Under the “Unlock Italy” strategy more than EUR 8 billion will be invested for railway projects in 2016, the Transport Minister Graziano Delrio announced. In 2015, EUR 9 billion were assigned to railways. The total value of the 2015-2016 investment plan for Italy’s railways is EUR 17 billion.
This is a new investment strategy on the Italian rail network which means more safety, more technology, timely and efficient transports, quality and comfort for travelers, especially commuters.
This is the link between the several measures contained in the 2015 update of the Contratto di Programma between the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport (MIT) and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, unveiled on February 11.
EUR 1.3 billion will be invested for the expansion of passenger transport in metropolitan areas, on regional lines (especially Calabria and Sardinia) and the development of links with major Italian airports.
For the high-speed transport, Italy will invest EUR 4.47 billion to complete and enhance its backbone network, continuing the horizontal axis Milan-Venice and realizing the third passage and the Brenner tunnel. Works will start with Naples-Bari and Palermo-Catania-Messina lines.
“For our country extremely important are the four network corridors passing through Italy and, therefore, the strong commitment to confirm our role as a key hub, looking for development of the single European railway area planned by the Fourth railway package,” the minister said.
EUR 758 million will be invested to improve the accessibility of the services and in the stations in Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence and Bologna areas.
For the safety of railway system in difficult territories, EUR 1.2 billion will be invested. The projects include necessary actions to limit the risks in tunnels in seismic areas.
To approach the growing demand for mobility and eliminate technologically outdated and obsolete equipment, and for traffic management, EUR 485 million will be allotted to the procurement and installation of advanced technology. In particular, the project envisaged Turin-Padua route, on the Bologna-Padua line in Naples railway junction.
For infrastructure and technological upgrading of major rail corridors will be invested EUR 487 million and includes Florence-Rome, Genoa-Ventimiglia, Milan-Bologna and Rome-Naples lines. The new technologies that RFI is installing in the urban junctions will lead to greater regularity and frequency of regional and metropolitan trains, with an advantage for the overall mobility system of the large urban junctions.
To enhance rail freight transport EUR 264 million will be directed to Mediterranean, Reno-Alps, and the Baltic-Adriatic-Mediterranean Scandinavia corridors. “The infrastructure investment decisions are aimed to develop, for a total of EUR 5.4 billion, the four TEN-T corridors crossing Italy-Scandinavian-Mediterranean, Baltic-Adriatic, Rhine-Alpine and the Mediterranean, and the related sections of rail access, and to strengthen the core terminal facilities of rail infrastructures for the revitalization of intermodal goods transport,” Maurizio Gentile, CEO of RFI said.
Transport minister pointed out the goals to be achieved in the area of goods, i.e. an overall boost of the offer, with an improvement of intermodality to intercept traffic from ports and freight terminals.
With 74 billion euros, FS is the industrial group that started the larger number of investments in Italy. EUR 45 billion are dedicated to the “Great Works” also related to the European corridors, EUR 17 billion are related to the development of the national network, made by 16 thousand kilometers with 9 thousand trains a day, EUR 8 billion for security and maintenance of the network and EUR 4 billion for technological innovation.
FS Italiane Group is ready to do its part to meet the European transport policy, which aims to move 30% of goods from road to rail, regarding the distances over 300 kilometres. In the current scenario the 96% of transport is oil-dependent.
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