Utilising existing capacities: Example Tauern Rail 
An important tessera and the first step in the project AlpFRail is the Tauern Rail. That is the route Salzburg-Villach-Triest. The economic areas Bavaria and Salzburg get a good connection to the Mediterranean ports over this route. One and a half year ago Austrian Railways (ÖBB) claimed this route to be “full” meaning utilized fully. But an overall analyse of the hours of operation and the technique on this route showed free capacities. The specialists of the LKZ optimised technically the trains in this project, found 9 free tracks and proved that there are very large optimising potentials in the rail traffic. All things considered, an immediate displacement of additional 5.000 trucks per month is possible on this route. In the meantime the first transport companies, as well as the Austrian Railway Company, found out that this route can be a real alternative. As from February 2005 onwards they started with a rolling road from Triest to Salzburg and will displace from road to rail already 35.000 trucks per year. Private railway companies already deal with the technical requirements and the necessary route concessions. On the Tauern axe the difficulties with different electricity systems will be solved already in 2005 by the application of a locomotive for multiple electricity systems.
Pilot relations between the economic areas Augsburg/Ulm/Stuttgart and Lombardy/ Veneto
The upper Italian regions Lombardy and Veneto with more than 13 million habitants  and with a high GDP of about 26 000 Euro per habitant generate 53% of the complete volume of the freight traffic from Italy to Germany and with it to Baden Württemberg’s  provincial capital Stuttgart and its adjacent regions. Between these economic areas approximately 2 million tons of freight and chemical goods are carried over the Alps yearly (Stuttgart 700.000 t, Ulm 500.000 t and Augsburg 650.000 t).
Actually there are no direct connections of the combined rail traffic between these trade regions; therefore the quote of the rail is merely 12%. Studies about the installation of pilot relations in the framework of AlpFRail show that between the existing Terminals Augsburg, Ulm and Stuttgart as well as Brescia, Mantova and Rivalta Scrivia near by Genoa, direct trains for the sea traffic to Asia can be operated commercially.
Furthermore the implementation of a ring train system based on the diesel network in the Allgäu of Bavaria  and Württemberg as well as in Oberschwaben as a “feeder” to the terminals in Singen and Wolfurt in Vorarlberg are being analysed within the project at the moment.  

The freight on rail at once: Example Chemistry Triangle
The future rail network in Europe is not possible without new terminals. In Italy new and technical very good facilities are already built. They enable the realisation of a great  AlpFRail target: displace the freight traffic onto the rail right after the goods have been produced.
The Bavarian Chemistry Triangle– between Burgkirchen and Burghausen in upper Bavaria - shows how important such a terminal is. A terminal will be built there in 2006, so it is possible to turn over up to 30.000 containers per year. The Chemistry Triangle is an essential factor for the German rail freight traffic and the German economy. In this region there are 25.000 jobs, companies with an annual revenue of 7.8 billion Euro and investments over one billion Euro. But in this area there is only one track, which is not electrified. Furthermore the connection to the motorway is missing. Between Munich and Burghausen 1,5 percent of the German rail freight traffic takes place on one track over a distance of 100 kilometres. Therefore the building of the terminal and the improvement of the rail infrastructure have top priority.

Overcoming of the regional orientated spatial planning
In the project AlpFRail regional concepts should be integrated in supra-regional overall concepts. Therefore all regional political decision makers have to come together at one table. The common inventory of all regional plans and the identification and the elimination of overlaps are important. Then these supra-regional harmonised concepts have to be communicated to the international partners.
In the Project AlpFRail conferences and workshops about this subject took place already. For example a freight train from Nürnberg to Mantova is planned, which then connects two domestic ports. The project partners also concentrate strongly on freight connections between Baden Württemberg and Italy. Until today there exists no connection by means of combined traffic road/rail between both these important trade partners.

The vision: The product „rail“ out of one hand
The big target of AlpFRail is to offer logistics companies and forwarders, a complete product „rail“ out of one hand with its plurality of possibilities both in routing and in competing with other railways . Different responsibilities in most countries and lack of transparency with respect to offers still prevent customers from using the railway as option to the road. Much to the contrary hauling by truck operates well: a forwarding agency gets an order, the truck picks up the product from the storage and drives it over the Alps directly to the costumer. Modern information systems allow for precise tracking of goods in real time during the transport. The rails freight traffic is still far away from this target.

To put our vision into practice, following fundamental conditions have to be realised:

1. The forwarder finds out at one glance at which cargo terminal his load unit can be put onto the train and at which destination it can be collected
2. The forwarder can see immediately by internet, when and which capacities are free on the trains, he can reserve these and book the transfer order.
3. List prices for transport executions according to providers are transparently available via internet
4. The tracking and tracing can be done in the same internet system as follows: Load unit delivered to departure station, loaded onto train, actual time of departure, planned time of arrival, estimated time of arrival in case of a disturbance, arrived at destination station, load unit ready for pick up, load unit picked up by the receiving forwarder
5. Monthly the forwarder obtains by internet information about the actual quality of the specific routes respectively rail providers. Rates of punctuality are indications of the likely quality which the forwarder can provide his customers with in future.

Most forwarding agents respectively carriers but also consignors are not very familiar with the product range the railway offers. Partly some doubts result out of bad experiences with respect to quality as well as not reconstructable price jumps in the past.

The vision to offer a complete product “rail” to potential customers tends to two directions:
On one hand the railway facilities should be at least at equal efficiency as non stop truck transport. On the other hand there should be a simply described transparency of all available offered possibilities of railway and an easy handling of this transport alternative.

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