Overview

To date, 74% of EU trade goes by ship and 37% of the total intra-EU exchange of goods (in tonne-km) goes through the EU’s ports (source: EC, “Ports: gateways of the TEN-T”). 27% of EU ports total freight volumes are handled in Mediterranean ports and a 50% rise in traffic is expected by 2030. It is clear that infrastructures and transport services must be upgraded in order to accommodate such freight volumes. In particular, the poor cooperation, inadequacy of hard and soft infrastructure shared among relevant actors and massive road congestion affecting port-hinterland connections, significantly hinder the efficiency of intermodal freight flows.
To this end, the ISTEN project aims at qualifying ADRION ports as strategic nodes and hubs for the ADRION Region by setting up a transnational cooperation network and a joint action plan to improve hinterland intermodal connections, in particular by supporting rail freight flows and last mile links to the TEN-T Corridors.
ISTEN involves ports from Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Albania, Croatia and Slovenia as main gateways to the TEN-T and Adriatic-Ionian Motorway of the Sea. Main objectives of the project are to:
1) steer priorities of involved territories by identifying integrated infrastructure planning at transnational level and consistent investment strategies;
2) provide guidelines & criteria for defining legal, technical and operational conditions useful to establish an efficient ADRION transnational network;
3) develop a specific, innovative toolbox to be used by relevant actors to analyse and define suitable conditions for establishing robust networks of stakeholders;
4) define IT solutions and services for the communication and knowledge management;
5) increase capacity building in planning infrastructures and identify measures and actions to be adopted for setting-up integrated hubs;
6) enhance the efficiency and environmental sustainability of freight logistics flows across the ADRION area.
ISTEN final output is a transnational action plan for the development of an integrated hubs network at ADRION level. Regional & National authorities, as well as freight operators and other actors involved in the logistics chain will benefit from it. Such cooperation efforts will positively affect transport efficiency and environmental sustainability at ADRION Region level.
ISTEN contributes to these objectives by:
- analysing local bottlenecks in maritime-rail network, related to transnational corridors and ports;
- defining measures to improve rail accessibility in the hinterland-port context and promote modal shift to the rail transport;
- identifying guidelines to organize transnational groups of stakeholders and promoting the exchange of knowledge within the ADRION area.