Palermo tram scheme goes off the rails

The city of Palermo, Sicily, is the proud owner of 18 state-of-the-art trams capable of transporting up to 250 passengers.

Costing €21 million, the trams come complete with anti-vibration devices and audiovisual screens.

When the new project was presented, the city fathers proudly suggested that a city centre ride from Brancaccio to Notarbartolo Station would take 20 minutes as opposed to the hour currently required in rush hour traffic.

More than €150 million has been spent on the badly needed scheme in a city which, rather like Dublin, overhastily abandoned its existing tram system more than 40 years ago.

There’s one major problem, however: Palermo has the trams but it does not have the rails.

Yesterday's Turin daily La Stampa reported yesterday that only about 70 per cent of the first of the three lines has been completed.

Worse still, this week the company that won the original public contract to lay the tracks, SIS, announced it would have to close with the loss of 130 jobs.

Payments owing
The problem is all too familiar in today's Italy: the state, or in this case the city of Palermo, is so far behind with its payments to them that they simply cannot continue.

The company claims to be owed some €30 million by various authorities.

Palermo City Hall issued a press release this week suggesting that SIS will “be making every possible effort to avoid having to abandon the project”.

But at the moment things do not look good for a development where costs have gone up by about €100 million since work began.

Austerity, poor administration both by the city hall and AMAT, the local transport authority, are doubtless to blame for the situation. but fact is, Palermo has he trams but it don’t have the rails.