Seven million euros for "maintenance and improvement" interventions on the railway network of Sardinia . This is the amount assigned to the Island by Rfi, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, which has announced a tender "of approximately 1.3 billion euros" , the press release states, "for the execution of a program of systematic maintenance interventions on the railway infrastructure throughout the country, of which", precisely, "approximately 7 million are destined for interventions on the railway network of Sardinia". Crumbs. The interventions, "spread throughout the regional territory, will consist of the renewal of tracks, sleepers and ballast in addition to the replacement of switches".
The ancient route
"A paltry contribution," warns Arnaldo Boeddu, regional secretary of Filt Cgil. Alessandro Russu, a Cisl union representative with responsibility for local transport and Rfi. "These are Pnrr funds already allocated with a State-Region framework agreement. The point is that in Sardinia we don't have high-speed rail, which takes up most of the funding."
Today you travel on the Pendolini, Blues and Swing, but to get from Cagliari to Sassari (average speed 80 kilometers per hour) it still takes just under three hours; a good four if you want to go to Olbia . Not to mention the Macomer-Nuoro route, 57 kilometers at an average speed of 40 kilometers per hour: a journey of one hour and twenty-two minutes . Times that, compared to those of a car, are not at all competitive.
Piera Serusi