The Eastern Ligurian Sea Port Authority, which manages the port of La Spezia, will get nine million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). The funds will be deployed in the development of the new La Spezia Marittima rail terminal, which should start in February 2024.
The initiative to upgrade the La Spezia Marittima terminal is part of the SwiftRail project, an initiative to boost rail freight in the port. The nine million euros will be added to the 39 million the Port Authority received from the Italian Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (CIPESS) in August 2016. Works are expected to start in February, with the new station planned for commissioning by 2026.
“The port of La Spezia will be equipped with a modern rail freight terminal, able to move up to 50 per cent of the container transiting in the port by rail”, said Port Authority President Mario Sommariva. The new terminal will have a nine-track bundle to accommodate trains between 550 and 650 metres in length. The port of La Spezia is one of the major ports in Italy, especially when it comes to rail freight. Here, almost one-third of all the goods arriving at the port travel by rail.
The port of La Spezia
Located roughly 100 kilometres south of Genoa, the port of La Spezia is one of they nodes along the TEN-T Scandinavian-Mediterranean Corridor, connecting southern Italy with Scandinavia. One of the most active company in the port is Contship, who manages the La Spezia Container Terminal (LSCT). Back in 2022, LSCT obtained 160 million euros from various funds to finance rail freight projects over the next 15 years.
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