The Tramvia in Florence

What is the Tramvia?

The Tramvia is a rail lighter than a regular train, which emits very little low frequency noise and no exhaust. Three Tramvia lines were proposed in Florence: the first one is already in construction, and will connect Scandicci and the Florence S.M.N. train station; the other two are only projects. Some days ago there was a referendum about the lines Two and Three, to see what people think about these rails. In particular, line two will pass right in front of the Battistero di San Giovanni, and it’s object of discussion.

A computer image about line Two

Subjects for and against Tramvia

The city is divided into two different ways of thinking: some citizens think that Tramvia would decrease traffic and connect the city centre with the suburban area; others think that this project is going to make the city worse, because it will cover lots of historical places.
So, taking stock of the actual situation, there are subject for and against this project.
The first one is about the costs: in fact the construction of all the lines would reach about 700 million Euro, too much for some citizens. Although the tickets are promised to cost the same as a bus ticket, opponents estimate that transporting every single passenger will cost about 13 Euro.
Other subjects for discussion are the traffic, pollution and vibrations caused by the Tramvia.
Some people think that the Tramvia could be a way to decrease pollution because it’s electrically operated and it would replace most of the busses which pass near the Duomo.
But the opponents reply that the Tramvia would only move the traffic in other areas. Moreover, the rails would occupy about 50 percent of the streets, getting traffic to increase. It would be difficult for some heavy vans or emergency vehicles to pass along these streets.
Other problems are, for example, about 7000 parking spots lost, to make room for the rails, the large number of trees cut down to build them, or the Tramvia unattractiveness.

The outcome of the referendum

On February, 17 there was the referendum. The quorum wasn’t reached (only 39 percent of citizens voted), but opponents won (about 52 percent against 47 percent). Anyway, the project seems to go on. We’ll wait for news.

Filippo Contardi - Martina Goretti