The international working group of ARL, chaired by Prof. Dr. Bernd Scholl, ETH Zurich from 2015 until 2018 addressed open questions and challenges regarding the spatial and railway development of the TEN-T Orient/East-Mediterranean Corridor (OEM) Hamburg – Athens. Recently, important insights were published by the ARL as position paper.

From the working group's point of view, the Orient/East-Med Corridor is of utmost importance for the future cohesion of Europe. With its length of more than 2'000 km it connects the strong economic zones of the western EU member states to the prospering capital regions of the southeastern EU member states. The position paper includes the “Assessment positions” of four years of intensive work as well as a draft for the future actions (“positions and recommendations”). According to the experts, the further development of the corridor is of strategic importance:

The sixth official meeting of the International Working Party «Spatial and Transport Development along European Corridors: An Example of the Corridor 22, Hamburg-Athens» took place in Hamburg, on the 15th and 16th February 2018.

Hamburg as a starting/ending point of the entire corridor is a significant logistic hub for a large portion of the Hamburg-Athens corridor. Two invited guests highlighted this role, however, also pointed out that the port of Hamburg is facing stagnation in transshipment, and even may face a decrease in importance in the forthcoming years until 2030.

Dr. Makait, CEO of MWP GmbH explained that the port of Hamburg is the main hub for sea-trade from or to eastern Germany, south-eastern neighbour countries and the Baltic sea. The port benefits of its strong hinterland connections, but is also limited by the restricted accessibility for very large ships. Since the concentration process to less but stronger alliances in the shipping sector is going on, changes in the routes of these market-dominating alliances result in significant changes of transshipment volumes in the affected ports. Against this background, the main growth in transshipment along the North Sea is expected in the ports better accessible by seaside like Wilhelmshaven or Rotterdam.

The fifth meeting of the International Working Group «Spatial and Transport Development along European Corridors: An Example of the Corridor 22, Hamburg–Athens» took place in Sofia, on the 20th and 21st November 2017.

Bulgaria’s capital Sofia is an important node connecting the national east-west transport relations from the Black Sea with Serbia and FYROM as well as Romania and Greece in the north-south relation. Bulgaria is facing huge challenges in modernizing its transport infrastructure.

Two experts of the National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) informed about the ongoing modernization of the main railway lines. The upgrading on the national east-west rail axes connecting Sofia with the Black Sea and Turkey via Plovdiv has advanced well and will be completed within a few years. Due to financial limitations, the upgrading of the international connections to Serbia, FYROM, Greece and Rumania is only proceeding gradually, but will gain importance in the next years. Due to the comparably low demand single track lines are sufficient on most sections, a proposed new route Sofia – Mezdra is unlikely to be constructed in near future.

The fourth official meeting of the International Working Party of experts gathered around the ARL project «Spatial and Transport Development along European Corridors: An Example of the Corridor 22, Hamburg–Athens» took place in Belgrade, on the 27th and 28th April 2017.

As the territorial scope of this project is slightly different than the route officially covered by the EU TEN-T policy framework, the workshop was held in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia – the country that has been attempting to become a full EU member state for years now. Therefore, the most important strategic infrastructural and spatial planning projects have been discussed during the workshop.

The third official meeting of the International Working Party of experts gathered around the ARL project «Spatial and Transport Development along European Corridors: An Example of the Corridor 22, Hamburg–Athens» took place in Athens, on the 24th and 25th November 2016.

As Athens is considered the starting/end point of the entire corridor, the meeting was devoted to elucidating the current challenges in the domains of spatial and transport development, observed from various perspectives – from transnational to local.

The representatives of the PCT (Piraeus Container Terminal), the largest terminal of the COSCO (Chinese Ocean Shipping Group Company) in Europe, provided an overview of the current investments in port and railway infrastructure in Greece, as well as of the initiatives for upgrading the railway network in South-Eastern Europe.

The second official meeting of the International Working Group of experts gathered around the ARL project “Spatial and Transport Development in European Corridors: An Example of the Corridor 22, Hamburg–Athens” took place in Vienna, on 19th and 20th May 2016.

Based on the project findings elaborated so far, the international group of spatial and transport planners met to consider the possibilities for developing the strategy for integrated spatial and transport development along the Hamburg–Athens corridor.

More precisely, the identification of the bottlenecks (both infrastructural and administrative) and a scientific-based analysis at various levels (transnational, regional and local) served as a good base for expert discussion about the relevant tools and instruments for integrated spatial and transport development along the mentioned axis.