For Naples, 2024 risks becoming the year of turning point on the Neapolitan transport front. In less than a month, it will finally be inaugurated, 34 years after the project began Metro line 6 in its complete route, from Fuorigrotta to Piazza Municipio; then, and this is the real news, it will be the turn of the Line 7the “student subway” which will finally see trains arrive inside the university campus of Monte Sant’Angelo.
It is true that construction sites and station openings are progressing, on some fronts, with exasperating slowness and continuous postponements, but it is equally true that things, on the transport front, are changing and the effects on liveability will soon begin to show.
The route from I was shocked the university is practically complete, only the last bureaucratic details are missing to start the first trips that will transport the students to the university campus Frederick II. There is no official announcement regarding the opening, in reality it could also be planned during the summer; but from Eav, which is responsible for the construction and management of the route, explain that it is better to calibrate on longer times and assure that the trains will come into operation “in time for the next academic year”, i.e. by the month of September. Obviously this is only the first, short, route of this new line, but even in this case the significance of the opening goes beyond the number of kilometers covered by the trains in this initial phase of activity.
The Line 7 project also has ancient roots: the works of the so-calledMonte Sant’Angelo link road” they started in 2008 and stopped in 2011 due to a long dispute between the Region and the company that was carrying out the work. Only in 2016 did the work begin again and, immediately, the work of art by Anish Kapoor which represents the symbol of this line. The gigantic installation is, in practice, the entrance to the Monte Sant’Angelo station; the British artist of Iraqi origins called it “the mouth” even if, in reality, it is intended to be the representation of the female genitals, a detail which, in the past, sparked some controversy which today is already completely forgotten. The immense “mouth” was installed shortly after work resumed in 2017, signifying the desire to speed up the work. A twin installation, of more moderate dimensions, was positioned, in December 2022, also at the exit of the Traiano district of the same station.
The stop is ready, the tracks are set up, all that is missing is the ministerial approval which should arrive shortly. The cost for this part of the work was 104 million to cover 2.2 km of route. The “bus link” project, however, is much broader.
The route was created to connect the station I was shocked from the Circumflegrea with the station Edenlandia from the Cumana. After Monte Sant’Angelo the trains will reach San Paolo park where the construction of the station required a long negotiation with the residents, then there will be stops at via Terracinato Mediterranean Games avenue and, finally, at the Edenlandia station, interchange with the Cumana. The basic idea is to combine the connections between the two existing EAV lines to allow, especially students, to reach the university campus by rail transport, starting from any area of the city and the province. At present, there is no precise timetable for the completion of all the works, but this first step is enough to celebrate the start of a virtuous path for Neapolitan transport.
On the Line 6However, there should be no further postponements, also because at the end of this month the maximum time allowed by Europe to justify the use of the funds obtained so far to build the infrastructure will expire. In reality there are no doubts about the inauguration: the stations have all been complete for some time, as has the technological infrastructure which has been tested several times with the transit of trains in recent weeks.
Only the problem of trains remains for line 6. They will be used old trams bought in 1990 and adapted in the form of a subway. It is not possible to use brand new trains, which have already been ordered, because there is no depot capable of containing them: that depot is currently in the planning phase and it will take a few more years before it is built. To allow new trains to arrive on the tracks, it is not possible to use the slot which is currently the only plausible route. This is an opening on the roof of the Piazzale Tecchio workshop into which the trains currently in service were lowered. The new ones, however, are too long to fit into that space, and this is why we have to wait for the construction of an ad hoc depot. There are those who argue that the new trains are not brought onto the tracks because there would be no space, given the presence of the old ones: in truth, if it were possible to lower them onto the railway track, the space would be easily found by eliminating the old ones currently intended for service . In short, trams from 1990 are used because there is no “hole” through which the new factory ones can pass.
During this summer the opening of the stations of the Directional Centre he was born in Court from the Line 1decisive steps towards the long-awaited closure of the metro ring which will allow a more agile and less cumbersome service than the current one.
After the last inspection at the station Management Centerhowever, it was the mayor Gaetano Manfredi himself who explained that the new stops should be inaugurated by Christmas 2024. These are physiological slippages during the construction of the major works, so even in the face of the words of the mayor we must continue to wait for certainties to understand when the new stations on Line 1 will finally be usable.
Another postponement was announced by Palazzo San Giacomo, this time unexpected: it is the reopening of the Chiaia funicular after twenty years of maintenance work. The plant has been closed since October 1, 2022, 633 days have passed and the works, which began seriously late due to bureaucratic issues, are still in progress. The completion of the works has always been set for the end of the summer of 2024, but recently Palazzo San Giacomo has leaked news about a possible postponement of the reopening to December. Residents and traders of Vomero and Chiaia did not take it well.
