The fast corridor is an important digital infrastructure built along the 1000 km long railway line between the port of Gioia Tauro in southern Italy and the Interporto of Bologna. It is a strategic milestone that strengthens the leading position of the Calabrian port in Italy and in the Mediterranean, allowing the quick and controlled arrival of goods at their destination. Leading operators are involved in the operation of the corridor. The travel manager is Medlog Italia, owned by Gianluigi Aponte’s MSC group, one of the world leaders in container shipping. Medlog Italia makes use of two railway companies: Medway Italia, which is the railway company of the MSC group, and Ferrotramviaria.
Thanks to the use of fast corridors it is possible to transfer the goods from non-EU countries directly to the intermodal hub in Bologna where customs clearance procedures will be carried out, and potential delays due to congestion at the port docks during customs clearance will be avoided.
Gioia Tauro is a particularly relevant agreement because it is the first fast corridor that involves a port in the South and is the longest ever activated so far. There are currently 22 fast corridors in operation in Italy, 15 rail and 7 roads, covering a network of more than 5000 kilometers and handling around 20000 containers a year. All are located in the northern regions, and now the port in Calabria is added.
The Gioia Tauro railway gateway was built by the Port System Authority of the Southern Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, which designed, built, and tested it. Built-in just four years, at a cost of 19 million euros, it covers an area of 325,000 square meters, the total length of the new tracks is 3,825 meters and the rods are 825 meters each, allowing convoys with a length of 750 meters to be launched.
Connected to the intermodal hubs of Nola, Bari, Bologna, and Padua, it manages nine pairs of trains per day between arrivals and departures. In the first six months of this year, it were 423 trains registered, with a forecast estimate of 900 trains at the end of the year. This is an important result that will determine, through a public notice, the identification of the single shunting operator.
As per the schedule, the number of arriving and departing trains at the Gioia Tauro port should increase further in 2023, which will strengthen the role of the Calabrian port from a transshipment platform to an intermodal hub, in line with the government's policy to promote the transport of goods in more sustainable ways.
