Transport Commissioner Adina Välean calls the agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of Europe on Monday night a “groundbreaking deal for the EU”. The document envisages further strengthening of the trans-European transport (rail) network – and is, in fact, a milestone for Styria and Carinthia. The “Western Balkan Mediterranean Corridor”, which starts in Salzburg and Linz and will later connect southern Austria to Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus, has also been decided. The railway corridor runs along the Tauern axis to Carinthia and along the Pyhrn axis through Styria. Both railway routes will be expanded and the two federal states will become junctions of two European axes: the one from the Baltic to the Adriatic (with the Semmering and Koralm tunnels) is quite advanced.
