Last December 10, near Faenza, a Frecciarossa was heading towards Bologna via the Adriatic Railway: the train had to stop at a red light, but, traveling in the opposite direction for more than a kilometer, it collided with a regional train. The collision occurred at low speed and there were no fatalities, but six passengers suffered minor injuries and ten others suffered bruises.
Wild train and young railwayman
An internal source at Ferrovie revealed to Today.it that a young train driver used the ETR: He was on the phone with his teacher to solve a problem on the tram. He was going to go out to check the malfunction, but without calling the conductor in the cabin and leaving the train idle, as per protocol. Frecciarossa, traveling in the opposite direction due to its slightly inclined route, collided with another train and its journey was halted. When asked about the incident, Trenitalia stated that investigations into the dynamics of the accident were ongoing and an internal commission had been appointed to establish the facts. It excludes the train driver from being pressured by the company “to engage in activities that do not comply with regulations or to speed up operations while RFI CEO Gianpiero Strisciuglio is traveling on the train.” Considering the dynamics, the source comments, “If it wasn’t for the regional train, who knows where we would have saved Frecciarossa.”
Accidents aside, one in three high-speed trains on Italian railways travels late every day. The situation is even worse on regional railways. There are also days when the line is closed for hours and delays exceeding a hundred minutes, as Frecciarossa noted with Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida, who requested and received permission to get off at a station. unexpected, just outside Rome. Today.it spoke to Maurizio Lago, secretary of Uil Traspoti Lazio, to find out more about the state of Italian railways.
Because Salvini’s trains are coming later and later
“Last year – explains the trade unionist – the performance of the railways unfortunately showed a decline. First of all, one fact: in Rome the punctuality index increased from 92 percent to 86 percent. Two problems are paying the price. The first is that new, high-speed infrastructures will require maintenance “It is reaching the stage of wear and tear, and the other is generational change,” he said.
What kind of care?
“First of all, extraordinary maintenance, renewal and rehabilitation of weapons and telecommunications systems. After a few years, these are the necessary interventions to prevent the decay of the entire infrastructure. There are also ordinary maintenance interventions, which are the prevention of damage and malfunctions that cause delays and blockages along the entire line: the most common “It’s the faults in the switches and signals; when these don’t work, the trains have to stop.”
How often should maintenance be done?
“Extraordinary care should be performed every four years, while ordinary care varies depending on the type of intervention and can be annual, monthly or weekly.”
It seems almost an automatic mechanism, what is the jam?
“The infrastructure is very stressed; today there is a train every five minutes on the high-speed train and maintenance can only be done at night, so response times are very short compared to wear and tear. There is also another problem: it is due to the strong generational change, which includes the category of railway workers “.
Please explain better.
“Older railway workers with experience and knowledge gained in the field have retired and there has been a large influx of young resources; diploma holders and graduates have all the qualifications respectively but do not know the infrastructure, because there has not been sufficient transfer of knowledge. The railway is not a factory, it is something learned over time. “I’ll give you an example: some lines have their own problems, such as the clay surface of the railway. The rails bear down and require special interventions for leveling. The old railway workers knew some things by heart, while the newcomers are often still not prepared.”
“New arrivals do not know the infrastructure because there has not been sufficient knowledge transfer. The railway is not a factory, it is something you learn over time,” Maurizio Lago explains to Today.it.
So is this poor service due to a combination of wear and tear and new hires who are still unprepared?
“To a large extent yes, but the issue of infrastructure knowledge even concerns governance: previously Ferrovie’s management came from within, today managers come from other realities, for example the current CEO of the Italian State Railways, Luigi Ferraris, comes from Enel. In short, the problem is all “It concerns the structure.”
Is the Brandizzo massacre also a result of the problems listed above?
“Absolutely. With the line under stress, maintenance times are reduced and so, for example, if a job requires three hours, it takes two hours during service cessation and the preparatory work is in most cases carried out while the trains are stationary: circulation is preferred to the detriment of safety”.
“Obviously this is against the law,” unionist Maurizio Lago explains, but companies are forced to operate outside the rules because there is no time. Also in this case, generational change slows down the work due to inexperienced employees. People slow down even more.”
It seems that the source of the problems is the lack of education of young people…
“Experience in our work goes a long way, even in the crew-related parts, and the recent accident in Faenza shows this: the engineer was a recently hired boy and had been taken off the train twice before and sent to the ticket office. Then, unknown even to him “It was sent back to the ship on a line; that train walked back a kilometer without anyone noticing; not even the conductors of the other convoy noticed it coming. The previous train was going in the wrong direction.”
Maurizio Lago explains: “The driver of the Faenza train had caused problems and was sent to the ticket office. The train walked back a kilometer without anyone noticing.”
Your protests against Minister Salvini take place in this decidedly unreassuring context. What are you asking?
“We want everything to be reviewed, especially local public transport. The funds allocated in the budget are insufficient to guarantee a quality service. We are against the privatization target, which will cause compression of the service in the railways. We believe that the private sector aims to make a profit and a system such as profit does not correspond to the service that the railways should offer.” we know.Salvini argues with us with the logic of “one is one”, but you cannot include all unions, even the smallest ones. Those at the same level and less representative.If one is worth anything, it is appropriate to occupy all available dates in the calendar at the beginning of the year and block large union unions “There are unions. We will continue to seek dialogue, but the minister does not seem very keen because this questions the constitutional rights of workers.”
While the railways are in this state, what do you think about the billions of dollars invested in the bridge over the Bosphorus?
“In the meantime, we need to get there via the Bosphorus. I remember that we still have regional lines with level crossings, which, in addition to being unsafe, often hinder circulation, interrupt circulation and create great inconveniences for passengers moving towards larger centres. I would not report priorities to Minister Salvini “If necessary, I would first tell him that the level crossings should be removed and replaced with overpasses or underpasses, and then we could think about something about the bridge over the Bosphorus.”
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Source: Today IT

Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.