During question time in the Chamber, the Meloni government was called to respond on train delays and the inconveniences of the last few days. Minister Ciriani said that the delays are “in line” with recent years, and that the problem is the many open construction sites. Then he admitted that we could move towards a reduction in train runs, to avoid “overloads”.
“The delays registered on the different types of railway connections are at percentages in line with those of recent years“. This was said by the Minister for Relations with Parliament Luca Ciriani, who spoke in the Chamber to answer question time. The question, posed by Azione, was what the Ministry of Transport was doing to resolve the continuous inconveniences on the railway network. Ciriani he presented himself in place of Transport Minister Salvini, and limited himself to underlining that, in reality, there are no more delays than usual.
The percentages of delays “in line” with the past: “But we are sorry for the inconveniences”
“The punctuality rate is 74% for Arrows, 82.6% for Intercity and 88.9% for Regionals,” he said, citing statistics provided by the group State Railways. A group which, however, just today filed a complaint denouncing the “too many suspicious incidents” which have caused delays in recent days. In short, not exactly a situation in which everything proceeds as normal.
Ciriani, moreover, also said: “We understand the difficulties that Italians are experiencing due to the inconveniences”, and “the government is extremely sorry about this and confirms its commitment to improving the entire Italian railway law and the service offered”. The government is “sorry” for the inconveniences, in short, but on the other hand maintains that the delays are perfectly in line with the past: “It must be specified that we are not faced with chronic problems”, reiterated Ciriani.
In recent days, after the weekend saw delays and cancellations throughout Italy, the inconveniences have continued on several routes. The delays, said the minister, are caused “34% by the reliability of the infrastructure and 25% by the rolling stock”. While “the remaining share originates from causes external to the railway system and the consequent repercussions on circulation”.
The problem is the construction sites
Ciriani also said that construction sites have increased significantly in the last period: “the necessary interventions have increased, also for maintenance as well as for the strengthening of the infrastructural and technological network, financed with Pnrr funds”. All these construction sites, he said, will serve to “increase the quality and regularity of the service”. But “the benefits on train punctuality will only be seen in the medium term“.
In short, in the future the construction sites opened today will improve the service. Today, however, “they generate inevitable effects on the transport service and uncomfortable situations like those we have witnessed recently”. For this reason, “in the short term the manager took prompt action to identify emergency prevention and management measures”, said the minister.
Ferrovie dello Stato would have activated “specific contingency plans, and with a strengthening of the on-site presence of maintenance personnel on the entire network, to reduce intervention times in case of necessity”. “Specific preventive maintenance interventions were carried out, additional diagnostic systems were installed” and user support systems were also “strengthened”.
The possible reduction of train runs
The minister also explained that, in addition to construction sites, the increase in train travel in recent years has also contributed to the inconvenience. For this reason, he opened to one reduction in travel: “In-depth studies are underway for the remodulation and rationalization of the offer by RFI, in agreement with the railway companies, sector stakeholders and the transport regulatory authority. RFI has started a study to develop a new catalog of the offer, aimed at alleviating the pressure on the most congested large systems, to specialize the lines and stations”.
There are no details yet, but Ciriani specified that this change will have to “guarantee the same level of connectivity”, and that the aim will above all be to reduce the “network overload associated with duplication of service offerings“, i.e. (it is assumed) cases in which more than one train travels the same route at the same time.
Source: www.fanpage.it
