Fs, the Bologna-Prato will become a corridor for freight trains
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The growth of freight transport by rail passes through the construction of new infrastructures, but also through the upgrading of existing ones. And it is for this reason that Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), parent company of the infrastructure pole of the FS Group, is engaged in the technological and infrastructural modernization of the conventional line (historical line) Bologna-Prato, to adapt the network to European standards as scheduled the traffic of goods, after the first phase of the works was already completed in 2021, concentrated in the Vernio-Prato section. The total investment is over 530 million euros, of which about 93 million destined for the interventions scheduled between Pianoro and San Benedetto Val di Sambro, where the construction sites have been started in recent months. To reduce the impact on train traffic along the Bologna-Prato line, three phases of intervention have been envisaged, all lasting 12 months and taking place in alternate years. The Vernio-Prato section has already been completed; now it’s the turn of the line between Pianoro and San Benedetto Val di Sambro; finally, between December 2024 and December 2025, the RFI construction sites will move between San Benedetto Val di Sambro and Vernio.
The conventional network affected by the works runs parallel to the high-speed one and represents the heart of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean railway corridor, a crucial axis for the European economy and trade, given its objective of promoting the transport of goods between Norway and Sweden, the heart of central Europe and Italy, up to the extreme south, enhancing our country also as a large logistic platform in the Mediterranean. In this context, the interventions, once completed, will immediately ensure a more effective connection between the Tuscan ports and the Emilia-Romagna port and logistics system with central and northern Europe. The goal is therefore to deliver by the end of 2025 a work capable of facilitating the mission that the FS Group has set itself in its ten-year business plan: to double the share of freight traveling by rail. An objective to be achieved also through the promotion of intermodality and therefore of the connection of the railway with the main ports of the country. Not just goods, though. Overall, all railway traffic will benefit from the planned works in terms of greater regularity and punctuality of the line.
In detail, the planned interventions concern tunnels, tracks, power lines and technological systems for the movement of trains, to allow the passage of goods convoys used for the transport of semi-trailers and high cube containers (rolling highway). The most complex activity will be that of widening more than 40 kilometers of tunnels for a total of 17 tunnels, which will require the milling of the vaults, the lowering of the iron surface and the adjustment of the electric power supply lines for the trains. The largest of the 17 tunnels is over seven kilometers long. On the other hand, the improvement of traffic management systems will increase the efficiency and reliability of all rail traffic, not only freight, but also regional and medium and long-distance ones.
Rfi explains: «The works have been planned to contain the impact on commuter mobility, with the summer closure of schools and the closure, albeit of shorter duration, of some work activities. However, replacement services are provided with buses agreed by Rfi, Trenitalia and Trenitalia Tper with the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Tuscany Region, local institutions and commuter committees. From Sunday 11 June until 11 August 2023, railway traffic will be suspended between Pianoro and Vernio; from 12 August to 3 September between Pianoro and Prato; from 11 September to 12 November 2023 between Bologna and San Benedetto Val di Sambro. No changes to the service on the Bologna-Florence high-speed line.
THE NUMBERS
4 thousand
The construction sites of Rfi (Fs)
“As Polo Infrastrutture of the FS Group we already have over 4,000 construction sites underway throughout Italy for over 42 billion euros between new works and maintenance of existing lines”. Gianpiero Strisciuglio, managing director of the Italian railway network (RFI) says so
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