“Trenord it’s free”

When vandalisms reflect the political situation of a Public Transport Service

That’s what I saw on a door of an Ale 711 TSR train yesterday evening.

The train, was travelling on the S13 line of the Suburban rail network in Milan

The line S13, was the last line to enter service: It used to connect Milano Bovisa with Milano Rogoredo (along S1 and S2 lines) and it was named “S10”. In 2012, it was extended south as far as Pavia, and rebranded as S13 linking the last remained satellite city to the city centre via suburban rail.

The line was renamed from “S10”, in order to avoid confusion with the S-Bahn del Canton Ticino network, in the near Swiss region of Ticino

This was particularly nice because the extension of the line came with big support from public (which is usually hostile or neutral to public transport extensions.)

That’s because people in the same geographical area, already tried the S1, extended to Lodi in 2009, and they knew how nice a direct, fast, frequent and reliable rail connection to the city centre is.

Service started with 3 car sets TSR models. On the first week of service, they needed to be replaced by 5 car sets TSR, because the demand was higher than expected. The south-western area of the city has no other rail connections and nearly no reliable bus services, except for a very few lines.

Most of the bus lines, does not have Sunday services. Around a single stop served by the S13, we have nearly 27.600 people, without a way to get around without car on Sundays* (and very poor ways to get around without car on weekdays too)
It’s easy to understand why a flat, frequent and reliable rail service, which brings you direct into the city centre, and runs every 30′, every day, from 5 to 23 was so heavily appreciate, even if most of the stops are only reachable by car.

To be fair, there are tree decent bus lines in the area. The 220, 222 and 230 lines, operated by ATM and Autoguidovie (More on that later)

There also used to be some (really poor) Sunday service on a portion of the line z501, operated by PMT, until November 2020, when the service was “temporally suspended” because of covid.

The S13 should have been the first step in the right direction, to bring public transport in the southwestern area of Milan’s province, but… it wasn’t. (Again, more on that later)

Service on line S13 is since some years constantly going worse, in terms of stations conditions, trains conditions, safety and reliability (we will soon talk about the complete shutdown of the S-Bahn Core Section in August 2022)

Service was not heavily reduced, like on some other more problematic lines. The S13 “just” lost two evening trains, because of covid and smart working: The 22:25 from Bovisa to Pavia, and the 23:09 from Pavia to Bovisa. The 23:09 was the last train. It was not great, not for a S-Bahn in a 3,5 Million innhabitants’ agglomerate, but it was still something. The last train is today the 22:39, which is definitely not acceptable

So, what’s going on? Why are trains so degraded?

Since we are in a densely populated area, there are some criticises related to small criminality.

In 2015, a train guard was stabbed and seriously injured by some “passengers” without a valid ticket, on a S5 service at around midnight.

The regional government, decided to introduce armed surveillance on the most critical lines, and reduce the length of trains on evening services (by detaching married paired trains or closing carriages)

This was in my opinion the right thing to do, but then, funds for armed surveillance have been discontinued, and exceeding carriages are not closed on evening services anymore.

Under the following government, the “Safe and Quiet” carriage was introduced.

This carriage had no differences with other carriages, except they had those bright green headrests, and those big eyes with the Trenord logo inside, reminding me a lot of George Orwell’s 1984.

This idea was slowly abandoned.

The situation of degraded condition on trains, rapidly degenerate after lockdowns and I would say, it has become out of control, in the recent periods.

The only way the regional government is fighting against vandalisms is cutting evening services down.

How can you pretend those trains to be full of happy, healthy, and paying passengers?

Wealthy public transport means wealthy passengers. You can’t complain about vandalisms and criminality on board trains when trains itself are in conditions of neglect. It’s a vicious circle

On top of this, there is a psychological factor: This service is heavily subsidised with public money. Service conditions are becoming worse and worse, in terms of frequency, evening service, reliability, and conditions of rolling stock. Why should I, as taxpayer, buy a ticket for a service that bad?

Ticket prices are slowly getting higher. That may be the right thing to do, in the country where public transport is the cheapest and the most heavily subsidised in the EU.

But… this sounds like the perfect way to lose healthy passengers again, if you’re public transport system increase fares and reduces services in terms of frequency, quality, and reliability at the same time.

This only brings to less passengers, more fares evasion, and less safety on board.

As Reece Martin in his recent video said, no-one in Germany or Japan or The Netherlands would say that public transport has become useless because of covid and smart working.

Cars are the most unsafe and dangerous mean of transport existing. You may not get covid by car, but you’re certainly in constant risk of death or injuries

*Sum of the population in some of the most important centres without Rail connection and bus services on Sundays in the area: Binasco, Giussago, Lacchiarella and Siziano