Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), the company that deals with the Italian railway infrastructure, has announced that this summer there will be a blockade of trains: rail service on the lines leading from Rome to the Castelli Romani will be interrupted for 40 days.
We’re talking about the route FL4 which passes through Rome Ciampino and then it divides into 3 sections: one which has as its terminus Frascatianother one that goes up to Albano Laziale and the third which extends to Velletri.
Trenitalia has called this line with 3 sections the “Castelli Romani Line“.
Reason and duration of the train block at the Castelli Romani
“For preparatory activities for ERTMS installation”, as we read on the pages of the RFI website, the Ciampino/Albano/Frascati/Velletri line will undergo a 40-day interruption, from 23 July to 1 September 2024.
So for those 40 days the 3 lines Rome-Frascati, Rome-Albano And Rome-Velletri they will only be operational up to Ciampino, after which travelers will have to get off and use the special replacement buses which, as happens in these cases, Trenitalia organizes as replacement trips.
Train journeys will become practically gods ‘mixed’ train-bus trips.
The buses basically retrace the route of the railway section concerned by road and make the stops at the stops that the train should have made. Almost always near the car parks in front of the railway stations.
Bus trips are made in both directions. Therefore there will be buses that should leave from the terminus of Frascati, Albano and Velletri at the same time as the train convoy should have left.
The subsequent stops should reflect in terms of timetables those that the train would have operated in each individual station.
It is not specified by Trenitalia whether any additional stops may be established during replacement bus journeys.
The routes from Rome to Frascati, Albano and Velletri
The Lazio railway line FL4 is divided into 3 sections. They share the Rome-Ciampino section, including the intermediate stop of Capannelle. So the convoys are divided into three different routes which have as terminus Frascati, Albano and Velletri.
These are the intermediate stops starting from Ciampino (to which the replacement bus stops should then correspond):
ROME-FRASCATI
ROME-ALBANO
- Ciampino
- Vinegar water
- Saxon
- Pantanella
- Marine
- Castel Gandolfo
- Chalet
- Albano Laziale
ROME-VELLETRI
- White House
- Santa Maria delle Mole
- Pavona
- Chancellor
- Sniper
- Lanuvium
- S. Gennaro
- S. Eurosia
- Velletri
Inconvenience for commuters and tourists
The blocking of train circulation in the Castelli Romani was thought of during the period of the year in which it should create the least disturbance for travellers, with schools closed and workers stopped, at least in part, in August.
However, the inconvenience is expected to be quite high, both for commuters and tourists.
The latter have always used the 3 railway routes to Frascati, Albano and Velletri to visit the Roman Castles, moving from Rome or, vice versa, for those who stay in the Castles, using the train to go to the Capital.
What is the ERTMS System
Trains stopped at the Castelli for 40 days, therefore, to prepare the railway sections for the ERMTS system.
But what does ERMTS consist of?
Is called European Rail Traffic Management System, ERMTS preciselysimplifying in simple terms is a system that tends to standardize all rail safety systems in Europe.
Previously, each European nation adopted its own systems. This then led to serious compatibility problems when traveling by rail between nations.
In practical terms this caused greater difficulty in ensuring safety, an increase in convoy travel times and an increase in management costs.
With ERMTS level 2 the various systems that make up a railway route now communicate with each other in the same language throughout Europe. To ensure further security for communications, secret key cryptographic techniques are used.
For once, Italy was among the first to adopt this system, in particular on high-speed routes. Now the web of regional routes that characterize the Italian railway system is also gradually being aligned with the new European system.
The data updated by RFI Ferrovie dello Stato as of 31 December 2023 tell us that gods 1,216 km that make up the railway lines in Lazio only 139 km are already equipped with level 2 of the ERMETS system.
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