The coronavirus psychosis has produced chaos on Italy's most important railway artery: the high-speed train between Milan and Rome. The reason? Simple: a manager of the Casalpusterlengo station, in the heart of the Lombard epidemic, he fell ill while at work. That was enough to unleash panic, the terror of the incoming contagion. Result: stopped trains e chain delays of up to seven hours over most of the network.
The woman actually had virtually none of the symptoms of the coronavirus. She had a simple stomach ache, and that's why she asked to go home. The problem is that everyone her colleagues refused to replace her, in fear of being infected in case the woman had the coronavirus. In the end, the manager tested negative with the swab. Meanwhile, a company had been called as a precaution to clean up the woman's work environment. An operation that took hours and only ended in the middle of the night.
For this reason, traffic on the Milan-Piacenza line, the only one in operation after the derailment of the Frecciarossa train in Lodi on 13.30 February, was suspended from 6pm. The Turin-Milan-Salerno high-speed trains have been canceled or diverted to Padua, the regional trains between Milan and Bologna and between Bologna and Poggio Rusco canceled or limited. Replacement buses have been provided between Lodi and Piacenza.
The consequences of this episode will reverberate avalanche on today's rail traffic and probably also on that of the next ones.
“Considering the possibility of the occurrence of similar needs for health checks – reads a note from RFI – as a precaution, the offer of transport services from Tuesday 25 February will be reduced, also according to the transport demand expected by the railway companies". The decision was made after a meeting with the railway companies Trenitalia, Trenord and Italo-Ntv. The latter replied with a particularly harsh press release: “The choice of Rfi causes certain damages to everyone, in the face of hypothetical risks. At a time like this, the regularity of public utility services must be guaranteed and Italo is ready, despite being private, to do its part. Yet this is prevented by choices made by others. Rfi retorted that the entire offer of Italo trains will be guaranteed and that these statements "arouse extreme astonishment".
