10/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - Further plea from Gaston Franco for Barcelona-Genoa HSL. With the backing of EPP MEPs from the Mediterranean arc, Gaston Franco (France) called once again for the inclusion of the Barcelona to Genoa high-speed rail line (HSL) to form part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) (see EUROPE 10293). The call was made in a letter to Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas and was signed jointly by Franco and six other MEPs: Dominique Vlasto and Marie-Thérèse Sanchez-Schmidt of France, Alejo Vidal-Quadras and Santiago Fisas Ayxela of Spain and Carlo Fidanza of Italy. “Completion of a continuous, high-performance rail link between Barcelona, Perpignan, Marseilles, Nice and Genoa would relieve the strain on existing infrastructure”, “make it easier to manage the flow of people and goods” and “connect the major ports of the Mediterranean”, they say in their letter sent on Wednesday 9 February. They add: “The great benefit of this project is that it would give substance to the complementary nature of our lands and the shared destiny which unites us”. (A.By./transl.rt)