High speed rail in Italy moving forward thanks to EU support

The European Union will provide combined support of €10 million from the TEN-T Programme for two key rail infrastructure projects taking place in the northern Italian region of Lombardy. The projects, which will involve the construction of tunnels as well as technological upgrades to Milan’s train control centre, will contribute to the realisation of the “Railway axis Lyon-Trieste-Divača/Koper-Divača-Ljubljana-Budapest-Ukrainian border” (TEN-T Priority Project 6).

The first project, which was selected for funding under the 2011 TEN-T Annual Call and will receive €5 million in support, concerns technological upgrades to be made at Milan’s train control centre. Five new automated computers able to remotely command and control signals, switches and more on the Turin-Milan-Verona-Padua high speed line will be installed in a new building especially created for this purpose.

By creating a unique command and control site in Milan for the entire Turin-Milan-Verona-Padua line, the project will facilitate interoperability and contribute to the improvement of network safety and reliability, as well as facilitating freight and passenger rail transport along Priority Project 6.

The second project, which was also selected for funding under the 2011 TEN-T Annual Call and will also receive €5 million in support, involves the construction of two tunnels on the same Turin-Milan-Verona-Padua high speed line just before the town of Brescia. The new tunnels will eliminate a bottleneck on the line and thus significantly improve the capacity and speed of east-west rail connections within Italy and the broader EU.

The project, which will be managed by the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency, is set to be concluded by December 2014.

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