Located in the heart of Europe, at the intersection between shipping routes and the Baltic-Adriatic and Mediterranean TEN-T core network corridors, the Port of Trieste is an international hub for overland and sea trade with the dynamic market of Central and Eastern Europe.
The intensification of trade and maritime traffic between the Far East and Europe and the eastward enlargement of the European Union have revived the importance of the Upper Adriatic, opening up new growth and development opportunities for Trieste. In this context, Trieste plays a decisive role in two separate supply chains: long-distance intercontinental maritime transportation and short/medium-distance intra-Mediterranean trade. The convergence of the TEN-T strategic axes of the “East Mediterranean Motorways of the Sea” with the Baltic-Adriatic and Mediterranean Corridors is resulting in the growth of intermodal services and the development of innovative solutions in the field of logistics and transportation.
Trieste is the terminus of regular direct ocean transportation services provided by the world’s main shipping lines to China, the Far East, Singapore and Malaysia, with stops in several other ports in the Mediterranean Basin (Albania, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, etc.).
More than 400 trains a month link Trieste to the manufacturing and industrial areas of North-East Italy and Central Europe, with different destinations, such as Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland and Luxembourg, to serve a developing and highly organised economic hinterland. To reach the target markets in Central and Eastern Europe, highly specialised intermodal services have been developed, using direct trains organised by the company Alpe Adria S.p.A., a multi-client operator, which offers all-inclusive packages with guaranteed delivery and frequency.
The Port of Trieste has an internal rail network (70 km of track) that connects with the national and international network and allows all the docks to be served by rail with the possibility of shunting and/or assembling freight trains directly in the various terminals; a direct junction and a flyover (within the Port) connect to the outside road system, which leads directly to the motorway network, ensuring ease of access to the national road network built with the best of machinery.
Deep water up to 18 metres, great ease of access for shipping, excellent road and rail links and proximity to markets, make the Port of Trieste an efficient and competitive destination. Trieste, a natural crossroads between East and West, intends to be Europe’s preferred point of access to the markets of the Far East. In fact, the Port of Trieste can offer a saving of five days sailing on routes between Europe and East Asia, compared with North European ports. For a fleet of 6,000 TEU container vessels this translates into a saving of over USD 25 million a year in freight and fuel costs.
EXISTENT CORRIDORS
Baltic-Adriatic corridor
The European Commission has identified the project to establish a corridor linking the Adriatic and Baltic as one of the strategic priorities of the overall European Union.
The Baltic-Adriatic Corridor will run through 19 regions in 5 Member States (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and Italy) and connect more than 40 million people in Europe by linking the two ports of Gdansk and Gdynia, the Corridor’s Northern railheads, to the Port of Trieste, thereby stimulating fresh economic growth throughout the territory crossed by the route.
The Baltic-Adriatic Corridor is a key project for the revival of traffic between the ports of the Baltic and the Adriatic because it will facilitate the channelling of goods arriving from the East through the Suez Canal to all of Central Europe. As far as the strategically-positioned logistics terminus of Trieste is concerned, this long and important transport link between the city and Northern Europe will represent a major growth opportunity.
Should some of the goods transported require further work during transit, this could start up a “piloted” flow of material to a substrata of companies responsible for its transformation.
The Friuli Venezia Giulia region, of which Trieste is the capital, is now one of the few areas of the European Union transited by two major European rail routes.
Mediterranean corridor
The Mediterranean Corridor is a project for rail freight transport along a line running about 3,000 km, through five EU countries: Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia and Hungary.
The Corridor starts in southern Spain, runs through southern France and across the north of Italy along the high-speed, high-capacity Turin-Trieste line to arrive in Slovenia and head towards Hungary until reaching the Ukraine border. The route is the result of a southwards extension of European Priority Project 6 (Lyon-Ukraine border railway axis).
This new high-speed, high-capacity line will link Italy to France and Slovenia, while its Italian stretch will be joined to other European corridors. In particular, it will allow Trieste to be connected with the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor.
Green corridor
The Green Corridor is an initiative aimed at strengthening and rationalising the cooperation between Italy and Egypt in the agro-food industry. The objective is to increase exports of Egyptian fruit and vegetables to Italy and, through the latter, to Europe, and also to open up Egyptian markets to certain Italian fruit and vegetables. The idea of creating a “Corridor” between Egypt and Europe through Italy has originated from the need to satisfy growing European demand for fresh fruit and vegetables in the period when the European fruit and vegetables market does not have its own production for seasonal reasons.
Potatoes and onions are the main products arriving in Trieste after crossing the Green Corridor (Alexandria-Trieste), along with more perishable products like pomegranates and peppers, which are then distributed in Italy and the rest of Europe.
RAILWAY INTERMODAL NETWORK
Rail services and links play a vital role in the logistics chain centring around the Port. In fact, Trieste is the most important railway port in Southern Europe, with 70 km of track serving all the docks and making it possible to assemble freight trains directly in the various terminals.
In addition to container transport by rail, unaccompanied combined transport is another important type of intermodal service now available in the Port, whereby only unaccompanied semi-trailers are loaded onto trains.
Rail services are available with different frequencies to Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Switzerland; the destinations for domestic connections are Milan Certosa and Padua/ Bologna.
Intermodal services are provided by Adriafer S.r.l., which organises intermodal, combined transport for the various goods in the so-called last mile of the port area, and by Alpe Adria S.p.a., a multimodal transport operator which manages various forms of conventional transport in a single logistical cycle.
The meeting of the strategic TEN-T “Motorways of the Sea” with the European Baltic-Adriatic and Mediterranean rail corridors offers an extremely exciting prospect for Trieste.
The existing transport terminuses in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (Ports of Trieste, Monfalcone and Porto Nogaro, freight terminals in Gorizia and Fernetti and logistics centre in Cervignano) or those planned (logistics platform in Trieste) will fit perfectly into this strategic axis of European development. Furthermore, Trieste is set to become the hub of the Mediterranean Corridor and the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor, which will reach the Polish port of Gdansk via Austria and the Czech Republic. These intermodal land axes will complement Project no. 21 (“Motorway of the Sea of South-East Europe”) which aims to develop Ro-Ro and ferry services with Albania, Greece, Turkey and other countries bordering the Mediterranean, thereby connecting the Adriatic Sea to the Ionian Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.