The project of the third railway between Rho and Gallarate will start again.

The project will start again to build the third railway between Milan and Gallarate, one of the busiest railway networks of Lombardy, with commuter trains, which transport tens of thousands of people per day, and international and cargo trains.

The project has been acknowledged in the Patto per la Lombardia signed – just the day before the referendum and the fall of the Government – by the former Premier Matteo Renzi and by the president of Lombardy Region Roberto Maroni.

“The total cost of the work is 402 million Euros and appropriated resources amount to 20 million Euros” explained the Councillor of majority Carolina Toia in a meeting with commuters in Legnano. “The remaining Euro million Euros are entered in the budget of 2017.”

So, appropriated resources are only a share for the moment. The project of the third railway concerns the track between Rho (where arrive four railways from Milan) and Busto Arsizio (where already there is a third railway to Gallarate, used by cargos). This project had already been rejected twice, a consequence of the local committee’s petitions that are worried about the effect on the green belt near the railway.

Details of the new project presented by RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the Italian trainway) have not been published yet, even if in the Patto per la Lombardia there are some news: for example it refers to the so-called “link Y”, that short cross that could separate from the FS main railway line (in the north of Legnano) for connecting to Busto FNM and to the Malpensa line (see the yellow arrow in the photo below).

As reported in Legnanonews, Alessandro Alfieri, the regional councillor of PD, has explained that: “in the Patto per la Lombardia, the link Y is not present any more  but a less impacting crossing that from Gallarate arrives at Malpensa passing through Casorate Sempione. 80 million euros have been allocated for this project; the other 100 million euros must be raised by SEA and the European funds.”

Actually the “less impacting” crossing is a brand-new railway, the one from Malpensa T2 to Sempione Milan-Domodossola (with crossings with Casorate Sempione in the north and Gallarate in the south, here the blueprint) that stands on woods in the Ticino park and which has already risen up concerns at the local level (with an active commission from Casorate) and not only (see l’interveto di Legambiente). It is a project to which Ferrovie Nord and the Region consider important as the launch (then postponed, see here) has been recalled more times in the last few days of the new station Malpensa T2.

During the meeting in Legnano people also talked about the local impact, which has always represented an important issue, particularly in the urban environment of town as Canegrate, Parabiago and Legnano (and which indirectly brought to the previous rejections of the project). Moreover, Alessandro Alfieri has explained that the requests of PD are “that cargos would not pass there” (but today the railway is among the most congested also for goods on the fundamental network of Gottardo and Sempione) and “that there will be reduction interventions.”