The railway line Modena-Sassuolo the entire route will be closed for another two months, from 6 July to 8 September 2024. The service, as in the recent past, will be carried out with replacement buses which will increase travel times and cannot guarantee the transport of accompanying bicycles. The end of the interruption is expected in time for the resumption of school activities.
On this occasion the closure was motivated by FER, owner of the infrastructure for the Emilia-Romagna Region, with the need to install the Train Control System (SCMT), a safety condition necessary for the National Railway Safety Agency to overcome line speed limitations.
An eventuality that Consumer Federation welcomes with great perplexity since, in the face of necessary and appreciated interventions that guarantee greater safety conditions for all users, it is implemented once again with a long interruption of service, not necessary for similar works on RFI routes. A further blow to the post-pandemic recovery to the detriment of sustainable public transport, a child now orphaned by too many fathers.
The Modena – Sassuolo represents a historical resource capable of providing a concrete and sustainable response to the demand for public transport, never actually pursued. Electrified since the distant 1930s of the last century, instead of promoting its use, it was preferred to play with mocking definitions. From “trenein song stuff” to the tramway, passing through Gigetto, a centuries-old inability of decision-making bodies to appropriate a public good already available to administrations, businesses and citizens.
To those who are forgetful on duty, Federconsumatori reminds us that in the last pre-pandemic survey of 2019, users of Modena – Sassuolo they were counted at over 3,000 passengers/day, a quota that was already approaching this spring (after 18 months of closure). It is useful to remind skeptics that diverting 3,000 users to other means of transport means adding 60 more buses to the roads every day, or the equivalent 3,000 cars which on average carry only one passenger. A luxury that no one can afford today!
For Federconsumatori, the priorities and choices already discussed in ’98 within the then nascent High speed: doubling of the Modena-Soliera-(Carpi), improvement of the infrastructure for entry from Mantua into Modena station, complete integration with the Modena-Sassuolo services to be provided without changing trains, speeding up the two routes to make them competitive and the use of the train is attractive.
