A nightmare journey for the passengers who took the 6.20pm train from Cagliari to Olbia on the first day of 2024. Many people were forced to travel standing and some people suffered from illness. Trenitalia is under accusation, guilty - according to passengers - of not having foreseen what would have been the "Mengoni effect". Among the passengers there was also the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Samugheo , Elisabetta Sanna who, in this case, speaks as a private citizen: «On Monday, at the Cagliari station, there were a lot of people, a lot of them had to take the 6.20pm train for Olbia. I, fresh from the experience I had on the 30th when many were forced to travel standing, arrived early and at 6pm I managed to get on the train and find a seat, but for many it wasn't like that – she says -. Most were very young people returning from the Mengoni concert: the event had been known for some time, yet Trenitalia found itself unprepared. In fact, a train with a few carriages arrived at the station. Upon departure, passengers were asked for understanding and, for those who had to reach Oristano, the bus alternative was proposed. Some passengers got off, others pointed out that the journey times were very different from those of the train."
Sanna has nothing to say about the on-board staff : «They have apologized several times, but what happened is not acceptable, it would have been sufficient to provide a few more carriages. I got off in Sassari, in the carriage where I was traveling the situation normalized in Oristano when many people got off." Elisabetta Sanna concludes: «The situation on January 1st was an extraordinary one, but it is a symptom of the state our railway network is in. Improving it would be an excellent incentive to stay in Sardinia, helping to mitigate depopulation. It is absurd that in 2024 it will take three to four hours to get from Cagliari to Sassari."
This is Trenitalia's response to the incident: «The train departing from Cagliari at 6.20pm and arriving in Olbia at 10.24pm on 1 January offered 145 seats and a maximum transport capacity of 286 total seats on board. Already departing from Cagliari, thanks to the coordinated action of the on-board staff and the operations room, a reinforcement bus was activated from Cagliari to Oristano: it left at 6.40pm and appropriate information was given to travelers about its activation. From the data it emerges that the route affected by the highest number of passengers was the one from Cagliari to Oristano. In the service of this report, on New Year's Day, a total of 5 trains departed from Cagliari from 4.40pm to 8.40pm".
