ITALY: As part of plans to build two light rail lines to augment the city’s automated metro, Brescia municipality has called tenders for the design and construction of tram Line T2, including the supply of rolling stock.
The city has also commissioned operator Brescia Mobilità to update studies for a second tram line, to be known as T3.
T2 tenders
Following the final approval of the T2 project by the city council in late June, Brescia Mobilità called a combined tender on July 1 for the design and construction of T2 as well as for the supply of rolling stock at a total value of €426·3m. Applications are to be submitted by October 30.
The 11·3 km T2 would run from Pendolina in the northwest to the Fiera in the southwest, mostly following the corridor used by the city’s existing bus route 2. It is to serve 21 stops including interchanges with metro Line 1 at San Faustino and the city’s main line station.
Works are expected to start in March 2025 and be completed by mid-2030.
T3 studies
On July 9, the city council asked Brescia Mobilità to update the feasibility studies for tram Line T3, which were undertaken in 2018. The city now expects the operator to finalise a package that would cover financing, construction and management of the new line.
The municipality plans to submit the resulting proposal under the Ministry of Infrastructure & Transport’s Avviso 3 protocol that was issued in February. This gives access to funding for urban transport projects that are submitted to the government before October 31 this year.
The updated studies are also expected to finalise the alignment of T3, including the location of the termini. The east-west route would share tracks with T2 between Via Colombo and Via Solferino, but new tracks would be built eastwards from Via Solferino to Viale Bornata. The study is to assess whether to take the line further east to Sant’Eufemia.
At the western end of the corridor, T3 would run from Via Colombo to Via Vallecamonica. The design study will then choose between two route options, one running further west along Via Vallecamonica and the other turning south to Villaggio Violino.
Once the extensions are completed, Brescia Mobilità is considering introducing a route T4 which would use parts of T2 and T3 to link Fiera with Viale Bornata or Sant’Eufemia.
