We publish the letter, addressed to the director of the «Gazzetta», of a university professor from Parma in which he recounts his nocturnal misadventure. The professor is Davide Astori, who in the insert «La Domenica» edits the column «Parole e Cose».
I would like to give public information that the replacement bus TTPER B0288 departing from Reggio Emilia for Parma at 1:55 on the morning of June 24th did not pass. It is the last useful connection for those, like me, who came from Bologna, with the regional bus at 00:46 ending in Reggio Emilia, precisely. There were about ten of us waiting for it.
It seems that, in recent times – and I reserve the right to declare the source of the information to the competent authorities, if requested – this disservice has occurred several times.
At 2am the station was closed, and the custodian and security guards left. Me and another unfortunate person – the others had started to sleep on the floor under the external portico of the station, and a couple of them moved away – we stopped a police car that was passing on patrol, not so much for the question of the cancellation of the journey , but to better evaluate the safety of the situation, which, I assure you, was not at all a given.
After having collected and written down our report, I was advised to also declare what had happened to 112, which I did immediately.
Two hours standing outside in the cold, it was also raining, waiting for the station to reopen at 4 – there was no place to take shelter, except for a slot machine shop that we were advised not to go to, “like a sort of curfew”, one of the locals explained to us, giving us a real sense of the experience we were living – and then waiting another hour and a half for the first available train to arrive at 5:37, is certainly not good for your health, nor for your work, which I am required to do anyway. Among other things, to round off the picture, it was impossible – when we considered this possibility of returning – to find a taxi.
Italy is not the country of responsibility, Director, I am aware of that. Who knows, perhaps the reports of others who have suffered the same treatment could, however, at least bring to light a behavior that is shameful. We must also reflect on the fact that there are no problems, until unfortunately something really serious happens, from a criminal act to a health problem, for which the interruption of a service could risk being considered co-responsible. And in that case the complaint would not only be on the pages of a newspaper.
Thank you for the attention you can dedicate to these lines of mine.
David Astori
