USE
YOUR BRAIN! SAY NO TO COMMONPLACES!
Some
useful tips about the Turin-Lyon High Speed Train (TAV) Project
Commonplace number 1: Without the Turin-Lyon
High Speed Train the region of Piedmont would be isolated from Europe.
Piedmont is
already well connected with Europe, especially through the Susa Valley, where
there are already two state roads, a motorway, and a double-track railroad line
(for both passengers and goods). There is also the so-called “train-motorway“ -
lorries are transported on special train shuttles. All these connections to
France go through two natural passes and two artificial tunnels (the train and
motorway tunnels of Frejus). All this in a valley which is, on average, only
1,5 km wide! And there is a river too, the Dora Riparia, which sometimes
happens to flood...
Commonplace number 2: The existing railroad
lines are overused.
The existing
railroad line is actually underused (only 38% of its potential). Lorry-shuttles
are deserted (though they were used during the closing of the Frejus tunnel due
to a fire), the direct link Turin-Lyon had to be cancelled as there were no
passengers, and the boasted flow of goods has actually decreased by 9% in the
last year!
Commonplace number 3: The Turin-Lyon High Speed
Train is essential to the economic revival of Piedmont.
What is true
is actually the opposite! Diverting public resources (it's all public money!)
from research, innovation, and implementation of industry (not only FIAT), this
project will be “the last nail in the coffin” of industry in Piedmont.
Commonplace number 4: The High Speed Train will
clear the valley of lorries.
To begin
with, in transporting the diggings from the tunnels to the stockpiling sites,
the 10-15 year work-in-progress will bring something like 500 lorries a day
(and night!) through the Valley and the Turin neighbourhood - and that would of
course mean a dramatic increase of polluting elements and dusts. At the end of
the Majestic Work, who can guarantee that goods will leave the motorway to move
on the new high speed railroad? On the contrary, recent studies say that only
1% of the actual transport on wheels will move to railroad.
What an advantage!
Commonplace number 5: The inhabitants of the
Susa Valley are selfish and don't care about the project’s general benefits to
Italy.
Currently
35% of all transports crossing the Alps go through the Susa Valley, and more
than 4,500 lorries per day go along the Frejus motorway. On the other hand,
1,500 lorries a day go through the Mont Blanc in the Aosta Valley, where the
number of lorries has been limited by law.
Commonplace number 6: The Turin-Lyon High Speed
Train offers job opportunities for the inhabitants of Piedmont.
As is
already happening in other places, it would only mean temporary work, as it
mainly employs foreign manpower. Moreover, the firms in charge would use their
own technicians and workers - as we say “wife and cattle from your own
village“.
However,
another figure would surely reach Turin and the Valley: the Mafia! There is
already evidence of collusion in granting contracts for preliminary geological
studies... we can easily imagine what would happen with the real work!
Commonplace number 7: The new railroad track is
mainly inside tunnels: what's the problem, then?
That is
the problem, actually! The project foresees a 23-km. tunnel inside Mount
Musiné, which has a high presence of asbestos. The excavator digging the tunnel
will bring a huge number of asbestos fibres into the air, which will be spread
everywhere by winds, reaching the very centre of Turin. Breathing asbestos (the
mining or use of which was outlawed in 1977) causes a lethal and incurable cancer
- pleural mesothelioma. Digging tunnels in such a place is thus illegal,
criminal, and a great danger to public health!
Furthermore,
the 53-km. Italian-French tunnel, excavated inside Mount Ambin, will meet rocks
filled with uranium, and pollute aquifers and springs as well.
And more: a
tunnel excavation requires many little service tunnels - they graciously call
them “windows“. There are 12 of them planned, each with its own construction
site next to the villages. This would mean an inferno of noise, dust, and
lorries going up and down, day and night, along the narrow streets for at least
15 years!
And still
more: excavating such long tunnels in such a populated area would dry up (or
pollute) all aquifers and waterworks, as has already happened in Mugello, an
area between Florence and Bologna, where a judicial inquiry into environmental
damage has recently been set up.
And more:
the road system will be completely upset! For example, overpasses will be built
for each site. Can these new roads be considered as compensation for the
environmental impact of the whole work? From the Turin-Milan motorway, have a
look at the Turin-Novara new high speed railroad track to get an idea!
Commonplace number 8: This work is good for the
Italian Economy as it sets private capital in motion.
In fact, all
the costs will actually be paid by public money - that is, by all of us!
20 billion euros taken from public funds, and paid to private companies, the
General Contractors, with the Italian State vouching for them. No private
concern would have ever risked a single euro on this work - especially after
the failure of the Channel Tunnel! Public money for this work will be diverted
from existing (poorly-maintained) railroad tracks, from hospitals, schools, and
other public services, and from research on the development of renewable
energies.
Moreover, it
has been calculated that management costs of the Turin-Lyon High Speed Train
will be dramatically high, and that it will be losing money for decades.
And
furthermore: though the major portion of the track lies in French territory,
the Italian Government will pay two thirds of the whole cost. No problem for
them: we pay!
Commonplace number 9: Whoever is against the
Turin-Lyon High Speed Train is against Progress.
Well, what
exactly do we mean by progress? It should not be understood as infinite,
unregulated growth. The Italian territory is rather small and overpopulated,
and in the world as a whole, natural resources are limited, pollution and waste
are increasing, and the oil supply is diminishing.
Progress
should include understanding the limits to our exploitation of the earth.
Progress should mean using in a better way what we already have, making it more
efficient and lasting, cutting out what is unnecessary, investing in
intellectual and cultural growth more than in material growth.
The High
Speed Railroad Turin-Lyon goes precisely in the opposite direction of fair and
sustainable growth: it is an old-fashioned project, harking back to a time when
the growth of transport was considered unlimited, when the focus was only on
how fast and how many goods (tomorrow's waste) had to be transported, ignoring
the value of quality and its core question: if - and why - it is really such a
necessity to have all these goods transported!
No TAV Committee,
August 2005.
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