Switzerland and Italy to fund upgrade of key Rhine-Alpine section
The Italian infrastructure manager Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) launched a tender for 117 million euros, co-financed by Switzerland, to boost intermodality in northeastern Italy. More specifically, the railway between Arona and Verbania, along the southeastern shore of Lake Maggiore, will be modified to handle freight trains with a 4-metre profile (P400).
The initiative entails lowering the ballast and the tracks in the Faraggiana and Stresa tunnels, as explained by various Italian media, including OssolaNews. The Arona-Verbania section is part of the TEN-T Rhine Alpine Corridor, connecting Genoa, in Italy, to Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. Once this project is completed, intermodal trains will be able to run without limitations from Basel to the terminals in northern Italy through the Lötschberg-Simplon axis.
Arona: a hub for rail projects
RFI is also working on linking Turin with the corridor, with the town of Arona having a key role here as well. The Italian infrastructure manager has recently launched a feasibility study to reopen the railway between Santhià and Arona, which would connect Turin to Switzerland and the rest of the corridor. This line has been inactive since June 2012, but new rail freight demands pushed the parties involved to consider a reopening.
Swiss rail investments in Italy
This is not the first project concerning rail freight in Italy that sees the involvement of Switzerland. The Helvetic Federation, through its Federal Office of Transport (FOT), is investing in the construction or upgrade of a rail freight terminal in Milan. For this facility, which will be built on a decommissioned area of the Milano Smistamento rail staging yard, the FOT allocated 67 million euros. In Brescia, the Swiss investment amounts to 60 million euros.
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