Brescia, 29 March 2018
A cooperation agreement was signed today between Brescia Mobilità and Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane for the project financing of the construction and management of two new tram lines in Brescia.
This is a crucial agreement, joining the two companies’ efforts to achieve, in the shortest time possible, the completion of this new and significant goal for Brescia’s infrastructures, which aim is to achieve sustainable mobility.
In the presence of Mayor Emilio Del Bono, Renato Mazzoncini, CEO and General Manager of FS Italiane, and Carlo Scarpa, Chairman of Brescia Mobilità, signed the document, officially launching operational activities.
"The memorandum of understanding signed today with Brescia Mobilità is another step within the FS Group's industrial plan that puts cities, with their urban and metropolitan areas, at the centre of the mobility ecosystem - said Renato Mazzoncini CEO and General Manager of FS Italiane -. It is a process that began with the acquisition of 36.7 percent of M5 SpA, the concessionaire company of the Lilla metro (line 5) in Milan, precisely to close the Italian cities’ gap compared to other European cities. The agreement between FS Italiane and Brescia Mobilità - added Mazzoncini - makes the city of Brescia a model of collective, integrated, and sustainable mobility. The Pendolina-Centro-Fiera-Valcamonica-Centro-Bornata tramway project, underlines the need to promote and develop new investments in Italy and build infrastructures in urban centres. We are doing it - concluded the CEO of FS Italiane - by providing the experience, financial capability, and all the technological know-how and expertise of the FS Group to enhance metropolitan networks and make Italian cities, and the whole country, more competitive."
Great satisfaction is also being expressed by the Chairman of Brescia Mobilità, Carlo Scarpa, who stated: "Today's signing is fundamental both for Brescia Mobilità and for the city of Brescia. With commitment, experience, and skill, our company has gained a leading role in the management of the integrated mobility system in Brescia, favouring its exposure and growth; and now the agreement with FS opens the way for a new challenge for our company. The tram project represents important new growth and development for Brescia, which goes beyond the scope of mobility, and we are proud to bring our contribution to this new Brescia initiative."
By December, the City Administration will apply for government funds by the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport in Rome in order to finance tramways and subways. The layouts are those indicated within the Urban Sustainable Mobility Plan (PUMS) which identify the two tram lines as future pillars of the evolution of the city's mobility system: the first line, Pendolina - Centro - Fiera, will link Oltremella with Fiera; the second, Valcamonica Centro - Bornata, coincides with the route from via Vallecamonica to viale Bornata, passing through the city centre and train station.
Today, Brescia's public transport system serves 54 million passengers, after having registered, thanks to the implementation of the metro, a + 31% increase in just 5 years, an extraordinary result that puts Brescia above any other national city. The trams, which will serve the areas currently located far away from any underground route, would be fundamental to have a systemic and integrated presence, offering customers a mix of transportation choices able to completely satisfy a heterogeneous demand.
Within this perspective, the Brescia Mobilità Group, which today manages the entire integrated urban mobility system - a unique feature in the Italian market - is set to play a leading role in the design, construction, and management of the new transport means. Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane is a strategic partner for the entire initiative, both for the skills and the technical experience, and for the commitment in the infrastructural work of metropolitan areas and urban centres for which the FS Industrial Plan provides 2.3 billion euros to co-finance the works through a project financing.
Thus, Brescia starts on a new and ambitious path, focusing on innovation and technology, which could bring an even more efficient mobility service as well as better quality of life to the entire city and all those who live and visit it.