Catania Municipality, RFI and FS Sistemi Urbani sign a protocol on infrastructure and urban regeneration

Catania, 22 May 2024 - The Municipality of Catania, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and FS Sistemi Urbani - lead companies of FS Group's Infrastructure Hub and Urban Hub, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at the infrastructural upgrading and urban redevelopment of disused or discontinued areas owned by the FS Group in the Sicilian city.

The protocol was signed by Enrico Trantino, Mayor of Catania, Dario Lo Bosco, President of RFI, and Umberto Lebruto, Managing Director and General Manager of FS Sistemi Urbani, in the presence of Luigi Ferraris, CEO of the FS Group, and Paolo La Greca, Deputy Mayor in charge of Urban Planning, Mobility and Relations with the University of Catania.

The agreement provides for the establishment of a Steering Committee and a Technical Table, with the objective of defining and developing the relevant strategies and interventions.

In particular, the FS Group's companies RFI and FS Sistemi Urbani, and the Municipality of Catania, will work together to promote and foster actions to improve the efficiency of the rail and road transport system, by enhancing modal integration, reconnecting the city's urban spaces, and improving overall attractiveness in those areas (e.g., former freight yards and railway workshops, also through the inclusion of new public and private services).

Luigi Ferraris, CEO of FS Italiane Group, said: "The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Municipality of Catania is a clear example of how the FS Group intends to design and implement integrated infrastructure works, first of all shared with the territories, and generate value and benefits for the communities involved. This agreement is the beginning of a journey to provide citizens with connected and intermodal mobility services, and to redevelop currently unused urban spaces, making them attractive service hubs with useful functions".

"Through the creation of these railway works - said Enrico Trantino, Mayor of Catania - Catania will benefit from regional, national and international rail mobility corridors to connect Sicily to the European continent. Those interventions are essential for the railway system, also in view of the bridge over the Messina strait, as they also hold the extraordinary advantage of giving back to Catania its connection to the sea, denied for over 160 years by a railway belt that has prevented a virtuous osmosis of the collective well-being for the citizens of the Etna metropolitan area".