A Corridor Worth 1.2 billion Euros a Year

The delay, compared with the Swiss program, the construction of the Italian's new multimodal corridor Italy-Switzerland, which is part of that corridor Rhine-Alpes on which the European Commission is aiming to make it more efficient and more environmentally friendly transport in Europe, will high costs for Europe and for Italy in particular. Li has highlighted a study by Bocconi Certet unveiled and implemented in collaboration with the Embassy of Switzerland and Italian companies APM Terminals, Hupac Intermodal Ltd and Rivalta Terminal Europa SpA. According to the calculations of Certet, the five-year period of time that elapses between the opening of the new Gotthard (Switzerland), scheduled for the end of 2016 and the opening of the ground on the third passage of Liguria (2021) it will cost to Italy, including lost revenue for the treasury and lost earnings for companies in the sector and for the banking system, 1.2 billion euros a year, for an estimated total of 6 billion between 2016 and 2021.

For their part to build a new multi-modal corridor, Switzerland has invested 17.6 billion euros, already fully funded. The end of works is expected in 2020, but a major step, at the end of 2016, will be the opening of the new Gotthard. 2021 is the date instead, according to estimates, the earliest of which could open the third passage (between Genoa and Novi Ligure), which represents an important step in the reorganization of the railway system in the North-West Italian and that would, together with other investments provided, to increase competition in the Italian transport system, allowing full use of the potential of the Ligurian port hubs. The investment program for the Italian part of the corridor is worth 11 billion euros, only 3.75 of which, however, are actually available today. Work has already begun but, according to estimates, the first milestone of the plan, the opening of the third passage, should not be fully operational before the end of 2021.

"The multimodal corridor Italy-Switzerland is a system of works critical to the development of transport in Europe. The delay that will accumulate in the realization of the Italian will have a high economic impact, "says the director of Certet Bocconi, Oliviero Baccelli.

The Italian is the corridor is, at the time, the weak link in the system. The context, in fact, sees the one hand the development of the most advanced Swiss part of the corridor; on the other, the ongoing development of the Ligurian port system, which by 2020 will increase from the current 4.3 million TEUs (already exploited 80%) to 6.6 million handling capacity, thus rebalancing towards the south Europe a part of the maritime traffic that now rests hubs of northern Europe and thereby increasing the economic benefit Italian. In between, therefore, the transport system that would link the three ports of Liguria with Switzerland.

At this point, processing data from different sources (including the Bank of Italy and Fedespedi), the Certet hypothesized what the cost to productivity - European and then Italian in particular - of this five-year difference in the Swiss and Italian schedules.

As for Europe, if the Italian corridor were completed in parallel with Swiss timing, allowing the re-balancing of traffic to the ports of Liguria, it would result in a total annual savings of 185.7 million euros, in terms of reducing the maritime distances (82 million euros),railway distances (65 million) and the reduction of capital costs of goods (38.7 million).

For Italy, the 5-year difference in the time to market of the third pass will produce a non-recovery of work in Ligurian ports that Certet estimates at 300,000 TEUs a year, between import and export. And considering 7,100 euros per TEU not handled on imports (of which 55% goes to the Treasury) and 927 per TEU of loss of income on exports, it would reach 1.2 billion euros a year in lost revenue, over 650 million of which would have gone to the Treasury.

"This shows how important the opportunities are", continues Baccelli. "In addition to completing the infrastructure on Italy's side, which must be speeded up, an important step is the adjustment of the regulatory framework on rail transport in Europe, that you can do free of charge." The corridor Rhine-Alpes, within which the Italy-Switzerland corridor is inserted, "puts in connection the most important parts of Europe in terms of production. The fact that Italy is late is worrisome not only for Italy but for Europe itself.

The ports of Northern Europe move huge volumes but also generate large externalities, both in terms of congestion and in elongation of the routes taken to reach them; balancing the traffic to the south would be an advantage. "

Finally from the Italian point of view, the corridor is not only infrastructure policy. "It is an investment that also boosts the manufacturing sector because it reduces the cost of import-export, and that has a positive impact on both the environment and the quality of work of logistics companies."