It's a bit like seeing an old friend who hadn't been heard from in almost three years. It's called the surface metro , and it had literally disappeared from Cagliari during the nearly three years it took ARST to double the tracks between Piazza Repubblica and Monserrato-Gottardo.
And today it returns, the tram or metro that everyone can call as they wish: at 6.04 the first surface train left the "Repubblica" station (the terminus for a little while longer, it will soon be moved to the San Saturnino stop, in the very first section of the extension) to go to Monserrato .
Starting this morning, it will take 22 minutes to reach the Monserrato Polyclinic by rail from Repubblica: about ten minutes less than before because there is now a double track . Previously, when trains headed in opposite directions crossed, one had to wait in the side "islands" for the other to pass, rejoining the track. This is no longer the case, and this explains the ten minutes less it will take between Repubblica and Gottardo, and finally between the Polyclinic and the University in Monserrato.
At the stops, we will see the tram every ten minutes during rush hour (7am to 3pm and 5pm to 7pm), every twenty minutes at other times, for a service that starts at 6am and ends at 10.30pm.
Level crossings are one of the big questions facing Metrocagliari, a monumental project in terms of both the scale of construction and investment. With the return of trains, traffic lights will be turned back on to allow trains to flow on the asphalt roads that intersect the tracks, and traffic jams are feared during rush hour.
