The line of Luino is the more important director for the transport arranged not accompanied on the Switzerland-Italy axis



Today to Zurich, in the course of the press conference on the topic "railway Traffic goods from the point of view of the customers", the associations and companies UIRR (International Union of combined Road-Rail transport companies), ERFA (European Rail Freight Association), VAP (Verlader Anschlussgeleise Privatgüterwagen), Union of Public transport (VÖV UTP), Ralpin and Hupac has introduced position paper from the title "a Line of Luino, key factor for the transfer of the traffic" in which it is evidenced as the access lines continue to being the critical factor for the great project of Alptransit, that it has the objective to realize a competitive infrastructure for the railway transport goods in the corridor North-South on the director Svizzera-Italia.

In document UIRR, ERFA, VAP, VÖV UTP, Ralpin and Hupac explain that in the argument on the choice of the tracing the priority to the axis via Uproar is given, while the line of Luino, that it manages 80% of the arranged traffic accompanied - they denounce - is not lost sight of and such change of strategy will have heavy consequences on the transfer of the traffic.

The position paper it remembers that "the line of Luino is the more important director for the transport arranged accompanied (TCNA) through Switzerland and is not a central element in the corridor Rotterdam-Genoa goods. It astonishes therefore - UIRR, ERFA, VAP, VÖV UTP, Ralpin and Hupac find - than the international development of infrastructures more and more loses sight this important line for the traffic goods".

"The strategic development of the arranged transport - the document continues - must keep in mind of various factors: the suitability of the railway lines to the transport goods, the ability and the quality of the traces and the abilities to the terminals. In the process of coordination in course between Switzerland and Italy it seems that some important aspects are not taken in consideration. The focalization on the line of Uproar, currently persecuted from the summits of the railroads and the administrations, shrinks the perspectives of development of today's system TCNA and sends back far away to future advantages to which it had been inhaled with the mass according to Alptransit. Perhaps this belittles the value of the investments already carried out in the arranged transport and puts in politics of transfer of the traffic".

According to UIRR, ERFA, VAP, VÖV UTP, Ralpin and Hupac, it must act on two levels: a modest potenziamento of the Bellinzona-Luino-Novara line for the current traffic in the earlier stage and the realization of a corridor for the transport goods via Uproar-Seregno-Bergamo in a second phase for the future traffic.

The position paper it remembers that 80% of the TCNA through the Gottardo use the Bellinzona-Luino-Novara line and that the great terminals of the Italy North are connected to the line of Luino. "It is not a case - it explains - than numerous terminals of transfer as Arsizio-Gallarate Bust, Novara, Oleggio and various smaller terminals have been installed in the area of intersection of the line of Luino and that of the Lötschberg/Sempione. These terminals are not approachable via Uproar, or only dearly in economic terms and of transit Time".

Moreover "the line of Luino will be in future the only plain railroad through Switzerland. The line of Luino - UIRR, ERFA, VAP, VÖV UTP, Ralpin and Hupac observe - is the line of ideal traffic goods also for another reason: it has the maximum slope of the 12 ‰, and after the opening of the tunnel of base of the Gottardo it will be the only true plain railroad in the Rotterdam-Genoa corridor. Via Luino in future trains from 1.800 tons with an only locomotive will be able to journey. On the line of Uproar, instead, permangono of the slopes of the 15-21 ‰ in the zone of Mendrisio. This means that the freight trains also in future, although the tunnels of base of the Gottardo and Ashes, will need of the double traction that weighs on the costs remarkablly".

Moreover UIRR, ERFA, VAP, VÖV UTP, Ralpin and Hupac state as for the transport arranged via Uproar the area of Milan represents the ring weak person: "the transport concepts goods that preview the crosswalk of Milan - explain - they do not take note of the truth. With 2.000 fleeting trains to the day, the metropolitan area of Milan is already today at the best of its ability. The freight trains can only journey via Uproar of night, in narrow time slots and to prices of trace much elevating. The density of the takeovers places strong restrictions to the transit of the trains that transport goods dangerous. In the city zone a potenziamento of the lines for the long trains 750 meters is unthinkable". Moreover "the abilities to the terminals in the zone of long Milan the axis of Uproar are exhausted".