Railways and new metros in Lombardy, “44% of construction sites stopped”. Among the critical points is the Milan hub

«If we look at the 15 infrastructure systems that make up the mosaic of the logistics system of Northern Italy… the Rhine-Alpine Corridor is suffering the mostthe system of Alpine passes and the Milan metropolitan hub». From the latest Oti Nord report, the observatory document Confindustria on the entire mobility of people and goods from Piedmont to Friuli, two of the three most critical points directly affect Milan. The picture is clarified in the graph which photographs whether and how much the construction sites of railways, roads, exchange and shunting hubs around the Lombardy capital are progressing: in 2022, 30 percent of projects were proceeding as planned; 40 percent were making progress, albeit with some delay; the remaining 30 percent were stalled. In the 2023 the scenario has changed. For the worse: on the one hand, the construction sites progressing according to plan have risen above 33 percent and those behind schedule have fallen to 22, but the stopped projects went from 30 to over 44 percent of the total.

The report from the Confindustria Observatory touches on a decisive aspect for Milan: that it increases its power of attraction for economic activities, but requires increasingly efficient mobility, both for trade and for a large portion of the population who, also due to the increase in the cost of living, will have an increasingly pressing need to move between cities, metropolitan areas and nearby provinces. And many critical points concern commuters: among the construction sites “with some slowdowns and critical issues” (in 2023 compared to 2022) include those of the railway line Milan-Seveso-Asso; among those “late”, the Milan-Mortara and the quadrupling of the stretch Pavia-Voghera on the new Milan-Genoa high speed train (it is hoped that at least the Rogoredo-Pieve Emanuele section will be completed by 2026).

Overall, it means three terrible “funnels” in rail travel to the North, West and South-West of Milan, for which there is no short-term solution in sight, and for which the hope is closure in 2030.

On the line Milan-Assoconstruction sites could happen open «in 2024, and close by 2027 (one year later than the previous scenario). The total cost is 68 million, already available.” And again: «The upgrading of the Milan-Mortara line – adds the report – involves the doubling of the entire line, allowing for an increase in railway capacity… The intervention has a total cost of approximately 874 million and involves implementation in phases . The interventions of the first phase include the doubling of the route Albairate-Abbiategrassowith a cost of 282 million euros, to date unfunded”.

Moving on to the subways, the works in the city (completion of M4) have a regular rhythm, while extensions suffer: for the arrival of the M1 in Monza Bettola, «the works, which have progressed by 55 percent, were interrupted by the company, which requested further financing of 38 million euros. The opening of the route for operations, which had been scheduled for the end of 2024, is expected to be postponed to 2027.” Still towards Monza, for the M5 connection “the start of construction is scheduled for the beginning of 2025 and the conclusion at the beginning of 2032 (delayed by more than two years compared to what was initially expected)”.

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April 19, 2024

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