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To build it, at the end of the 19th century, it took them just over two years
” Tomorrow, July 1st, marks the 22nd month since the Chiaia funicular trains, which carried 15,000 passengers every day, most of them workers and students, stopped, without, however, having seen workers at work since the closure on October 1st, 2022, and for over a year, dealing another hard blow to a public transport system that, in the Neapolitan capital, is notoriously leaky from all sides. The repercussions, in this long period of time, have also worsened due to the total insufficiency of the replacement vehicles deployed by the ANM. Just to give an example, traffic in Vomero continues to go haywire every day with streets and squares blocked, especially during rush hour, at the entrance and exit of schools, especially along the arteries that branch off from Piazza degli Artisti to reach other areas of the hill but also in the quadrilateral between Via Cimarosa, Via Bernini, Via Stanzione and Via Annella di Massimo. “Returning punctually, at every significant deadline, on the consequences arising from the shutdown of the important cableway system, which connects Vomero with the Chiaia district, is Gennaro Capodanno, engineer, president of the Comitato Valori collinari, former president of the Vomero District, who has been busy for years reporting the events and unfortunately the malfunctions that have long been characterizing the life of the city’s funiculars, founder of the group “Naples: the “orphans” of the Chiaia funicular” on the social network Facebook.
” It should be remembered – Capodanno emphasizes – that the construction of this funicular, the first of four cableways in Naples, was built by the “Fermariello Gennaro” company between May 1887 and October 1889, to be inaugurated on October 17, 1889. Therefore, the work took just over two years with the technologies of the time, with traction that was originally carried out with steam engines while electrification occurred only the following year. Today, with the technologies of the 21st century and more than a century after that event, it will take practically the same amount of time just to carry out the twenty-year overhaul work. A disgrace! ”
” Meanwhile – Capodanno states – there is no sign of abating the disappointment for the excessive duration of the cableway shutdown, whose trains connected the two terminal stations in just over three minutes, also penalizing the travelers, who flowed from the two intermediate stations of Palazzolo and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, for whom a replacement rubber vehicle was never set up. Only at the end of May 2023, at the fourth attempt, was the tender awarded, for a sum of just under 7 million euros, with work that however began five months later, in October of last year. In the meantime, over a year had already passed since the shutdown of the system. At present, considering the ten months indicated in the contract for the execution of the works and the time to carry out the tests aimed at obtaining the authorization from Ansfisa, if all goes well, it can be estimated that the plant will not reopen before next autumn, although it should be remembered that, in the past, there have been quite a few delays for similar works carried out on the cableways of the Neapolitan capital. Ultimately, the duration of the shutdown will be more than quadrupled compared to the initially planned six-month period.
“Whatever happens – Capodanno concludes -, Naples, once again, will acquire a new negative record in the operation of public transport. In fact, in the end, the Chiaia funicular will have remained closed for about two years, largely beating the record held by the Central funicular which, also for the twenty-year revision work, remained closed to the public from 1 August 2016 to 22 July 2017, therefore “only” for almost a year compared to the six months originally planned “.
© Copyright editorial staff, all rights reserved. Written for: TerranostraNews
