The European Union has allocated € 44.5 million for the first stage of upgrading the 21.5 km of railway between Bussoleno and Avigliana, an activity included in the investment for the international section of the new Lyon-Turin freight/passenger line.
The project is among the 107 selected to receive Commission support under the latest Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the EU’s instrument for strategic investment in transport infrastructure.
These funds cover 50% of the costs of the planned interventions on the section (a total of € 89 million in current euros), which are to be borne by the two states within the framework of the TELT financing (based on the 2012 Italy-France Treaty) and RFI, the lead company of the Gruppo FS’s Infrastructure cluster, which is commissioning the works.
The planned activities consist mainly in the technological modernisation of the line, the increase in capacity and regularity of operation and the adaptation to European interoperability standards.
These interventions on the Italian section are essential to make the new Lyon-Turin railway line, with the Mont Cenis base tunnel at its centre, progressively efficient in Phase 1 and to maximise the European objective of decarbonisation, in particular of the Alpine arc, through the modal shift from road to rail.
The activities
The planned works along the entire Bussoleno-Avigliana section include:
- the construction of new technological systems for traffic management in the Bussoleno-Avigliana section;
- the elimination of two level crossings in the municipality of Borgone Susa;
- the adaptation to interoperability specifications for people with reduced mobility of the Sant’Ambrogio, Borgone and Bruzolo stations;
- the upgrading of the line power supply system through the construction of two new electrical substations in Avigliana and Borgone;
- the installation of noise barriers in the entire section.
