The European Commission has selected 11 consortia of transport consultants to support the European Coordinators in implementing the nine European Transport Corridors and two horizontal priorities: the European Maritime Space (EMS) and the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). The contract for the Atlantic European Transport Corridor study has been awarded to a consortium led by TIS.PT, involving INECO, EGIS, M-FIVE, PANTEIA, ARUP and EITC.
The ATL ETC study started in March 2024 and is expected to be completed in 2026. The contract can be extended for an additional two years, with the second phase spanning between 2026 and 2028. The studies are dedicated to monitoring the implementation of the work plan and possible elaboration of implementing acts, in line with Art. 55 of Regulation (EU) 1679/2024. The study involves six main tasks as follows:
• Task 1: Corridor knowledge base (dedicated to describing the corridor characteristics, infrastructure and operational KPIs, traffic flow analysis, and review of national plans, among other aspects).
• Task 2: Corridor project list (compiling the Corridor project list, including relevant information on ongoing, planned and completed projects, their impacts and technical/financial maturity).
• Tasks 3 and 4: Projects’ implementation reports and ETC work plan (processing information from previous tasks towards the elaboration of the first ATL ETC work plan).
• Task 5: Preparing, supporting and following up on the ATL Corridor Forum meetings and working groups.
• Task 6: Communication, including updating the content of a ATL ETC dedicated Website and elaboration of quarterly newsletters.
The analyses to be performed under the above tasks foresee the involvement of the ETCs concerned, Infrastructure Managers and the wider TEN-T community, at least for Tasks 1, 2, 5 and 6. Consultants will indeed require the support from the Infrastructure Managers for collecting relevant inputs and performing the analysis of the Corridor characteristics, infrastructure and operational KPIs, technical impact and procurement/financial maturity of completed, ongoing and planned investments, relevant news and events planned along the Corridor, organisation of Corridor and cross-corridor events at the local level, interviews on the progress in the implementation of projects and measures of relevance for the implementation of the TEN-T policy.
In line with previous studies, the European Commission asked the Consultants to adopt a common approach and methodology in conducting the study tasks to facilitate the validation of the results by the members of the nine ETC Corridor Fora.
The study outcomes are foreseen to be presented in the Corridor Forum meetings, to be organised in Brussels twice a year. Additionally, several Working Groups and Technical Workshops on specific topic and modes are organised per year.
The land basis of the Corridor stretches from the ports of the Atlantic flank of the Iberian Peninsula to the ports of Le Havre, Brest and Nantes in Northern France, as well as towards the port cities of Strasbourg and Mannheim in the French/German border, besides covering the maritime connections to Ireland (the fifth Member State) and to the Canary Islands.
The Corridor entails a railway network of more than 13,500 km, over 5,700 km of roads and 775 km of inland waterways in four river basins. It interconnects Multimodal Freight Terminals (MFTs) located in 25 ports (of which 5 maritime/ inland and 5 inland waterway ports) with those 27 rail-road terminals along the Corridor.
A total of 59 urban nodes are present along the Corridor, including 4 EU Member States capital cities: Lisboa, Madrid, Paris and Dublin. The ATL ETC comprises 13 airports, of which Paris Charles de Gaulle, Madrid Barajas and Paris Orly are among the busiest in Europe. Other corridor airports such as Lisboa, Dublin, Porto, Las Palmas and Tenerife have registered annual traffic of over 12 million passengers each.
Project Partners: INECO, EGIS, M-FIVE, PANTEIA, ARUP and EITC
