At the 36th Franco-Italian summit on 25–26 June in Antibes, French transport minister Philippe Tabarot and his Italian counterpart signed a joint declaration making the Marseille–Nice–Genoa railway a ‘priority cross-border project’ for the EU’s next Connecting Europe Facility budget 2028-2034. The move is designed to secure billions in grants for the Ligne Nouvelle Provence-Côte d’Azur (LNPCA) and associated rolling-stock upgrades.
![Franco-Italian summit unlocks funding path for Marseille–Nice–Genoa rail corridor]()
For organisations already planning for an uptick in cross-border movements once these rail investments come online, VisaHQ can smooth the administrative side of travel by providing fast, reliable visa and entry-permit support for both France and Italy. Its online platform (https://www.visahq.com/france/) offers real-time guidance, document checking and application processing, making it easier for mobility managers to keep staff compliant as journey times shrink across the Marseille–Nice–Genoa corridor.
For employers, the headline is improved door-to-door journey times: the LNPCA will raise frequencies in Marseille, Toulon and Nice by 66 % and create hourly high-speed links to Genoa once the coastal section is electrified. The declaration also restarts the Alpine rolling-highway between Aiton (FR) and Orbassano (IT), giving logistics operators a greener alternative for 25,000 trucks a year that currently cross the Mont-Blanc tunnel. In parallel, the ministers confirmed summer tendering for renovation of the historic Tende road tunnel—vital for commuters in the Roya valley—and reiterated joint backing for the Lyon–Turin base tunnel, 50 km of which have already been bored. The summit outcomes mean mobility managers can anticipate more resilient options for intra-company travel and freight from 2030 onwards. HR teams relocating staff to the French Riviera or Liguria should factor in a future where rail overtakes short-haul flights on the busy Marseille–Nice–Genoa triangle. French regional authorities expect preliminary construction work on the first LNPCA segments to begin in early 2028, with phased openings from 2033.
For organisations already planning for an uptick in cross-border movements once these rail investments come online, VisaHQ can smooth the administrative side of travel by providing fast, reliable visa and entry-permit support for both France and Italy. Its online platform (https://www.visahq.com/france/) offers real-time guidance, document checking and application processing, making it easier for mobility managers to keep staff compliant as journey times shrink across the Marseille–Nice–Genoa corridor.
For employers, the headline is improved door-to-door journey times: the LNPCA will raise frequencies in Marseille, Toulon and Nice by 66 % and create hourly high-speed links to Genoa once the coastal section is electrified. The declaration also restarts the Alpine rolling-highway between Aiton (FR) and Orbassano (IT), giving logistics operators a greener alternative for 25,000 trucks a year that currently cross the Mont-Blanc tunnel. In parallel, the ministers confirmed summer tendering for renovation of the historic Tende road tunnel—vital for commuters in the Roya valley—and reiterated joint backing for the Lyon–Turin base tunnel, 50 km of which have already been bored. The summit outcomes mean mobility managers can anticipate more resilient options for intra-company travel and freight from 2030 onwards. HR teams relocating staff to the French Riviera or Liguria should factor in a future where rail overtakes short-haul flights on the busy Marseille–Nice–Genoa triangle. French regional authorities expect preliminary construction work on the first LNPCA segments to begin in early 2028, with phased openings from 2033.
