ITALY WANTS TO BECOME AN ENTRY-EXIT HUB FOR UKRAINE
The Italian northeast aims to becoming an entry-and-exit hub for Ukraine, which is facing blockades for transportation via the Black Sea. The facilities involved in this initiative are the ports of Trieste and Venice and the intermodal terminals in Padua and Verona.
Goods to and from Ukraine would be shipped to Italy through the Baltic-Adriatic TEN-T rail corridor. In other words, the plan is to transfer the flow of cargo from the Black Sea, now unavailable due to the war, to the Adriatic. The plan for the Baltic-Adriatic corridor is that it will be extended to Ukraine, as the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies announced last October. According to Ukrainian media Interfax, the terminal in Horonda, near the Ukrainian border with Slovakia, will be chosen as the hub for goods that will be shipped to Italy.
Next to this, a pilot project to transport Ukrainian grain from the Ukrainian railway station in Chop to the terminal in Padua was recently converted into a permanent service. Each convoy, with a length of 500 metres, will carry 1,200 tons of Ukrainian grain, allowing Ukraine to continue exporting to the rest of the world and to maintain a stable financial stream.
Source: Railfreight.com