A consortium of Impresa Milesi geom. Sergio, G.C.F. Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie, Skoda Transportation and Impresa Edile Stradale Artifoni has been selected as the preferred bidder to design and build the Bergamo T2 tram line.
The line will be constructed between Brembana Valley Bergamo and Villa d’Almè municipality, 7 km northwest of Bergamo. The assignment passed with a resolution of the Board of Directors of TEB, Bergamo tram operator, which formally awarded EUR 176.3 million contract.
The consortium will have to complete the design within 5 months from contract signing and the construction works are expected to start before the end of 2023.
The Bergamo T2 tram line will be 11.5 km long and will be served by 17 new stops, and two existing ones (Borgo Palazzo and San Fermo). T2 line will cross five municipalities with nine stations to be constructed in Bergamo, and in Ponteranica, Sorisole, Almè and Villa d’Almè will benefit two stations each. From the new Bronzetti stop, the interchange between the two tram lines, the T2 continues north-west along the route of the former Ferrovia della Valle Brembana (FVB), abandoned in 1966. In addition, the project provides for the preparation of two further stops, in connection with the urban redevelopment interventions in the areas of the former Reggiani in Bergamo and Gres in Sorisole.
95% of the line will be a dedicated route and will have 32 level crossings between roads and pedestrians. The entire layout is double-track with the exception of the already existing Ramera tunnel, near the future Ponteranica stop, and the historic bridge over Rino River in Villa d’Almè. In Bergamo, a tunnel (Pontesecco), overpasses and underpasses will be built to allow trams to continue along the route.
“We are facing the final stages of a complex process, which has had to deal with unforeseen instances, such as the significant increase in the cost of raw materials and the arrival of new regulations. We also wanted to listen to and follow up as much as possible on the requests of the municipal administrations affected by the new line and this required a further coordination and planning effort which was carried out with great professionalism by the whole company,” Filippo Simonetti, the president of TEB said.
The technical-economic feasibility for the line has been developed by TEB in December 2018 and one year later, the project has been selected and funded by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
EUR 211 million is the total investment, EUR 151.5 million being the co-financing of Lombardy Region, EUR 9.5 million from Municipality and Province of Bergamo and EUR 4 million from the other Municipalities involved in the route. EUR 3 million is the financing of Consorzio B.I.M. del Lago di Como, Brembo e Serio with whom the agreement was signed in December 2021.
The final phase of project’s documentation was carried out by the RTI Tramsì consortium compriding Italferr, E.T.S., SDA Progetti and Ing Arini. Belloni provided design and architectural consultancy services and the procedures for expropriation and the public consultation is currently underway.
Journey time between Bergamo to Villa d’Almè is estimated at 30 minutes. For the line, 10 32-metre-long tramways will be delivered with a maximum capacity for 239 passengers, similar to the existing vehicles, which complement the 14 trams on Line T1. Thus, a total fleet of 24 trams will be able to run on both lines at a maximum speed of 70 km/h. In the more urbanised stretch between Ponteranica and Bergamo the tramways will run at 50 km/h.
The vehicles will be served at the new depot build near the Petosino and the Operational Control Centyre of Ranica, situated on T1 Line will be responsible for the traffic management on the both lines (T1 and T2).
Bergamo T2 tram line is expected to be opened in September 2026. “The launch of the new tramway line will be an opportunity to rethink the entire public transport system in the Bergamo area,” Gianni Scarfone, CEO of TEB.
TEB expects that in rush hour with trams 82% occupied, 15,064 passengers per day will use the new service with trams travelling 1,700 km each day, for a total of 500,000 km per year. According to TEB, the line will be annually used by 4.1 – 4.5 million passengers which will benefit integrated public transport services with the bus lines in the 30 municipalities around the capital and with the extra-urban area of the Brembana and Imagna Valleys.
The line will also benefit interchange parking lots with 515 parking spaces in total and almost a one km cycle and pedestrian path which has been used since the railway line was closed. This infrastructure will be modernised to allow alternative access to the stops where spaces will be built for bicycles and mopeds.
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