A long operational meeting took place today, at the request of the regional PD group, between the Sole Director of Ferrovie della Calabria Ernesto Ferraro and the dem councilors. The meeting was attended by, in addition to the group leader Mimmo Bevacqua and regional councilors Franco Iacucci And Raffaele Mammolitialso the mayor of Soveria Mannelli Michelino Chiodo and the councillor Antonella Pascuzzi, the mayor of Gimigliano Laura Moschellathe leader of the Democratic Party within the Provincial Council Gregorio Gallello, Raffaele Rotellarepresenting the CGIL e Pasquale Mancuso of the regional dem secretariat.
At the center of the debate are interventions regarding the entire railway section, managed by Ferrovie della Calabria, from Cosenza to Catanzaro and the prospect of strengthening mobility services regarding the entire internal “backbone” crossed by the regional railway. A particular focus was dedicated to the implementation of the interventions foreseen by the contract deriving from the funds coming from the Pnrr, equal to 188 million euros, which will affect the entire route and significantly, the Reventino area with some “variations” on the route in order to speed up travel times. Interventions that will be completed using the feasibility study, commissioned at the time by the centre-left regional government led by Mario Oliverio, for which the Democratic delegation asked for all documents to be publicised. Sole Director Ferraro highlighted that the problems that arose regarding stops in the Municipality of Decollatura, the subject of requests for clarification from the PD delegation, can find an easy solution by safeguarding the current stops and without modifying the “variant” proposed in the contract which speeds up the route. In this direction, the regional councilors of the Democratic Party have ensured every support, in every institutional and political forum, for solutions that safeguard the fair and legitimate requests of the citizens of Decollatura and the necessary and useful speeding up of the railway section.
Furthermore, other issues relating to the s. were addressed during the discussionimplementation of some investments including the mitigation of hydrogeological risk and the Delrio decree funds, as well as the supply of new buses. On these observations, positive responses were recorded, especially regarding the conclusion of the works regarding the landslides between Marzi and Soveria Mannelli which will be completed by the end of the current year, so the news that the 70 million from the Delrio fund relating to the improvement of the safety systems, already awarded, will be fully invested shortly.
Furthermore, the news regarding the supply of hydrogen powered railcars is of particular importancewith an impressive commitment of over 300 million euros, the first example of which will be delivered in December 2026, followed by another 5 examples by May 2027. Finally, the Sole Administrator also informed of the start of the ongoing procedures for the assignment to Ferrovie della Calabria of funds for the full digitalisation of services.
«It was an operational and positive meeting and for this reason, as a group and as the Democratic Party, we thank the Sole Director Ferraro for the availability shown and the information provided to us – he said Mimmo Bevacqua – and we hope it constitutes the basis for an increasingly intense synergy with the aim of strengthening the Calabrian transport network and increasingly better connecting Catanzaro and Cosenza. We will verify, together with local administrators, in the coming months, the progress of each individual intervention with public initiatives to maintain high attention on the topic of local public transport, the strengthening of which is essential for the development of our Region”.