Orient/East Med: A pan-European road and railway axis that passes from Greece

The plan for a Pan-European corridor, with the name “Orient/East-Med”, connecting a large part of Central Europe and the Mediterranean, Black, Baltic and Northern Seas, was unvailed. The project focuses on providing sufficient interconnections of the ports in the aforementioned  regions, with the development of multimodal logistics chains.

The corridor also includes Elbe river, as a continental waterway. The countries that will be serviced through this corridor are: Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, with its branch ending in Cyprus.

Targeted interventions are planned for existing gaps, interrupting rail interconnections of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. European Commission has expressed its support for the development of Budapest-Athens railway line, via Timisoara, Sofia and Thessaloniki. Nevertheless, upgrade projects for this corridor are needed, in order for it to become fully functional.

What is interesting for Greece is the railway section between Athens and Patras, which still requires at least 4 contracts to be completed. On the map, however, what seems to be even more interesting, is a new railway line that starts from Kalambaka and crossing Pindos mountain range, reaches Ioannina ending at the port of Igoumenitsa. It is the first time that becomes clear, on a European leve, the nature of the plan being promoted.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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