“The high-speed line in Calabria, a strategic project that represents a necessity for our region and the entire south, to fill the existing infrastructural gap compared to the northern regions, to relaunch the economy, to improve mobility and with it the quality of life of the Calabrians, risks becoming more and more a mirage. In the timetable that Ferrovie dello Stato has given itself, the mega project, with an overall estimated cost of around 30 billion euros, in the lots that concern our territory, will not start before 2030”. This was stated in a note, Franca Marrieddelegate for Infrastructure for the regional secretariat of the Democratic Party of Calabria.
“For the time being, the national government and the Minister of Infrastructure Matthew Salviniwhich is so keen to announce billions of euros of investments for the South, has considered it a priority – Sposato continued – to achieve the integration between the regions of Campania, Basilicata and Puglia that will be activated in 2027, focusing attention on the quadrilateral Naples – Battipaglia – Taranto and Bari, where most of the resources are allocated. An investment involving the regions of Campania, Basilicata, Calabria is announced with great fanfare, except to omit to say that, in reality, the Calabrian territory will be involved only for a few kilometers up to Praia. After Praia, with a start – we repeat – only in 2030, it is not known what will happen to the High Speed project, if there will be a continuation and through which route or if, instead, everything, as is plausible at this point to think, will stop at the foot of Calabria. And then, once again, our region will be condemned to remain watching from the window. And we Calabrians, once again, will have been deluded and disillusioned by a government and a Minister who announces with triumphal tones the definitive unblocking of a strategic and crucial infrastructure for the south, with the green light from the MASE Commission, and then fails to say that the south only means Campania and Basilicata, because Calabria is in fact excluded”.
“Between feasibility studies, planning, discussions on the best route, too much time has passed on the construction of the High Speed. And so – Sposato highlighted – in this perspectiveeven waiting for just one batch, 2030 inevitably represents an infinite time, unacceptable for a region that for too many years has been paying a high price in terms of the lack of a modern and efficient transport network. It is therefore necessary for President Occhiuto to truly demonstrate that he protects the region he governs, not allowing it to continue to remain isolated and to be the recipient of a High Speed that is feared to be fake and that in the end, resources in hand, it seems they do not want to actually implement. Calabria needs concrete answers and feasible projects. We can no longer afford to remain cut off from what are the main mobility corridors, accepting in deafening silence that the high speed stops in Praia. It is therefore necessary that a technical table be convened with Ferrovie dello Stato and Trenitalia, that we explain to the Calabrians why a huge sum of PNRR resources destined for Calabria have been diverted to other regions and that we do as much as possible to defend a work necessary to restore dignity and prospects for the future to a territory oppressed for a time that is no longer acceptable”.