Corridor Development from a Regional Perspective: The Case of the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Region

The metropolitan region Frankfurt/Rhine-Main is located in the heart of Europe and in the middle of the Rotterdam-Genoa corridor, also known as the Rhine-Alpine corridor, which is part of the EU transport core network. This central location, along with excellent transport (airport, highways, rail) and telecommunication infrastructure, attracts a highly skilled workforce and a large number of businesses from abroad. Substantial freight volumes are transhipped in the region, moving in all directions, and rail infrastructure plays a key part in this transport network. Rail is the backbone of the region’s development. It is key to regional and long-distance passenger and rail freight transport and must be promoted to prevent further increases in the volume of road transport as the main competitor of rail transport. To achieve this, appropriate capacity increases in rail infrastructure are needed, and negative impacts on built-up areas, caused by rail noise, have to be prevented. Furthermore, integration into the trans-European corridor Rotterdam-Genoa is necessary. The area between Frankfurt and Mannheim is one of the key sections of the Rhine-Alpine corridor. This paper outlines what form a bottom-up strategy to develop this segment of the corridor should take. It also shows that integration into the overall Rotterdam-Genoa corridor and coordination with other partners is necessary to handle both benefits and risks. Here, a comprehensive strategy is needed to reconcile both aspects. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes that the regional voice be heard by the competent European and national institutions.