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The Ports of Aveiro and Figueira da Foz promoted yesterday, 27 April, at the Vista Alegre Museum in Ílhavo, an international seminar on "Rail Growth in the Iberian Atlantic Corridor - Challenges & Opportunities".

The seminar, which was held as part of the Cencyl project, aimed to promote the development of the rail corridor between Portugal and Spain, namely the provision of rail services between the Portuguese ports in the central region and the existing dry ports in the region of Castilla y León.

The opening session was opened by Eduardo Feio, President of the Board of Directors of the Ports of Aveiro and Figueira da Foz, Carlos Garcia Carbayo, Mayor of Salamanca, and João Campolargo, Mayor of Ílhavo. The closing session was attended by Isabel Damasceno, President of CCDR-Centro.

The first panel, entitled "The Quality of Railway Infrastructures in the Iberian Corridor - Challenges", was moderated by Fernando Gonçalves, Director of Transportes & Negócios. The guest speakers covered different areas: Daniela Carvalho, consultant for the Atlantic Corridor at TIS. pt, focused on the revision of the TEN-T to promote rail and short sea shipping; Mário Fernandes, Director of Strategic Planning at Infraestruturas de Portugal, presented the National Rail Plan, focusing on improvements to the North International Corridor and dry ports; Marta Alves, Director of the Strategy Office of APA and APFF, presented the ports of Aveiro and Figueira da Foz as competitive multimodal platforms; and Pablo Hoya, Director General of ZALDESA, spoke about the dry port of Salamanca as a competitive link with the Atlantic ports.

The second panel, in round table format and moderated by Dora Assis, Director of Supply Chain Magazine, discussed "Rail services of the future - levers for their growth" and featured a panel consisting of António Nabo Martins, Executive President of APAT, Francisco Fonseca, Vice President of ANTRAM for the Northern Region, and Miguel Rebelo de Sousa, President of APEF. 

The seminar took place in the framework of the project Green Transition of Cities and Territories CENCYL Portugal - Spain, financed by ERDF - Interreg Spain - Portugal.