Move politics away from transportation
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editorial
NoonMarch 1, 2023 – 07:27
Of Roberto Calise
Let’s not say it out loud, but Napoli could be close to their third championship. The culmination of a growth process, climbing Serie A year after year, on several occasions coming close to the title. However it goes, it will be the demonstration that a project, if well supported and carried out consistently, pays off with the right results. Instead, where Naples and Campania have been at the top for some time is the ranking of the worst railway lines in Italy, which symbolically every year Legambiente draws up as part of the wider Pendolaria, the only independent report on the state of health of rail transport in the Village. Feared by politics, for citizens it is a light of truth in a sector where, paradoxically, it is almost impossible to have a global vision, despite the fact that we are dealing with public services. The Campanian one is a sad record recognized with great sportsmanship also by the President of EAV, Umberto De Gregorio, recently interviewed by Rai Tre sends me in a special dedicated to mobility in the major Italian cities.
The critical issues raised by Pendolaria are in fact transversal to the entire country, with two major sufferers: Naples and Rome. In the last ten years, all public transport companies in Lazio and Campania (Atac, Cotral, Anm, Ctp, Eav) have gone through difficult recovery operations or have gone bankrupt, with obvious repercussions on the quality of services.
This means that structurally 12% of the Italian population, i.e. the 7.2 million citizens residing between the provinces of Naples and Rome, could not count on reliable transport, with consequences that are difficult to quantify on the quality of life, economy, the real estate market, the health of all of us.
The result has been told by Fabrizio Geremicca on these pages: from 2009 to today, passengers on the Campania regional lines have halved, from 400,000 to around 200,000. A fact that is evidenced daily, with the crazy Neapolitan traffic that makes the road system suffer.
It is impressive how the data of Pendolaria 2023 are not very different from those of the same reports of ten years ago. Yet, political and managerial seasons have alternated.
The long wave of Covid, it is true, affects the balance sheets of companies and the minds of more frightened travellers.
However, in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, the numbers were still steadily worsening. Weigh trains and buses still old and inefficient, of course. The eternal times of construction sites weigh heavily, even when there are no archaeological or excavation problems (that is, contrary to popular belief, most of the cases). The bureaucracy weighs heavily, cumbersome and often hostile, which slows down the important investments in place. However, is that sufficient to provide an answer?
As in the example of football, if you have a precise idea in mind with the right skills and economic resources you can achieve results. Naples has been at the helm of the Serie A for transport for a long time thanks to a clear and well-funded political line.
Today, compared to that period which ended 13 years ago, according to Legambiente there are even fewer rides. This makes the private car an increasingly indispensable asset for defending one’s right to mobility (613 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants).
In the face of these data, it is legitimate to ask whether the model adopted is correct: it may therefore be useful to look elsewhere. Actually, not too far away. The airport of the capital, and shortly that of Salerno, are managed by a private capital company. The high-speed stations from a public company, but which operates with private criteria. Two examples on which there is unanimous approval of efficiency.
As long as the double thread that binds politics, trade unions and local operators is not cut, the results photographed by Legambiente will hardly change despite the investments, the numbers of which are grainy like a rosary on every useful occasion.
De Laurentiis has sworn that he will not sell the champions in the team, so as to open a winning cycle.
Campania transport, on the other hand, must aim to move away from the top management of Pendolaria and to change the results of the field, it is known, a re-foundation is always necessary; as Naples teaches.
March 1, 2023 | 07:27
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