The 110 million project included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Undersecretary Cancellieri: “Works finished by 2026”
IVREA. The electrification of the Ivrea-Aosta railway line becomes a reality. Yesterday morning, Undersecretary for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility Giancarlo Cancelleri announced the inclusion of this strategic work for the territory in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. An investment of 110 million euros (88 already included in the Pnrr and the other 26 that will arrive in the next update of the program contract) to be carried out by 2026. “The European Commission’s ok is missing – explains Undersecretary Cancelleri – but I feel to ensure that this is only a formal step. I am convinced that the works could start as early as 2022 thanks to the fact that all the works included in the Pnrr will benefit from the simplifications of the rules on the procurement code. This means rapid times ».
In detail, the work involves the electrification of the existing 66 kilometers of line between the Ivrea and Aosta stations, with the construction of three new electrical substations in the railway areas of Aosta, Châtillon and Donnas. Furthermore, interventions are planned on the existing tunnels where the shape will be enlarged and the iron surface lowered. At the same time some railroad overpasses will be redone to allow the installation of the contact line. “The objectives – explained the deputy of the M5s Elisa Tripodi – is to improve the performance of the line also in relation to the possible possibility of providing more performing rolling stock and environmental benefits deriving from the complete elimination of diesel traction”.
Therefore, only the definitive project is missing (the preliminary dates back to 2010) for the electrification of the section, which RFI announced ready in the second half of this year. In fact, in this phase Rfi will decide how to manage the node of the two Ivrea tunnels to be raised, whether to do it, that is, by endorsing the solution envisaged in the preliminary agreement or to explore new ones. To electrify the railway line it is necessary to raise the road embankment under which the trains pass by one meter, from the tunnel on the Dora in Corso Cavour to Porta Aosta: the railway tunnel after the bridge over the Dora that passes under the center, and the other at the height of the Aosta gate, they do not in fact have the minimum height to allow convoys to pass.
“I hope that with the electrification of the section – concluded the deputy mayor of the metropolitan city Marco Marocco – the Piedmont Region will take the possibility of having some trains stop even in the smaller stations abandoned in the past between Ivrea and Quicinetto”. Outside the Pnrr, however, the other strategic work remains to make the Aosta-Ivrea – Turin connection faster and safer, namely the doubling of the tracks in the Ivrea-Chivasso section.
«This intervention has a strategic importance for the Valle d’Aosta and the Canavese – commented Chiara Minelli, councilor for the environment, transport and sustainable mobility of the Valle d’Aosta Region -. In 4/5 years, once the work is completed, we will no longer have load breakages, we will no longer have diesel locomotives, we will have a wide range of electric trains, there will no longer be penalties for travelers from Valle d’Aosta or Canavese, we will finally be able to time the trains and the relative connections with the lateral valleys, we will have more effective safety and control systems ». –