Our veins (An ecology of maintenance)

( via NazioneIndiana:Le nostre vene )

by Simona Baldanzi

“We renew the toughest blame to the  board of directors of Ferrovie (Ferrovie dello Stato, NdT) that diverted resources and technology in favour of the 'shining' rail service of Alta Velocità  letting the rest of the Rail network, in particular freightliners and passenger trains, fade out in terms of quality and safety”.

I stop over these words, the declarations of the rail workers,  the people who works there, the people who see things and who knows how they work and when they don't work, more than every manager sitting in the office with a salary of hundred of thousands of Euros.

I back up entirely each of these words with a sense of discouragement too.  This because today in the morning I heard about the tragedy in Viareggio, after a moment of bewilderment and pain, my thought went to the other derailments in Prato back a few days ago, a unheard alarm bell; and then  my thought went to Dante De Angelis, the engineer, RLS delegate, who has been denouncing for years the unsafety of our trains and who was fired instead of being heard,  becoming a symbol of struggle among the workers, not only in the Railways.

About Alta Velocità in Italy, I don't know what to add after all these years, after the environmental damages in the Mugello area and the CAVET proceeding, after the work-related deaths, after the mafia's infiltrations in some subcontracts, after the financial catastrophe and the tax evasion too, denounced in the latter days.

I recommend, for whom hasn't see it yet, the video-documentary "Fratelli di TAV" thet reconstructs the history of the TAV in our Bel Paese.

I was shocked by hearing a journalist asking: "Is it the railway too close to buildings?"

Where is he living, 'though? Italy is like that: a narrow and mountainous land with thousands of municipalities, for which reason an efficient and capillar link is needed instead of big and lonely rail branches (like those of Alta velocità, NdT).

Railways are passing everywhere in the cities, amidst the buildings, along beaches and inside mountains. For that reason is necessary invest more attention and financial resources on every single line, invest in maintenance and safety, because railways are the veins of our  body Italy.  The blood flowing inside them are we all, every-morning commuters, simple citizens and consumers. All of us.  We need to cure these veins, every capillary that breaks it's a signal of disease and we need to hear it otherwise soon we'll got sick. I would start with the railway workers. Today tha man who wants to understand Viareggio, who wants identify responsibilities and wants to work in order not to repeat it, who wants a safe and efficient italian railway, got to go and hear railway workers,  provided that they aren't already fired.

 (translation from italian text by Franz Amigoni) 

Internet resources:

Viareggio train derailment 

Alta Velocità website

CAVET proceeding

Fratelli di TAV blog

 

 

 

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