the Brenner base tunnel over (his southern portal leads to the Brenner railway ) and, together with this then the longest railway tunnel in the world ( 62.8 km ).

Italy

In recent decades, following routes have been redeveloped or significant:

• Rail line Verona -Bologna since 2009 and two tracks with up to 200 km / h passable.
• High-speed line Milan -Bologna since December 13, 2008. ( Streckenast the TEN- axis No. 1 )
• High-speed line Bologna -Firenze (78 km) since December 13, 2009.
• Direttissima Firenze- Roma ( 254 km) since 1991 in operation.
• High-speed line Rome-Naples partially since 2005, completely in since December 13, 2009 Operating.
• High-speed line Napoli -Salerno since 2008.

The construction of the Strait of Messina traversing combined road-rail bridge with a length of 3.3 km was planned in the wake of budget cuts announced Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti in October 2012 the final out of the project. On the mainland, the bridge would by its proponents to connect to the new section of the Salerno- Reggio Calabria and the existing 400 km long railway line Naples -Salerno -Reggio Calabria produced, the expansion will increase speed and capacity of the route. On the island, 230 km long railway line between Messina and Palermo will be expanded in substantial parts or relayed.

From 888 km stretch between Turin and Naples run 143 km in tunnels. The routes are linked to 15 places with the existing network. The estimated total cost was (as of 2006) 30 billion euros.

EU coordinator

On 20 July 2005 the European Union has designated to five major trans-European transport projects for rail transport EU coordinators to accelerate the realization of these projects. For the priority axis No 1 of the Belgian Karel van Miert has been appointed as EU coordinator, but died in June 2009. As the successor to the Irishman Pat Cox was appointed for a further period of four years.