The first of the new trains for Line 1 of the Naples Metro will be delivered in early 2020. The Municipality of Naples and ANM, the municipal transport company, are in contact with CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) of Bilbao, which is building the 19 new trains ordered by the Municipality to revolutionize Line 1 at its factory. The first train will be delivered early next year and will immediately be put on the tracks for testing and running-in, ready to enter service as soon as possible. "The construction of the new trains for Line 1 of the Naples Metro is almost complete," emphasizes Mario Calabrese, Naples City Councilor for Transport. "There will be 19 in total, for a total cost of approximately €190 million. But we won't settle for less, and by the end of 2020, we will request funding from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for an additional five trains, bringing the total number of new trains to 24."
Calabrese recalls that “incredibly, the last train purchased by the municipal administration dates back to the early 90s and the last delivery was over 14 years ago. Now with the new trains they will be able to guarantee high standards of service and a transport offer in line with the expectations of citizens. A great operation by this Administration. We are working to make the Naples metro not only beautiful, but also functional in line with the objectives of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan that see public transport on rails as the cornerstone of the way of moving around the city”.
The new carriages will be equipped with air conditioning and noise reduction systems, and will simultaneously transport up to four wheelchairs for the disabled and approximately 1.200 people, including 130 seated. The 19 trains are in an advanced stage of construction: after the delivery of the first train, Naples will receive one train per month on average, in order to rapidly expand the fleet of rail vehicles. “We are building the new Anm, the Anm of 2020 which will start with the new trains,” explains Nicola Pascale, sole director of Anm. “We know that the wait for the Line 1 trains is too long and we are committed to improving it: with the new fleet,” explains Pascale, “in a few months we will have trains running every seven minutes and we will have new, more modern carriages, which will therefore have fewer technical problems than the current trains, which are almost 30 years old. All the Anm staff does the best they can every day with the means we have, a positive turning point will come soon,” he concludes.
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