GYŐR-MOSON-SOPRON AND BURGENLAND REGION - Promoting small-scale low-cost improvements
KTI INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORT SCIENCES NON-PROFIT LTD., GYSEV Györ-Sopron-Ebenfurth Railway
Corridor Capitalisation Plan (EN)
The Győr-Moson-Sopron and Burgenland Region is characterised by a dense network of TEN-T corridors and Rail Freight Corridors, which are interconnecting in the region. Considering the continuously growing demand for transport services, it is necessary to further develop the transport infrastructure . With this regard, faster and efficiently operated freight and passenger rail services should be well coordinated with road and inland waterway transport.
During future development, the operational requirements of multimodal logistics locations (e.g. in Sopron) need to be thoroughly considered. Through better connectivity of intermodal hubs, including e.g. the inland port of Győr-Gönyű, tangible benefits will be delivered for more efficient freight transport solutions.
Challenges addressed
The key objective of the Corridor Capitalisation Plan is to support a dynamic economic development, keeping the environmental burden and the impact on natural resources as low as possible. In the mobility and transport planning sector this can be achieved by shifting the growing passenger and freight traffic to rail. With this regard, there is a need to resolve existing capacity constraints found at junctions along important traffic flow directions. Also, track doubling along several single-track sections is crucial to increase capacity, reduce transit times, decrease delays and to improve the resilience of the transport system.
Due to recently opened new motorway sections (M85-M86) and the M83 soon to be opened, it is essential that the competitiveness of rail services will be improved. TEN-T standards, in particular train lengths of at least 740 m and 22,5 tons axle-load must be available on the TEN-T rail network. Based on an integrative and interactive approach, the Corridor Capitalisation Plan addresses organisational and coordination barriers for these issues.
Process and organisation
The preparation of the Plan was closely interlinked with the elaboration of the best-practice guideline for small-scale low-cost improvements for rail freight. Regional and national stakeholders were involved through consultations and workshops, including the International Rail Freight Workshop in Sopron and the 740 m TEN-T Demo-Train between Sopron and Budapest on 19-20 October 2021.
The feedback received on the Plan from key experts from various authorities, planning institutions and railway operators are taken into account as well for further plans and strategies, including the V4 High-Speed Rail Concept and the Hungarian National Rail Freight Concept.
Results and recommendations
Based on the analysis of available plans and studies, the Corridor Capitalisation Plan identified infrastructural bottlenecks related to all transport modes. They should be removed through improvement of the railway network, development of the Danube waterway for safe and economical navigability, including the Győr-Gönyű Port and the Komárom/Komárno ports, and development of the road network, in particular the M85/A3 cross-border section between Sopron and Eisenstadt.
For the improvement of the railway network, a set of key measures has been identified:
- Construction of triangle tracks in Zalaszentiván and Ebenfurth to avoid the change of travelling direction,
- upgrading of the Sopron node and terminal,
- improvement of the Komárom/Komárno node through triangle and connecting tracks, improving fluidity of traffic and creating the opportunity to strengthen the Komárom/Komárno node as intermodal node,
- reconstruction and upgrading of the Zalaszentiván-Szombathely-Csorna-Hegyeshalom-Rajka-Bratislava line, double-tracking of the Győr-Csorna-Sopron line and electrification of the Sopron-Wiener Neustadt line,
- implementation of full TEN-T standards (740 m train length, 22,5 t axle load) along North-South and East-West transit lines.
All projects need to be considered in regional and local spatial plans to ensure that land requirements – e.g. in case of new alignments of railway lines – are properly met. Since the Győr-Moson-Sopron and Burgenland Region serves as hub for macro-regional connections, improved alternative routes are beneficial for a much wider area than the directly impacted regional population. With this regard, relations to Austria and to Slovakia are of similar relevance.
