two companies split Lombard trains

Alberto Giannoni

1. THE SUMMIT AND DIVORCE

The future of Lombard public transport was decided at a meeting between the president of the region, Attilio Fontana, and the CEO of Fs Renato Mazzoncini. Objective: "Overcome the current management structures". Official decision: "We are moving towards separate management of the regional rail service".

2. THE CONSENSUS AGREEMENT

The current structure of Trenord is as follows: 50% in the hands of Trenitalia, 50% in the Fnm group (57.5% owned by the Lombardy Region). The new structure provides for two different railway companies: one controlled by Fnm and one by Trenitalia. The service will be divided as follows: the lines in the hands of the new regional company will be 45%, while Trenitalia will manage 55% of the service. On the one hand the 300 kilometers of the Fnm network, the suburban routes, the Pbadante and the Malpensa Express, on the other the "regional" lines.

3. TIME AND DIFFICULTIES

The operation will not be simple: depots, maintenance centers, ticketing, but also the site and the application. Everything must be reviewed without impact on the customers and on the real life of commuters with their subscriptions. From now on July 30, a framework agreement will be signed to define in detail the phases of the course which will activate three working groups. The goal is to close by the end of the year.

4. "RESPONSIBLE WILL BE THE REGION"

The responsibility for the service will always fall, ultimately, on the Region, because of control over "his" company or service contract with Trenitalia. Governor Fontana explained this yesterday, explaining the operation. And commenting on the danger of possible twists, Fontana has guaranteed: "It's a risk you're not running in. I believe that beyond that, if it's a road run by the new Trenord or Trenitalia, the responsibility will always be the president of the region. "

5. THE GOOD OF MILAN AND THE ATM

Mayor Beppe Sala did not reject the agreement: "President Attilio Fontana has spoken to me about it", "if that is the case" is a way to clarify the roles, certainly for me it's good. " "I would like to make the most of our presence, so I'm happy to have been able to extend Atm's service, so we'll see," Sibylline concluded. Many have thought of a possible agreement, much discussed in 2017, for the merger between Ferrovie Nord Milano, FS, Ferrovie dello Stato and Atm, a subsidiary of the municipality.

6. THE PUNCTUALITY IS IN DELAY

The service lives a very critical moment. The 2017 financial statements showed that the weighted average pbadenger delay fell from 4.1 to 3.7 minutes and that deletions decreased by 5%. The situation worsens. The 5-minute punctuality rate for the whole day of 2017 was 79% (78 peak hours). In the first quarter of 2018, it rose to 77% and 68% during peak hours. In 2017, across the network, there were 53 deletions per day and, in the first quarter of 2018, 112 deletions per day were affected.

7. AN OLD FLEET

The age of the fleet has a very negative impact. A year ago, Trenord CEO Cinzia Farisè wrote to the Region denouncing the fact that the age had reached "unsustainable limits" on some fleets, resulting in "the significant risk of not being able to provide the service on some lines. "40% of Trenord's fleet is over 35 years old, those of the regional company are trains" rented "by Tranitalia.With the separation, the risk could therefore weigh differently between the two. In the western quadrant, for example, the most related to the Fnm, the critical situations are limited to one line.

8. ABSENTISM

The rate of absenteeism reached 10% (it was 8 in 2017) Corriere della Sera spoke about this by giving a letter from Trenord to the union and every day from 45 to 50 trains do not leave for this reason: "It is impossible to train the crews that guarantee the traffic "

9. A MANAGEMENT

The agreement will inevitably lead to an immediate change in the governance of Trenord with the expiry of all shareholders' pacts and thus with the autonomy of the new CEO to build a new direction.

10. TWO SERVICE CONTRACTS

The Region, as the regulator, will have to stipulate two different service contracts. The Transport Regulatory Authority has just issued Resolution 66 adopted on July 5, which introduces new methods and criteria.