The City of Vienna is going to play a major role in the development of European traffic infrastructure. Particularly in view of the opening of the EU towards the East, the Austrian federal capital has good chances to be able to influence the creation of main thoroughfares on water and rail. Thus, the new coordination unit for the European traffic corridors IV, VII and X has started its operative activities in Vienna since the beginning of this year. The three corridors are the Rail Corridor IV and X, as well as the Natural Corridor VII – the Danube, traversing Europe with a length of 2,415 kilometres.
Historic event
Vienna has already built up a reputation in the past by housing the agency for the development of traffic infrastructure in Central and Southeast Europe. In addition, Vienna was offered the chair of the management for the Pan-European Corridor VII (Danube).
For Vienna’s Vice-Mayor Bernhard Görg the location of the new coordination unit is a "historic event", because it confirms once again the city’s competence in European traffic planning. In the framework of the celebration the Vice-Mayor particularly thanked Otto Schwetz, the head of the TINA Secretariat and the present manager of the Danube Corridor for their efforts to bring the new coordination unit to the Austrian capital.
Thanks to his contacts the responsible persons of Corridor IV (Dresden/Nurenberg-Prague-Brno/Vienna-Bratislava-Budapest-Istanbul/Thessaloniki) and Corridor X (Salzburg/Graz-Zagreb-Belgrade-Istanbul/Thessaloniki) suggested to the City of Vienna to establish the new coordination unit at the seat of the TINA Secretariat, where the three main thoroughfares would be coordinated in the next five years. While the City of Vienna is responsible for the Danube-Corridor, the Austrian Rail will take care of the project management of Corridor X and the German Rail of Corridor IV.
Networking of the traffic routes
The networking of railways and waterways is a special concern of the City of Vienna. With this coordination unit, these two traffic means are now officially getting married and, as Otto Schwetz puts it, "this marriage shall hopefully have offsprings." The Vienna region has now all the chances – but also bears the risks – that the Eastern enlargement will entail in the field of traffic and the portents are being increasingly felt. Görg: "We do hope that the development in Yugoslavia will continue to be peaceful and democratic and that the status the Danube waterway received by the completion of the Rhine-Main-Danube connection will soon be restored." After the clearing of the Danube in Yugoslavia it will again be possible to ship cargo from the North Sea to the Black Sea.
High expectations
Schwetz, who is responsible for international relations at the Municipality of Vienna, emphasises the role of the Danube ports as important trimodal interfaces between rail, road, and water. The optimal networking of these three transport means can be improved in the future if the ports are included in the planning of corridors. The hopes of the three corridor managers are already high. For example, the railways involved in Corridor X between Salzburg, or rather Graz and Thessaloniki intend to offer "quality package solutions". And Walter Flöck, the responsible person for Corridor X with the Austrian Rail, announced that boundaries for rail traffic will cease to exist in the future.
Günter Kaluz, the project initiator of AMC Management Consulting, is also enthusiastic about the new coordination unit. In his opinion, the main tasks of the unit will be to promote the intermodal cargo shipping on the three mentioned corridors to Southeast Europe and to realise common concerns more quickly and more efficiently.
For the time being the organisational structures of the coordination unit are being established and in a second phase the concrete project work shall begin. (Source: aqua press Int. 1/2001)
Josef Müller
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