The Berlin-Palermo railway axis is Line 1 of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T),which involves the creation of a 2,200 km-long high-speed rail line between Berlin and Palermo.[1][2]
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In Germany, this line will begin at the Berlin Central Station opened in 2006 and runs via the completed Berlin–Halle/Leipzig railway. From Halle and Leipzig the line follows the new line to Erfurt, which is currently under construction and due to be completed in 2015. The following year, the continuation of this route south to Nuremberg is due to be completed. In the meantime, trains run on the winding Saal line east of Erfurt between Leipzig and Nuremberg via Jena. From Nuremberg to Munich, this route runs via the high-speed line opened in 2006 via Ingolstadt. The section of the Munich–Rosenheim line between Munich Central Station and Grafing the line has already been upgraded to four-tracks to separate mainline and suburban traffic. A branch from Rosenheim–Kufstein runs to the Austrian border at Kufstein.
The heart of the Austrian section is the New Lower Inn Valley railway. In particular in the section between Wörgl and Baumkirchen is the most congested line of the whole TEN-network. This congestion is a result of the Austrian national east-west traffic and the international north-south traffic sharing the same line. The largest part of the new Lower Inn Valley railway is already under construction (Kundl– Baumkirchen) and the shorter section between Kundl and Kufstein (or Brannenburg in Bavaria) is being planned. After the completion of the Austrian section trains will be able to operate at up to 250 km/h. In Baumkirchen, new high-speed curves link with the Innsbruck bypass including the Inn Valley tunnel (German: Inntaltunnel), which is already in operation, but still needs to be upgraded for passengers and connected with the existing line to Innsbruck station. The Inn Valley tunnel will connect directly with the future Brenner Base Tunnel which will connect with (southern entrance leads to the Brenner Railway). The combined Inn Valley and Brenner Base tunnels will be the longest railway tunnel in the world (62.8 kilometres).
In recent decades, the following lines have been built or significantly upgraded in Italy:
The former Berlusconi cabinet had announced that construction of a bridge across the Strait of Messina as a combined rail/road bridge with a length of 3.3 km will go ahead in 2010 and is scheduled to be completed 2016.[3] An upgrade of the 400 km Salerno–Reggio Calabria line is also proposed to increase speeds and capacity. On Sicily the 230 km long rail link between Messina and Palermo is being substantially upgraded.
On 20 July 2005, the European Union appointed coordinators for the five major trans-European rail transport projects to accelerate the realisation of these projects. It appointed the Belgian Karel Van Miert to coodinate the Berlin-Palermo rail corridor, although he died in June 2009.
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