Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (lead company of the Infrastructure Hub of the FS Italiane Group) will carry out important infrastructure upgrades and extraordinary maintenance on some sections of the Palermo-Agrigento, Palermo-Catania and Catania-Caltagirone lines. To allow the construction sites to operate, it will be necessary to suspend train circulation from 10 June to 8 September.
The works include preparatory activities for the installation of ERTMS (European Railway Traffic Management System) technology, a project financed under the PNRR, concerning the most advanced system for the supervision and control of train spacing, capable of guaranteeing better regularity and rail transport management.
The renewal of technologies with the equipping of the ERTMS system, the same adopted on the high-speed lines, will guarantee greater reliability of the infrastructure, leading to an improvement in the regularity of circulation and the quality of the service. In addition to higher performance, ERTMS also allows savings on management and maintenance costs compared to traditional signaling systems.
The value of the investment for the installation of the ERTMS system over a total of 124 km amounts to approximately 79 million euros, financed with PNRR funds.
Interventions on the railway infrastructure are also planned, for an investment of approximately 10 million euros.
Below is the detail of the works:
Palermo–Agrigento line, between Roccapalumba and Agrigento from 10 June to 8 September for preparatory activities for the installation of ERTMS technology and consolidation interventions of some railway works and reconstruction of some embankments, preliminary works for the performance upgrade of the line .
Palermo-Catania line, between Imera, Villarosa and Enna from 10 June to 8 September for extraordinary maintenance work on the Morello road viaduct, consolidation and waterproofing of the Cinque Archi railway bridge and rehabilitation of the roadbed in the Portella tunnel.
Catania-Caltagirone line, between Grammichele and Caltagirone, from 10 June to 8 September, for Anas works interfering with railway traffic.
The works create the conditions to raise the punctuality, regularity and reliability indices, but they can only be carried out by interrupting the circulation of trains. Periods have therefore been identified to minimize the impact on travellers, as far as possible. A remodulation of the service with bus trips is expected, with increases in distance and variation of itinerary, also in relation to traffic conditions. The transport of bicycles or animals is not permitted on buses, with the exception of guide dogs.
From 3 to 21 June, RFI staff will be present in the Agrigento and Roccapalumba stations to provide useful information for travellers.
The details of the changes to the train circulation program are available in the stations and on the RFI and Trenitalia websites.
