On 20 November, the Corridors and Territories conference was held on the premises of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, to which the cooperative of Upper Rhine Ports was invited, under the patronage of the MEP and Chairperson of the Port Autonome de Strasbourg, Catherine TRAUTMANN.
Before 70 participants, Patricia ERB-KORN, the Director of the port of Karlsruhe, presented an overview of the progress of the joint project of the nine ports between Basel and Ludwigshafen, entitled: Upper Rhine, a Connected Corridor. The cost of the project amounts to 1.7 M€, half of which is co-funded by Europe under the TEN-T program (Trans-European Transport Networks). It will run from 2012 to the end of 2014 and examine any and all possible synergies between those ports to strengthen the ports' role as multimodal hubs in the European transport network.
Meeting in Mannheim on 11 June 2013, the directors of the Upper Rhine ports shared an analysis of the strong points of and the current limitations to the development of the Upper Rhine corridor.
To work collectively on their development, the consortium of Upper Rhine ports – Strasbourg, Kehl, Colmar, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Karlsruhe, RheinPorts Basel-Mulhouse-Weil – adopted a common approach in September 2012, supported by the European Commission, in becoming part of the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T). Launched officially in Strasbourg on 26 November last, the project aims eventually to develop a more efficient range of multimodal services and provisions along the full extent of the Upper Rhine.
On 26 November 2012, a special event was held to launch the project: Upper Rhine Ports: A Connected Corridor!. For the first time, nine inland ports in a tri-national river basin, are working in a concerted manner to further their development, with the support of the European Commission, under the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). More than 50 representatives from French, German, Swiss and international institutions accepted the invitation from Catherine Trautmann, Chairperson of the Port Autonome de Strasbourg, regarding the project initiative.
