The week of Italian travelers opens with three fronts open on the railway network, and it is not an isolated case given that since Sunday night Italy has been divided in two by the Ponte al Pino construction site in Florence.
The stop in Florence: what the Ponte al Pino construction site entails
The interruption began at 11pm on Sunday 5 July between the Florence Campo di Marte and Santa Maria Novella stations and will last until 4am on Friday 10 July. This is the first of the two operational windows envisaged by RFI to replace the road overpass that gives the construction site its name: the company, controlled by the FS group, must first remove the old deck and then, in a second phase from 26 to 30 July, assemble the new one. An operation that requires a 1,600 ton crane, approximately 70 meters high, which arrived from the United States by ship to the port of La Spezia.
Shuttles, buses and assistance for travellers
In the Florentine hub the railway offer is reduced by approximately 50%. High-speed travelers arriving from the south are directed towards shuttles escorted by the municipal police, while commuters from the regional regions – especially from Valdarno and the Arezzo line – are directed towards dedicated buses connected to the tramway. The Municipality of Florence has activated, from 6 to 9 July, an extraordinary assistance plan for the two stations, with distribution of water and information staff, from 8am to 8pm.
The breakdown on the Tirrenica, the alternative route for Rome-Milan
Passengers who need to reach Milan from Rome on the long-distance route are diverted to the Tirrenica line, with travel times extended by up to two and a half hours. And it is precisely on this alternative line that a second hitch occurred this morning, a technical failure near Follonica, in the province of Grosseto, caused delays of up to 80 minutes for high-speed, Intercity and regional trains. The problem, reported from 8am, was resolved by 9.50am, as confirmed by the RFI infomobility bulletin.
Third front: the breakdown at Milano Centrale
In Milan Centrale, a fault in the electricity line slowed down traffic starting from 9.10am. Trenitalia spoke of delays of up to 40 minutes for high-speed, Intercity, Eurocity and regional trains, with some trips canceled in the first hours of inconvenience. At the same time, Trenord reported slowdowns of more than an hour on the line between Varese and Gallarate, due to a separate fault on the S5. In the early afternoon traffic was gradually recovering.
