UFT and RFI sign the convention for the adaptation of the shape of the railway corridor of Luino



Today to Genoa, in occasion of "international Conference 2014 on the Rhine-Alps corridor" in development to Ducal palace", the director of the Federal Office of Transports (UFT) of Switzerland, Peter Füglistaler, and the managing director of Italian Railway Net (RFI) of the Italian group FS, Maurizio Gentile, they have undersigned 28th January the implementing convention of the bilateral agreement for the adaptation of the shape of the corridor of Luino signed from the Italian minister of Infrastructures and the Transports, Maurizio Lupi, and from the Helvetic minister of the Transports, Doris Leuthard. The convention defines and plans the modalities and the times for the development of the progettuali, legal and realizzative phases of the participations on the Italian part of the railway corridor of Luino, that it connects Italy with Switzerland.

Füglistaler has evidenced that, thanks to the understanding, "within the end of the 2020 entire axis of Saint Gottardo it will be equipped of a corridor that will allow with the logistic enterprises to transport on track loaded with height to the angles with four meters". "Thanks to a special credit allocated from the Swiss Parliament last December - it has remembered - Switzerland a contribution of 120 million euros puts on in order to adapt the infrastructure to the requirements of the market. A concrete step for Swiss politics of the transports, since this line between the border of Stato and Novara respective Busto Arsizio connects the axis of Saint Gottardo with the intermodal terminal important of the north the Italian west".

The signed convention today defines technical requirement of the corridor of four meters, to realize within 2020 between Switzerland and Novara/Busto Arsizio, and disciplines the modalities of surveillance of the project. It establishes moreover the responsibilities of RFI in matter of contract and execution of the work, while the UFT exactly guarantees the financing of the measures previewed on the line of Luino for 120 million euros.

The participations in program for the adaptation of the shape of the corridor of Luino will interest mainly the features of line in gallery: milling of the time and lowering of the railroads. The yards will be operating from the second half of 2016. The cronoprogramma of the work, agreed from Italian Railway Net with railway societies Swiss SBB CFF FFS and BLS, it will afford to guarantee the traffic offer goods also during the executive phases that preview the interruption of the railway corridor. Parallel Italian Railway Net will realize also the infrastructural potenziamento of the Uproar-Milan line, than complete the picture of the participations on the lines of connection with Switzerland.

Füglistaler has evidenced as the widening of the profile of free space of the railway axis of Saint Gottardo constitutes an important element of Swiss politics of transfer of the traffic from the road to the track, to light of the increasing employment of semitowings with height to the angles of four meters by the field of the transports and the logistics. To this end - it has explained - the Parliament has approved of a total credit of 990 million franchi Swiss, comprising the deep ones for the participations in Italy. In Switzerland, between Basel and the depositor south of the Alps - it has specified - they are altogether necessary 170 measures of widening (adaptations of galleries, penthouses, lines of contact, identifying and flyover) and the greater participation is constituted by the realization of the new gallery of the Bözberg, long two kilometers.

The director of the UFT has specified which is the state of the work of construction of Alptransit, the plain railroad through the Alps that comprises the base galleries through the Lötschberg, Saint Gottardo and Monte Ceneri and is the greatest railway infrastructure project of the Swiss history with investments previewed for about 18 billion euros: "the gallery of base of the Lötschberg - Füglistaler has remembered - already is opened by 2007. 11 Decembers 2016 will enter in service the gallery of base of Saint Gottardo, than with its 57 kilometers it will be longer the railway gallery of the world. The current planning previews the inauguration in 2019 of the gallery of base of Monte Ceneri, the last one of this great project. Just yesterday - he has announced - the federal court has rejected the causes against the allocation of the last contracts, rimuovendo the last uncertainties".

"Thanks to the galleries of base - it has continued Füglistaler - along the corridor the Rhine-Alps, the more important corridor north-south for the traffic goods on railroad, it will be possible to cross the Alps on a flat tracing; in other words not there will be more large slopes to exceed. The Rhine-Alps corridor, that it connects Genoa to Rotterdam and Antwerp, takes part of the European plan face to stimulate uses it of the traffic goods on railroad and sustainable mobility through the transfer from the road to the railroad. The corridor directly connects the economic area of the Italy North with Germany and the Countries of the Benelux. The commissioning of the galleries of base of Saint Gottardo and Monte Ceneri will carry to a reduction of the distance of 30 kilometers, to a saving in terms of time of an hour about and to clearly a decrease of the production costs. The ability to the axis of Saint Gottardo, will pass from 180 to 250 freight trains to the day, and will not only allow to increase the flexibility but also to improve the punctuality".

The president of the European Group of Economic Interest for the corridor the Rhine-Alps, Guus de Mol, has found that 2014 a lot important for this transalpine railway corridor is a year: "in the first instance - he has explained - he seems that it is in existence an economic resumption and that the railway traffic is newly in increase. In 2014 - Mol has announced de - we have begun to assign traces which predetermined through our only door on the corridor. Regarding the other railway corridors goods we have had an elevated number of demands by the operators, with more than 220 dossiers. This represents beyond 60% of all the demands for traces which predetermined for current the six railway corridors goods. Besides this positive news also we have verified that beyond 90% of the demands it was not totally in compliance with the requirements of our customers. The majority of the petitioners asks places of stopped various for the change of the machinist, but also to leave the railway corridor goods or to enter to you and to continue or to leave through the ordinary net. For the next hour programming - it has admitted - we will have to offer a more flexible approach at the market so that our petitioners can carry out stopped in the resort of they chosen in the within of the which predetermined traces offered".

"From the point of view of the investments - it has added de Mol - in this moment we have two main objectives: on one side we want to introduce the European Rail Traffic System Management in a way such that in a locomotive is not more necessary to have all the types of national systems of safety, but only the ERTMS. This will allow to reduce the operating costs in meaningful way. An other main objective is that to make circular on our corridor trains with a length of 740 meters. We have finished a study - it has explained - with a plan of investments, than it concentrates them in Germany and Belgium, and we confide that the next month will be a positive decision by the ministries for a plan of investments that allows to make circular trains of 740 meters in the end of this decade. At last we consider that for the increase of the activity in our corridor there is need of an increase also in the other corridors since the rail shipment of the goods work in a net and not only on our corridor. For this reason we have agreed with the other railway corridors goods in Europe to promote the objective common to favor with all our corridors the rail shipment of the goods on the European net. Goods is started a collaboration between the nine railway corridors on the aim of a harmonization and in order to act not as single corridors, but as a part of the European railway net. At the end, for the customer - Guus de Mol has stated - not draft of the use of a railway corridor goods, how much of a net".