The Frecciarossa train 9749 which left Venice yesterday afternoon stopped before 7pm, when in theory there was about half an hour left until it arrived in Milan, but instead the 330 passengers arrived at the Central station after midnightat the end of a journey that turned into an odyssey.
The train stopped, for reasons that are now being ascertained, exited Brescia station at Casirate d’Adda. He never left again. And it took five hours to move it. Passengers remained inside waiting for the situation to resolve itself on the train without electricity and therefore without air conditioning, despite the increasing heat. In the meantime they called the carabinieri and the police and shot videos to show what was happening. In fact, despite the arrival of the locomotive, the train did not leave and the wait continued.
«This is the situation inside: children, elderly people – explained one of the passengers in the video he shot -. Just an open door. People are about to faint. We called the police, law enforcement, assistance, ambulances. Nobody listens to us. We’ve been stopped for three hours: it’s a pure shame». «This is Italy» he added while someone corrected him «no this is Trenitalia, because we are Italians too».
At 11pm another train arrived. And the passengers, also with the help of the firefighters who had arrived from Milan in the meantime, were made to transfer. But it still took an hour to free the line where, due to the blocked train, delays also accumulated on the other trains. Delays of about twenty minutes, nothing compared to that of the Venice-Milan. The replacement train arrived after midnight at Milan Central Station, where Trenitalia assistance staff were present to welcome the travellers, who will have, the company assures, a full refund of the ticket. For many, however, that is, for all those who had connections to make that had already left and were not scheduled until the morning, the journey is not over.
