Commercial exports to Austria, Germany and the Scandinavian countries are worth 5,8% of the Italian GDP, and almost 10% of that of the North-East. Precisely for this reason, the construction of the Brenner base tunnel is now an absolute priority: “The Brenner railway connection is a medium-term strategic goal – reiterated the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Enrico Giovannini, speaking at a webinar organized by Unioncamere -. The issue of the transition from road to rail is crucial throughout the PNRR”, said the minister, and the data presented by the chamber association can only prove him right. Unlike what happened for the Gotthard tunnel, the backbone of the European corridor that connects Genoa to Rotterdam and which was completed a few years ago, this time it is Italy that is further ahead in the works and is asking for an acceleration. In the case of the other Alpine canal, the investments of the Swiss federation were decisive, which even unblocked the part of the construction site in Italian territory, anticipating the expenses.
In the case of the Brenner, however, the resistance is all to be blamed on our Austrian neighbors: already on the current infrastructures (the A22 motorway, inaugurated in 1968, and the old railway line which even dates back to 1867) the Tyrol has imposed restrictions on non-ecological vehicles too stringent, in force since 2019 and which have already cost a decline in trade flows, as well as the prohibition of night transit and the limitation on the circulation of various product categories, including important ones (plastic, waste, wood, paper, cereals, motor vehicles, machinery and equipment, to name a few), which together are worth 136 billion of import/export. Furthermore, on the Austrian side the works for the construction of the base tunnel are much further behind, while Italy has already excavated 140 km of tunnels out of the total 230 km it is responsible for (64%). At these rates, "unfortunately the base tunnel will not be ready by 2030-2031", confessed Minister Giovannini. Yet the work is strategic for the entire European Green New Deal, which plans to reduce CO2 emissions from transport by 90% between now and 2050.
The Brenner makes up a fundamental piece of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean axis (ScanMed), which connects Italy with one of the main trading partners, Germany, and with other Northern European countries. Also counting Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia ("enlarged" ScanMed), in 2019 Italy exported almost 104 billion euros of goods to these countries, 38% of the total exported to the European Union. The lack of a modern infrastructure, such as the one built at the Gotthard, therefore penalizes the export of Made in Italy in key markets. To give a figure, that relating to 2019 (2020 is a separate year, due to Covid) indicates that overall exports to the 28 countries of the European Union have grown by almost 3%, but only by 1% on the corridor ScanMed. Yet Italy is doing its part, which is very relevant in the overall project: of the 9.300 km of railway, over 3.000 are in Italian territory, where there are also 9 out of 23 ports and 13 out of 44 intermodal terminals. Hubs are fundamental , and the one identified for ScanMed is Verona, in which FS is already carrying out important investments. According to the Unioncamere report, of the total 515 projects to be completed by 2030, 140 are in Italy, for a value of 32 billion euros (out of the 119 overall).
"Cooperation between the railway groups of the countries concerned already exists", says Antonello Fontanili of Unioncamere. The problem is political and environmental. Tyrol continues to put the environmental aspect at the center of the issue, making decisions based on its own assessments and imposing severe limitations both on current traffic and on the progress of the new project. One solution, according to Unioncamere, would be to delegate to the European Environment Agency a review of the actual impact of heavy vehicles: “It should be a European body that takes care of it, and not the Tyrol – explains Fontanili -. The data on emissions in recent years in the areas crossed by the A22 (Trento, Bolzano and other localities, ed.) show that the peak of pollution occurs in the winter tourist season, when more light vehicles circulate. This indicates that it is not commercial vehicles that cause the thresholds to be exceeded. Furthermore, the connections must be used 24 hours a day, closing at night no longer makes sense".
The construction of the base tunnel would give a further and very important boost to commercial exchange, by converging a large part of the traffic on rail and recognizing the due environmental attention to road traffic, through the digitization of the infrastructures and the enhancement of the vehicle charging stations with alternative propulsion, whereas diesel vehicles arrive more easily from Austria, considering the much cheaper cost of diesel. At full capacity, in 2039, Unioncamere estimates a growth in total traffic of about a third, from the almost 62 million tons assumed in 2029 to 83,2 million tons ten years later. But most of all rail traffic would more than double, from 17,3 million tons to 41,6 million, thus equalizing the expected figure for road traffic, which instead in 2029 will still be 44,6 million tons, with 3 million vehicles circulating. These vehicles in 2039 will become 2,8 million.
