“It would be a very serious mistake to repudiate the trolleybus project by proposing mobility alternatives which in our opinion, in addition to being of dubious realization, would not be able to ensure widespread and efficient sustainable mobility”.
With these words the CGIL (to be precise the secretary of the CGIL Pescara Luca Ondifero and that of the Filt Cgil Pescara Patrizio Gobeo) enters the electoral debate on public transport reiterating its yes to the infrastructure and expressing on the contrary many doubts about those who put forward proposals alternatives such as the surface metro relaunched in particular by the centre-left mayoral candidate Carlo Costantini.
“By democratically and legitimately respecting everyone’s opinion, including those who express themselves as representatives of political forces that over the years and at all institutional levels (Abruzzo Region, Municipality of Pescara, Municipality of Montesilvano, board of directors of ex Gtm spa and board of directors of Tua Spa) have expressed opinions but above all formal acts diametrically opposed to what is being established today, the CGIL instead consistently believes that it maintains the same position expressed over the course of all these years”, continues the union. A position, the union recalls, “underlined just three years ago with a united position on which all the main confederal and trade union organizations present in the area identified themselves, convinced that only by reserving exclusive spaces to be dedicated to local public transport, it could be drastically reduced the number of cars that enter the city every day and at the same time really encourage greater use of public and collective transport as well as greater attention to respect for the environment and sustainable development. In short, ‘a modern, connected, eco-sustainable city, on a human scale and without architectural barriers'”, he comments. .
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In underlining that at least two of the four candidates for mayor “have declared themselves convinced of having to abandon the trolleybus project and of having to return the former railway line, the so-called park road) to the residents (an expression of the committees or of the community?)”, the CGIL expresses several doubts about the surface metro proposal “achievable with the strengthening of the current railway infrastructures as well as by strengthening the regional trains between Montesilvano and Pescara Porta Nuova” and this is because that project would not, unlike what is claimed, be simple or economical. The stations involved would be those of Silvi, Città Sant’Angelo, Montesilvano, Pescar and Francavilla al Mare with five stops for the surface metro and the union’s amazement, he says himself, lies in the fact that that project has actually been defined ” as simple as it is economical”.
Surprise that “derives from the fact that those who pronounced it were quite experienced politicians who have assiduously and even recently frequented political buildings, reaching even the highest institutional levels and, as such, should know the skills, feasibility, costs and times inside out. of construction of new railway infrastructures, but also the tortuous aspects linked to the service contracts notoriously signed with the Abruzzo Region and with which the operation of public transport is guaranteed (quantity and frequency of trips)”.
The dispute or in any case the doubt arises from the fact that “the construction of railway infrastructures, stations and train circulation and more generally the interventions to modernize and strengthen the railway network which concern both local and long-distance transport, arise by framework agreements notoriously signed between RFI (Italian railway network – FS group company) and the respective Regions. In the case of Abruzzo, for example, the last framework agreement with the Region was signed in 2022 with a five-year validity (2023-2027) and it does not seem to us that among the hypothesized projects there is the creation and activation of five new stops if we exclude those already existing and operational, namely Pescara Porta Nuova – Pescara S. Marco and Pescara Tribunal as well as the ongoing one at the airport whose construction has been talked about for a long time but which is still slow to materialise. Just as it is quite difficult to hypothesize – insists the CGIL – that on a railway line like the Adriatic one affected by the passage of high-speed trains (and which have their obvious priority) and trains for the transport of goods, it could be thought of obtaining additional timetable paths from RFI to increase the frequency and circulation of regional trains”.
Hence the non-simplicity for the union which finds “even more bizarre to think that the light rail on the railway site even constitutes an extremely advantageous solution from an economic point of view. Given that even for the signing of the service contract with Trenitalia, the natural interlocutor is the regional body (the last ten-year contract was signed with the Abruzzo Region on 21 December 2023 providing for 4.1 million trains- kilometer per year, equal to 167 trains per day), it is hardly necessary to remind the same public opinion that a train kilometer costs around 13 euros, almost four times more than what a rubber kilometer or a trolleybus kilometer costs 3-4 EUR”.
“Furthermore, even in the hypothesis that the problems listed above were magically overcome, there would then be the absolute incompatibility of widespread, door-to-door local public transport (obtainable using the former railway route) with a surface underground railway which would not be minimally capable of providing answers to those who choose public transport to save time and to get as close as possible to their destinations of interest”. In short, for the union even the “temporal” utility would be impossible to satisfy.
“Finally, we quietly take the liberty of raising the question regarding the repayment of the approximately 30 million euros of financing, much of which has already been spent. Who will take them on? The region? Municipalities? Your? These are in summary some of our doubts, on which we would like to invite the candidates for mayor to reflect seriously and remind them to be consistent with the positions endorsed over time”.
However, the opinion on the desire expressed by the mayoral candidates for public transport to be totally free was positive. Something that already happens in other Italian regions and municipalities for example students, pensioners and low-income people.
“A solution advocated in the electoral campaign for the recent elections for the President of the Region and which really wouldn’t be bad if it were also emulated by the other Abruzzo municipal administrations located in the internal areas of our region – concludes the union -, although we have some doubts in light of the twenty-year difficulty in extending the benefits of the single ticket to all citizens of Abruzzo”.
