Ligurian Port System

The growth of commercial trade between the European Community and Far Eastern countries has led to a significant development in seaborne transport through the Suez Canal, for which the Mediterranean ports are called on to act as the southern gateway to European markets.

In this scenario, the ports of Savona, Genoa and La Spezia enjoy a privileged position with respect to the routes crossino the Mediterranean. In fact, one of Europe’s richest and most productive areas, encompassing North Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Southern Germany, is located within a radius of 500 km from the Ligurian ports, which therefore become that area’s window overlooking the sea.

The Ligurian ports are connected to Europe by means of efficient railway and motorway corridors, the main backbones of the Trans-European Transport Network: these include the Genoa-Rotterdam Corridor to Switzerland and Central Europe in addition to the Tyrrhenian-Brennero Corridor towards Austria, Germany and the East European nations.

To the north of Liguria lies the Po Valley, a vast area extending over the Italian regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna. This area, that has always been the centre of the Italian and European economic system, has deep-rooted traditions in the industrial and transport sectors.

This macro region includes the Milano Malpensa airport, a European cargo and passenger hub, as well as various intermodal and logistics centres on the transport routes between the Ligurian ports and the hinterland capable of providing all the necessary cargo services along the distribution path to markets.

The Ligurian Port Authorities are actively involved in promoting increasingly greater integration between the Ligurian ports and the hinterland. In particular, the railway transport system is the key element to guarantee integration among the various network nodes: ports, logistics areas, markets.

To guarantee an efficient railway service, the Ligurian Ports have set two objectives:

- to increase penetration into European markets, creating links with the new Swiss tunnels of Lotschberg and Gottardo, and with the Brennero Pass, through the construction of new large infrastructures (the Genoese Third Mountain Route and the Pontremolese in La Spezia);

- to take full advantage of the many opportunities offered by the existing railway infrastructures with untapped potential in terms of capacity, through more flexible railway service management that complies with industrial concepts and costs, creating shuttle connections between the ports and the hinterland using dedicated locomotives.