The railway axis Lyon – Trieste – Divača (Koper) – Ljubljana – Budapest – border between Hungary and Ukraine which presents the eastern half of the Mediterranean Corridor as determined by the European Commission with the New EU Transport Infrastructure Policy of 17 October 2013 is to be established. The European Commission highlighted two key railway projects in the Mediterranean Corridor, namely the connection between Lyon and Torino and the railway link Venice – Ljubljana, part of which is also the cross-border section Trieste – Divača between Italy and Slovenia, divided into Italian and Slovenian parts. For the Slovenian part, the company PNZ d.o.o. from Ljubljana created a preliminary design in 2014. The article presents the development of project solutions, starting points for design, and technical solutions of the project. The railway infrastructure, which is the object of this preliminary design, consists of four parts: the first one concerns the basic outline of the Mediterranean Corridor, and the other three provide connection of this section to the existing railway infrastructure in the area of Divača. The first part features a high-function double track for mixed traffic (passenger and freight transport) in the length of 10.9 km. The second part includes the west part of the railway node of Divača enabling connection of trains from the Port of Koper to the basic route. The third part features a presentation of the main railway line No. 50 Ljubljana – Sežana – state border with Italy in the length of 1,224 m. The fourth part presents the 394 m long connecting axis Koper – Sežana. There are many facilities on the route, the biggest of which is the cross-border tunnel Lanaro/Volnik with length of 15,084 m (length of the Slovenian part 3,825 m). Furthermore, a 3D visualisation has been prepared in order to present the project to the general public. This link represents the first part of a high-function railway line enabling speeds up to 250 km/h in Slovenia. During the design phase, a new comprehensive settlement of the hub of Divača has been considered, which enables a complete connection of freight traffic from the Port of Koper along the railway line Koper – Divača (the first existing track and the planned second track) to the new railway line Venice – Ljubljana. Besides the preliminary design, the article presents also a broader conceptual framework of the possible development of railway infrastructure in the area of Trieste and Koper and in the direction of Ljubljana.

high speed railway; Mediterranean Corridor; cross-border section Trieste – Divača; preliminary design