Heated debate in the city council as part of the discussion on the agenda presented by the group leader of the Democratic Party council group Roberto Poli regarding the daily ordeal of commuters of the Cremonese and non-Cremonese railway lines.
Among the requests, that of persevere in asking the Lombardy Region to pay attention to the railway system in the Cremona area. But also to ask councilor Lucente to reopen the Cremona-Piacenza connection; to equip the lines with new vehicles; to prepare a replacement service plan that takes into consideration the use and strengthening of other railway lines and routes in consideration of the expected closure of the Cremona-Codogno line for the doubling of the line; to review the methods of obtaining the railway bonus whose recent changes have made the bonus much more complex to request.
After the proponent explained the agenda, the debate opened with the interventions of the councillors Enrico Manfredini (Making the City New – Cremona Ativa), Simona Sommi (Lega), Pietro Burgazzi (Mixed Group), Roberto Poli (Democratic party), Carlo Malvezzi (Forza Italia) e Nicola Pini (Democratic party). The councilor for Mobility spoke on behalf of the municipal administration Simona Pasquali underlining, among other things, that “for the construction of the first lot – Codogno-Piadena – an interruption of approximately four and a half years is expected. The Municipality has already asked to know what temporary solutions are foreseen when entering and leaving Cremona.
In fact, the shift from current rail transport to road transport for a prolonged period entails significant inconvenience for commuters and an increase in environmental aspects. Hence the request for evaluate a solution that strengthens the iron lines in other directionsso as to bypass the interruption of the works: in particular we are thinking of strengthening/implementing the Brescia-Cremona-Piacenza lines (with the possibility of passage of multi-storey trains), Cremona – Parma and Cremona-Treviglio”.
The councilor also focused on the critical issues presented by the bonus. “Doubling is important and must be supportedinvolves problems that must be addressed, certainly not thinking about the transport of thousands of commuters, in support of whom we must be united, with buses” said Pasquali.
There was no shortage of broadsides from both sides. “The attitude of the local centre-right is embarrassing to defend the regional council it defends the indefensible” highlights councilor Poli. “It really takes nerve to maintain that the trains are decent and that the Region has done everything it could do.
Fortunately, the usual divisions of the center-right on this occasion led councilor Monteverdi, elected in FDI, to vote in favor of our motion. Which is also a photograph of reality. The reality is that commuters have been suffering for years from delays, cancellations and unacceptable safety and air conditioning conditions on trains.. And insult was added to the damage with the suppression of the automatic delay bonus.
And despite Trenord’s terrible performances, the Regional Council re-entrusted the service to Trenord itself until 2033, without proceeding with a tender that could have generated competition useful for improving the service. As suggested not only by the Democratic Party, but by many commuter committees.”
For its part, the center-right rejects the accusations against the sender: “We find it unacceptable and squalid that the Cremonese left continues to exploit the sacrifices of Cremonese commuters, presenting a useless agenda with a clear propaganda flavour” underlines Malvezzi.
“Everyone knows that to solve the problem of rail transport, huge investments are needed both in rolling stock and in the network. In recent years the Lombardy Region has taken steps to renew much of the rolling stockputting 154 new trains into circulation, several of which are destined for our lines, with a total investment of approximately 1.7 billion euros.
The works on the first section of the doubling of the Codogno, Cremona, Mantua line are underway under construction, while those relating to the second the Piadena-Codogno section will be completed in the next few years. This is 87 km of a new networkwith an expected investment of 1.3 billion by RFI, which will allow the theoretical capacity admitted on the line to be increased from the current 4 trains/h to 10 trains/h in both directions.
We know the sacrifices of many Cremonese and for this reason, unlike the PD, we do not want to use their effort for electoral purposes. The Galimberti-Virgilio Council, which would like to set itself up as a champion of commuters, is the first to ignore their needs: in 5 years it has not even been able to complete a car park in the former tramway area”. lb
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Tags: Trains delays spark debate city council
