95% of Italians and 97% of French people believe it is important that freight should be moved by rail rather than motorway. And 55% of Italians and 73% of French people think that in the future the European Union should invest mainly in rail transport.
Moreover, 78% of the Maurienne population and 61% of the Susa Valley population are in favour of the Lyon-Turin project.
These figures emerge from a survey on the perception of the project, carried out in 2020 by BVA at the request of TELT. The results of the study and its environmental rationale are the leitmotif of the third issue of TELT at WORK, the video magazine produced by the public promoter to explore the issues involved in the construction of the Lyon-Turin railway line, with interviews in Brussels, Turin, Lyon, Maurienne and Susa Valleys.
On the basis of these data, in the Zoom column, TELT President Hubert du Mesnil and General Director Mario Virano explain:
The patient work that has been done, for example, by renewing the project on the Italian side from scratch and building up a system of relations with the local administrations. This has meant that in terms of daily empirical experience, we have recorded a significant change in perception, with hostile movements becoming significantly fewer.
Moreover, the project is correctly framed in the Green Deal:
The European transport network (TEN-T) is not only a network that retains its worthwhile nature in the new perception, but is an essential part of it.
The TELT management also reports on the status of the project, with seven construction sites in operation and the forthcoming award of contracts for the entire base tunnel. Meanwhile, the European Commission has confirmed funding for the period 2021-2027, as the project is one of Europe’s priorities for economic recovery and sustainable development.
Inside takes the listener into the construction sites of the project: on the one hand, the French site of Saint-Martin-la-Porte, where excavation of the tunnel through which the trains will pass is in progress, in an area of the mountain that is very complex from a geological point of view; on the other hand, the Italian site of Chiomonte, where work has begun on the interchange niches and enlargement of the construction area is under way.
In the Environment First section, Laetitia D’Aloia Schwartzentruber, CETU’s Head of Sustainable Development, talks about the cooperation with TELT on geology, geotechnics, hydro-geology and environmental issues.
On Platform Europe, the European Year of Rail with Maurizio Castelletti from the European Commission: campaigns, events and initiatives to promote rail transport and help achieve the Green Deal objectives in the field of transport.
Finally, the Outsider column hosts Giorgio Marsiaj, President of the Turin Industrial Union, and Bernard Folliet, President of its counterpart MEDEF Savoie, who, on the occasion of TELT’s membership of the two employers’ associations, talk about how Lyon-Turin can combine the economic interest in development and attention to sustainability.
