Florence, 17 June 2024 – “The plan presented today by the right-wing candidate Eike Schmidt for the passage of the tramway a Field of Marsas well as being unworkable, clearly demonstrates the desire to stop a project that will instead allow all Florentines to move with a sustainable and punctual means of transport”.
Thus the centre-left mayoral candidate Sara Funaro comments on the alternative project presented by the centre-right candidate Eike Schmidt.
”The right has been trying to stop the tramway for years – continues Sara Funaro – and today they clearly demonstrate it once again. After proposing to let it pass 40 meters underground and to change the routes causing the community to lose millions of euros of investments, the plan presented today is downright paradoxical: not building the tracks on Viale dei Mille and sending the tramway on the train tracks is a ridiculous proposal. In fact, between Rovezzano and Campo di Marte the railway only has 4 tracks, two of the Florence-Arezzo slow line and two of the high-speed line, there is no possibility of using the tracks for anything else. While from Campo di Marte to Ponte al Pino there are 5 railway tracks and they are all needed: 2 go to Santa Maria Novella, 2 to Statuto and one goes to Faentina, so there is no space to dedicate any track to the tramway ”.
Furthermore, the operational plan already includes a car park of over 2,000 seatsmuch larger than that proposed in this hypothesis”.
“Finally, regarding the ‘deforestation’ that Schmidt has been talking about for weeks – he concludes Sara Funaro – this also shows how the right-wing candidate has not looked into the existing project in the slightest and aims only to block the development of the network. In fact, in addition to removing 65 thousand cars from traffic, at the end of the green work on the route of the tramway will increase by as much as 55% on the Bagno a Ripoli line. In short, the right and its candidate are trying in every way to hinder the completion of the tramway, with confused ideas, unachievable and a lot of ambiguity. While we will continue to defend this project with all our strength and we are certain that the Florentines will be able to judge.”
