Hitachi Rail has confirmed that it has completed an extension to the metro in Milan.
This extension will now see the South-West quadrant of the city served by the metro, as the final section of the M4 line has been completed. New strategic infrastructure will also benefit passengers, with a new interchange being introduced.
By completing this work, the reach of the city’s transport network has been enhanced significantly, improving accessibility whilst also reducing urban traffic and promoting the use of a more environmentally-friendly transport system.
Luca D’Aquila, Hitachi Rail Group’s COO, said:
"The completion of Line 4 represents another step forward for the citizens of Milan in the process of transitioning from private to collective mobility."
“The inauguration of the final section to San Cristoforo will have a significant environmental impact, with over 4 million fewer car trips each year. This is an achievable target, according to estimates, thanks to the comfort and reliability of our vehicles, and safety of our signalling systems, which will enable citizens to travel safely.”
Hitachi Rail will provide 47 state-of-the-art autonomous trains for the metro, whilst also taking over responsibility for the handling of the signalling system, the third rail, telecommunications, supervision, control, and data acquisition. Alongside all of this, the ATC signalling system was also delivered by Hitachi Rail, with this being based on driverless CBTC technology.
The new trains have the ability to reach a top speed of 80 km/h, and will operate at a frequency of one train every 90 second. This frequency can be lowered to one train every 75 seconds during peak hours, with 500 passengers able to travel on each train.
Additional benefits to the extension of the metro are that around four million car trips can be avoided every year across the city, with this potentially bringing a 10,310 tonne reduction in carbon emissions.
Image credit: iStock
