For Liguria a robust iron care is announced. We are talking about 1 billion and 315 million euros more to strengthen the Ligurian railway infrastructure. This is what was approved at the end of July by the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning and Sustainable Development (Cipess, the body that took the place of Cipe) in the update of the 2017-2021 program contract of RFI (Italian railway network, company of the Fs group). “A great result for Liguria – comments the councilor for economic development of the Liguria Region, Andrea Benveduti – which will largely cover the extra costs of works, such as the Third Pass and the Genoa node, essential for economic growth and of our region “. The intervention on the Genoa railway junction provides for the integration of the existing lines with the new tracks, the adaptation and enhancement of the structures, with the aim of separating the circulation of long-distance trains from those of a regional and metropolitan nature. In essence, building the railway junction will mean setting up a preferential rail lane for goods that will take the Europe road from the port of Genoa, right on the high-speed railway tracks of the Third Pass. Also present in the RFI document are the Campasso Park, the coverage of the Milan-Genoa speeding up intervention and the modernization of the Vado Ligure railway park. The commissioner continues: “We asked the ministry for guarantees for the inclusion, in the next program contract 2022-2026, of extremely important interventions for the logistics area of the North West, such as the doubling of the Finale-Andora line, the quadrupling of Milan -Pavia and Tortona-Voghera and the doubling of Parma-La Spezia ».
The quadrupling referred to by the commissioner concerns the continuation to Milan and Switzerland of the high-speed line of the Third Pass, based on the maxi tunnel under construction between Genoa and Novi Ligure, which represents the continuation on the Italian side of the Reno-Alps corridor. The Tortona-Milan section could constitute a bottleneck for future rail traffic. As well as the connection between the port of Genoa and the entrance to the Third Pass, with problems of slopes that will have to be resolved in the meantime. Meanwhile, the tunnel excavation works are well underway: the progress of the construction sites is approximately 55% of the total. An alarm bell rang at the end of August after the Consorzio Tunnel Giovi (Ctg), made up of the companies Pizzarotti at 70% and Collini at 30%, stopped its construction sites (two tunnels, one under construction on the Ligurian side and the other in the province of Alessandria) and placed about 300 workers on layoffs for at least 13 weeks, or three months. There are about 100 million extra costs at stake. The dispute is over who has to pay the significant amount. The risk now is that there may also be repercussions on the main construction sites. The extraordinary commissioner of the Terzo Valico Calogero Mauceri is working to resolve the dispute, while the government is watching because “we cannot allow any delay” on this work. The commercial plan of RFI, updated in the light of the PNRR with the August 2021 edition, also clarifies the investments in Genoa. Among the various interventions, the construction of a new station called Genova Marittima Fuori Muro, in correspondence with the current Fuori Muro park, is planned. For all these projects, or at least the first phase, the time horizon is 2026, as foreseen by the NRP.
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The works of the Third Pass, the strengthening of the urban hub of Genoa and the consequent development of the port will allow the territory to be increasingly connected to Europe, up to the North Sea. The two-year period 2024-2026 is the goal that companies, institutions and the FS Group have set to complete the works and launch the new fast trains. Delays permitting.