Fruitful European working groups on the Atlantic Corridor

Together with the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, the European Union organised a working day in Bordeaux on 11 December, bringing together the countries of the Atlantic Mobility Corridor. More than a hundred German, Irish, French, Spanish and Portuguese nationals took part, advancing their knowledge and shared objectives in terms of rail passenger mobility between France and Spain or Portugal and Spain, international freight, cross-border regional traffic and the organisation of modal transfers to rail.

In the morning, Alain Rousset, President of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Regional Council, Professor Carlo Secchi, Coordinator of the Atlantic Corridor for Europe, and Matthias Ruete, Coordinator of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) for Europe, reaffirmed the importance of the New South-West Line for Europe at a media briefing. They referred to the letter of 23 October last from the Spanish and Portuguese Prime Ministers to the French Prime Minister expressing the expectation that France would also promote the development of a new cross-border infrastructure with the Iberian peninsula in the Atlantic corridor, expressing concern that its agenda was moving away from the European objective of completing the core network by 2030. It should be remembered that the Spanish are confirming their presence on the Pyrenean border before 2030 with the Basque Y.