European Commission delegation visits Monaco Railway Station

©Direction de la Communication / Michael Alesi

Early on the morning of Thursday 30 January, Marie-Pierre Gramaglia, Minister of Public Works, the Environment and Urban Development, welcomed a delegation from the European Commission at Monaco Railway Station as part of their two-day visit to the Southern region of the Mediterranean Corridor, a transport infrastructure project focused on rail.

Iveta Radičová, the European Coordinator for the Mediterranean Corridor, was accompanied by Philippe Tabarot, Acting Vice-President for Transport, Intermodality and Travel in the SUD PACA Region, and officials from Nice, Liguria and Piedmont.

The aim of the meeting was to present the cross-border challenges along the Nice-Monaco-Ventimiglia-Genoa section of the corridor. Marie-Pierre Gramaglia noted: “As an economic stakeholder at the heart of this vast region, our country plays host to nearly 45,000 French and Italian employees who travel to their workplaces here by road or rail every day. We are promoting a modal shift towards public transport, with the goal of reducing car traffic by 20% between now and 2030. This represents nearly 13,000 vehicles entering and leaving the country, and 10,000 vehicles internally. That’s why improving rail access to Monaco is a priority of our transport policy.”

The train, and more specifically the TER service, offers a key alternative to the car for accessing Monaco – in 2018, 6.4 million journeys to and from Monaco were made by TER. We are campaigning to improve and expand the current rail service to the Principality, with an increase in the number of trains running during morning and evening peak hours.