“We’re really going to do it”

From Varese to Lugano in 34 minutes. In three years, this will no longer be just a project, but a reality for the people living in these towns. And it will all be thanks to the short stretch of railway that will link Arcisate and Stabio, or to be more precise, Lugano and Malpensa, as the Swiss say. And, for the Swiss, the real news today concerns the presence, in the railway building sites, of 25 reporters from Switzerland.

They arrived on board a big mail bus from the Ticino Canton, to see with their own eyes how the work is going on. The large group, accompanied by Walter Finkbohner, an expert on transport, carried out an inspection in Gaggiolo in the Bevera Valley, where the tunnel starts, and then in Arcisate.

“We’re really going to do it,” said town councillor, Raffaele Cattaneo. “The work will be completed by 2013, and, from 2014, there’ll be 116 trains travelling along this stretch of railway every day. Thirty-six trains will link Varese to Porto Ceresio, and 64 trains (one every half hour) will link Varese to Lugano, via Mendrisio. The journey will take 34 minutes, 47 minutes for trains that stop at every station. The journey from Varese to Como will take 29 minutes. In short, this will be a great change for the whole population.”

The representatives of the Swiss press expressed satisfaction with the presentation and the inspection of building sites. Cattaneo gave an overview of the development of the Lombardy railway system as a whole. “From 1 May, the railway companies Ferrovie Nord and Trenitalia will no longer exist in Lombardy, as a new railway company will start operating, whose headquarters will no longer be in Rome, but in Milan.”

Going back to the new railway, Lugano and Malpensa will be linked by 16 through trains to the airport. The journey will take a little more than one hour.

“The tunnel will be entirely under the ground, eight metres below the level of the houses, in order to reduce the noise. A new station in Arcisate will be built with all of the most modern systems, and it will be great, because people have a right to use good, high quality services.”

In this regard, Walter Finkbohner mentioned that, a century ago, in 1910, Varese provided its own luxury railway service to Milan.