Just yesterday in Catania an important event took place conference national level on sustainable mobility organized by Amts on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the municipal transport company, but many of the words that the participants filled their mouths with did not go down well with the Mpa group leader in the City Council, Orazio Grasso, who did not he especially appreciated the declarations of the deputy transport minister Galeazzo Bignami. “Talking about the city of Catania as a ‘model of sustainable mobility’ seems really exaggerated to me, also because, I would dare say, we are still in year zero”, claims Grasso, probably not wrongly.
“Just think – continues Grasso – that I personally had to present a motion to the city council for the use of the 10 stations in the city center of the railway link managed by RFI (from Fontanarossa up to Acireale), as a metropolitan type service, rather and regional (as currently happens), with relative integration of the ticket with Fce and Amts which to date still does not exist. A question, moreover, brought to the IV ‘Territory and Environment’ Commission of the Ars by the Hon. Giuseppe Lombardo”.
“How can we not talk – continues the Mpa group leader – about the countless delays and continuous proclamations in the execution of the FCE works. For example, the dispute between FCE and the Medil Consortium, on which, despite the mediation of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, no turning point has yet been reached, both for the Stesicoro-Fontanarossa section and for the two stations of the Misterbianco Centro – Monte section Little, which even risks leaving the entire line connecting Paterno to Misterbianco interrupted (work started recently for which 800 million euros have been allocated by the PNRR)”.
But there is also something else for Orazio Grasso: “The lack of an infrastructural mobility plan that can involve the first area outside the city (Etna countries) which today have more than 400 thousand inhabitants who, every day, pour into the city centre. But also the lack of the necessary signs at the airport indicating the presence of the Fontanarossa railway station right in the vicinity. A condition that leads to the total non-use of the same, unknown to the majority of passengers. And again, the lack of widespread road service of Amts to and from the metro stations, the failure to implement the planned BRT, the lack of preferential lanes for Amts”.
“These are all conditions that can be improved – concludes Orazio Grasso – but they certainly do not make Catania a model city for mobility. In this sense, the MPA has launched a proposal on the basis of an overall vision of public transport in the city. But it is clear that the political consonance between the mayor Trantino, the regional councilor for mobility and transport Aricò and the national government, net of the positive statements of the Deputy Minister Bignami on the occasion of the sixtieth birthday of Amt/Amts, can help this virtuous path. It’s a question of political will!”.
