Catalonian coastal cities demand re-routing of EU Mediterranean Corridor

10 municipalities have now joined this collective front

The city of Tarragona played host to a second meeting of regional municipalities on 27 May, whose goal is to create a collective action force to pressure a change in the trajectory of the Mediterranean Freight Corridor. The demand is to have goods and merchandize to and from Europe to travel inland through Catalonia rather than along the coast burdening what is already a busy passenger route.

The Mediterranean Corridor crosses six EU countries and has a length of 3000 kilometres

The so-called Mediterranean Corridor is one of the ten priority axes of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). This important economic route starts in the port of Algeciras in the south of Spain (near Gibraltar) and crosses the Iberian country, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary (ending in Zahony in the eastern part of Hungary).

Tarragona, located in the south of Catalonia is an important hub as this is where the two Spanish branches of the corridor meet to continue northward to France.

However, on 10 May, the mayors of Tarragona, Altafulla, Creixell, Roda de Berà, El Vendrell and Torredembarra met in the hub city to express their disagreement with the fact that the Mediterranean Freight Corridor shares the use of the passenger platforms and, consequently, crosses the most populated areas of our territory. The second meeting also saw the inclusion of the cities of Reus, Cambrils, Vila-seca and Salou to the common cause.

The mayors of the ten cities demand the immediate start of the study of the alternative route for the passage of goods that already has a budget item. The call is also to carry out the study that allows segregated platforms for goods, and their effective construction. 

Likewise, the mayors express their support for the Mediterranean Corridor as an indispensable element of connection with Europe, although it is necessary to implement with the utmost urgency the demands of this manifesto in the realization of this freight corridor.  

As a next step, it was agreed to promote a new meeting with the institutional, business and associative fabric of the region to expand this common front. It is also planned to convene a meeting of mayors with the Spanish Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda to move the requests of the territory in relation to the passage of goods along the coastline.