© ÖBB/Zeppcam blaupapier
What a great location: Carinthia is 350 km from Munich, 185 km from Trieste and Koper, and Ljubljana is almost around the corner at just 85 km away.
The international ports of Trieste and Koper on the Adriatic open the gateway to the world – and the Villach-Fürnitz rail customs corridor will accelerate the already fast pace even more.
The distances to the authorities are short. The Koralm Railway (Koralmbahn) is a technical masterpiece, and a new, central economic area with enormous potential is emerging as a result.
In a nutshell: in Carinthia, logistics are not only efficient and modern. Logistics are fun in Carinthia.
Carinthia is in a strategically favourable location: if you draw a circle around the town of Arnoldstein, for example, everything that is logistically important in Europe can be reached within four hours, including Vienna, Munich and Prague. But short distances are not the only features that characterise the region. Several factors are responsible for the fast pace of this logistics hub:
Distances are getting shorter, mobility is becoming more environmentally friendly and a new economic area is emerging: the major Koralm Railway project in Austria is one of the most important infrastructure projects in Europe and one of the most significant investments in networked and environmentally friendly mobility. As part of Austria’s new southern rail route, it significantly reduces travel times and strengthens the Baltic-Adriatic Corridor through Europe. By bringing Graz and Klagenfurt closer together, a new, central economic area with enormous potential is being created.
© ÖBB/Chris Zenz
Europe’s first rail customs corridor is being created between Trieste and Villach. This means that containers arriving at the port of Trieste can be loaded without customs procedures or
intermediate storage directly from the ship to the railway in the direction of Villach South/Fürnitz, where the goods are cleared through customs and inspected as necessary. The options for getting cargo to its destination faster and more cost-effectively are growing, made possible by southern ports and the Carinthian dry port. For freight traffic from Asia in particular, this results in a time saving of around two days compared to handling via the North Sea ports.
© ÖBB /Martin Hofmann
Logistik Center Austria Süd (LCAS) ensures efficient logistics with strategic locational advantages, intelligent networking and tailor-made services. Among other things, the LCAS logistics centre offers companies and service providers from the logistics sector fully developed, first-class business premises and real estate over an area of 160 hectares. LCAS is not only the location agency for the southernmost logistics hub in Austria, but also a reliable partner for any questions relating to logistics in Carinthia.
© Michael Stabentheiner
The Koralm Railway will bring the two provincial capitals of Graz and Klagenfurt closer together. The journey by train will then take only 45 minutes – a travel time that will have a lasting impact on the economic area in the south of Austria. But how exactly?
This has been investigated in a broad-based, comprehensive location study. Eric Kirschner led the long-term study on the “Economic Area of Southern Austria”. Kirschner is an expert in empirical social research and heads the Regional Economics and Structural Policy research group at JOANNEUM RESEARCH. In this interview, he gives an insight into the findings of the study.
“A new urban agglomeration with around 1.1 to 1.2 million inhabitants is emerging. This creates greater international visibility and is a strong boost.”
Carinthia.com: Mr. Kirschner, you led a comprehensive study on the economic and regional policy effects of the Koralm Tunnel. What was the most important finding of the location study?
Eric Kirschner: The most important finding is that a new urban agglomeration is being created with around 1.1 to 1.2 million inhabitants, stretching from Villach to Graz, which naturally generates a corresponding international visibility and is a strong boost. We have furthermore discovered that there will be significant effects, firstly on the labour market and secondly in the area of demographics. The areas between Klagenfurt and Graz in particular will be quickly and easily accessible. This will generate significant growth. If these regions do their homework, they should almost be able to buck the demographic trend due to the new ease of accessibility.
Carinthia.com: Talking about international visibility: Can you classify the size of the new conurbation that is forecast in an international comparison?
Kirschner: Styria and Carinthia are highly developed European industrial regions. The direct customers and competitors are mainly in southern Germany, Bamberg, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart, which have size advantages – at the moment. This is because the disadvantage of being smaller will be compensated for in the future enabling the smaller regions play in the same league as these larger regions. I think that’s very important. What is also of enormous importance, however, is the supply of workers and jobs. The number of available jobs will increase massively. It will then be possible to work, for example, in a large industrial company in the Graz area, where there is a wide choice, and your partner or wife can work in the service sector in Villach or Klagenfurt and vice versa. Companies’ likelihood of finding exactly the right employees to hire will likewise increase enormously because of the dramatic expansion of the catchment area. In this respect, Carinthia will benefit more in relative terms because Klagenfurt will have direct access to the Graz labour market. That is over 200,000 additional employees who are now within reach in this new catchment area.
Carinthia.com: If we look at Carinthia from the perspective of a logistics company: Which results stand out most?
Kirschner: Logistics are about longer distances, so the Koralm line has to be seen as part of the Southern Railway line (Südbahn). The Semmering Base Tunnel will open in four or five years. The Semmering mountain railway, which has existed since Archduke Johann’s time, will become a flat railway. This means that a significant quantity of goods can be handled and there is a corridor from Trieste and the Fürnitz dry port to the Baltic. It is therefore a very exciting transhipment location and there are a number of opportunities in the logistics sector, especially as it is the declared aim of the European Union to transfer as many goods as possible from road to rail. At the same time, it is not so easy to change the flow of goods. The logistics that are in place now are a well-established system and, of course, a change requires the right players to generate critical masses. That certainly takes time and I think that is the main challenge.
Carinthia.com: What will the Koralm Railway change for European freight traffic?
Kirschner: In this area, too, there is an increasing shift in thinking, and it is becoming more and more important to produce and deliver sustainably. At the same time, expectations that supply chains would be re-established in the wake of COVID have not necessarily been met. What is certainly clear is that freight traffic is important and that rail transport will gain in importance – above all, because there will also be additional investment in infrastructure such as the Semmering Tunnel and better access to the Balkans. The time alone that can be saved by transhipping in Trieste instead of travelling to Hamburg and Rome, packaging goods there and then delivering them to Austria, is an enormous plus. I also believe that these changes will happen, it will just take some time.
@ Amt der Kärntner Landesregierung
There are plenty more exciting stories about Carinthia for entrepreneurs, founders and investors in the location marketing brochure. We are also very happy to receive your enquiries.
