Italian Railway Network’s plan against snow and ice: “We might also make cancellations.”

The Italian Railway Network in Lombardy has implemented its “Snow and Frost Plan”. The operating plan for better management of rail traffic in the event of adverse weather conditions, particularly of snow and frost, has been officially presented to the Region, and is ready to be activated for the next few hours of weather alert.

“Starting with a detailed analysis of the critical issues to be managed following the meteorological events that have hit Lombardy in recent winters,” RFI explains, “a series of preventive actions have been planned that entail extra checks of how well the heaters are working, the periodic lubrication of switches and power lines with antifreeze, cutting potentially critical vegetation, ice clearing, spreading salt on station platforms, and staff being particularly watchful, in order to intervene on infrastructure”.

The plan will be divided into various phases based on the forecasts from the Civil Protection’s Weather Bulletin, starting from two days before the alert announcement. The document presented also includes a possible reduction in the number of trains in circulation, which will be planned and made known the day before the alert announcement, on the basis of the weather conditions, and of the specific technical and organisational measures to ensure the running of the rescheduled service, to maintain the efficiency of the vehicles and the regular operation of the safety systems.

“The reduction in the service, implemented on the basis of the updates from the Civil Protection’s Weather Bulletin and of continuous monitoring of both weather forecasts and conditions (amount of snowfall, drop in temperatures), will lead to a rescheduling of traffic on the lines and at the junctions, defined by a central/territorial RFI task force,” the company explains, “to ensure the safe continuity of the passage of trains, combined with appropriate regularity of the traffic. The planned traffic programmes entail a reduction in the service of approximately 30%, in the event of a yellow alert. Reductions increase to 50% in the event of an orange alert, and to complete suspension in services in the event of particular snow conditions or heavy frost preventing rail traffic (red alert).

In all of this, the Italian Railway Network guarantees the employment of more than 370 people dedicated to managing emergency situations, to keep the railways and stations in working order, to keep the public informed, with an increase in the number of agents employed, and to manage the rail traffic.