The new Treviglio - Brescia High Speed / High Capacity line is now operative, and as of tomorrow, 11 December, will be open to travellers, linking Brescia with Milan in just 36 minutes. Aboard a Frecciarossa 1000 for today’s inaugural journey was the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Graziano Delrio, accompanied by the top management of FS Italiane Group, the President Gioia Ghezzi and the CEO and General Director Renato Mazzoncini.
Also aboard the train were the Governor of the Lombardia Region, Roberto Maroni and the Mayor of Brescia, Emilio Del Bono, together with the top management of the FS Italiane Group operating companies Claudia Cattani (President of RFI), Maurizio Gentile (CEO of RFI), Barbara Morgante (CEO of Trenitalia).
Other passengers included the Councillor for Infrastructure and Mobility of the Lombardia Region, Alessandro Sorte, the Mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, the President of Cepav Due Franco Lombardi, and the mayors of the municipalities the High Speed / High Capacity line passes through.
The new High Speed / High Capacity Brescia – Milan line is a further step towards the completion of the High Speed / High Capacity Milan-Venice line and the TEN-T Mediterranean Core Corridor, of which it is an integral part, running from the Iberian Peninsula to the Ukrainian border, and which in Italy runs from Turin to Trieste.
The total economic investment consists of almost €2 billion.
The completion of the Brescia – Milano line (the Milan – Treviglio stretch has been operative since 2007) cuts travel time between the two cities from 46 to 36 minutes, and will be further reduced to 30 minutes once all the work on the interconnections has been completed. It also separates the traffic flows (high speed, medium and long distance, regional/metropolitan and freight trains), guaranteeing smoother traffic, a more regular, punctual rail service and a more dependable overall rail infrastructure.
The activation of the High Speed line between Milano and Brescia offers a greater choice, with Trenitalia’s Frecciarossa trains, of travel options to and from the Veneto region, saving about 10 minutes’ travel time on the Torino – Milano – Venezia route. In addition, with the 2016/2017 Trenitalia winter timetable, in force from tomorrow 11 December, Brescia will have a daily direct Frecciarossa service for Rome and Naples.
A further advantage of the new High Speed / High Capacity line is that it doubles the capacity of the time slots available to rail companies, and also offers clear advantages for the numerous goods transport rail companies for national and international train links and links with the main industrial hubs in Italy.
The next phase for the completion of the high speed line between Milan and Venice is the first lot, Brescia - Verona, work on which is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2017. For the second and final lot, Verona - Padua, work on the first stretch of the line, Verona – Vicenza Crossing will also begin in 2017.
(Source: FS Italiane)
