Udine, 9 September 2025
On the morning of 5 September, a civil defence service drill took place inside the San Leopoldo railway tunnel, on the line section between the Pontebba and Ugovizza stations.
The drill was carried out to test the tunnel's internal emergency plan, the management methods in the railway area, the intervention procedures, the coordination and response times of all the operational structures involved, and use of the fire brigade's bimodal vehicle.
The safety drill, included in Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group’s Annual Plan, was coordinated by the Prefecture of Udine, with participation by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, Trenitalia, FS Security, the 'SORES' Health Emergency Service, the Italian Red Cross, emergency number 112, Udine Provincial Fire Brigade, the Railway Police, Udine Police Headquarters, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Carabinieri and Civil Defence, with the involvement of the municipal teams of Artegna and Montenars to simulate travellers on board the train.
The assumed scenario was a regional train being stopped in the tunnel due to falling material at the tunnel mouth, following an earthquake. After realising it was not possible to continue the journey, on-board staff activated the emergency procedures, and, from that moment on, managed the situation by maintaining contact with RFI’s Operations Room and reassuring travellers while awaiting rescue. Evacuation of a person in a wheelchair required the support of the Fire Brigade, who intervened together with Polferfer, Carabinieri, and RFI technicians.
To make the scene even more realistic, the Italian Red Cross make-up artists and simulators staged a fall during disembarkation from the train with an ankle injury, along with a few panic-stricken travellers shaken by the situation.
These simulations are flanked by important structural work carried out over the years, such as constant maintenance of the tracks and the tunnel, laying of handrails along the platforms, construction of emergency lay-bys at the tunnel entrances, and delivery of a bimodal fire engine that can move both on the road and on the tracks to the fire brigade.
One of the main focuses during the drill was testing the communication flow between all the players involved, along with the installations, emergency equipment and GSM-R mobile telephony devices in the railway environment.
The safety drill is part of the training/education activities for RFI and External Entities' personnel provided for by the Ministerial Decree on tunnel safety of 04 March 2025.