After 20-year battle, protests over Italian high-speed train derail
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0725/After-20-year-battle-protests-over-Italian-high-speed-train-derail
By Giorgio Ghiglione Contributor |TURIN, ITALY
農民們在反對修建高鐵的鬥爭中敗下陣來。他們認為高鐵服務於意大利精英階層的經濟利益，並對環境造成破壞。
盧卡·阿巴（Luca Abba）是蘇薩山穀（Val di Susa）的一位農民。蘇薩山穀連接著意大利和法國。去年二月，在抗議修建連接意大利和法國的高速鐵路（TAV）的活動中，他攀爬高壓電塔，試圖阻止政府征用土地，不幸觸電身亡。
他雖然幸存下來，但至今仍飽受嚴重的健康問題困擾。但這起悲劇事件也印證了近二十年來山穀當地社區與中央政府之間日益緊張的關係，自去年夏天工程終於開工以來，抗議者與承包商之間的暴力衝突不斷升級。該項目已成為一種公共工程文化的典型代表，這種文化更多地受政治而非當地需求驅動：現有的鐵路連接利用率不足，且可能出現環境問題。
1991年，意大利國家鐵路公司首次提出在都靈和裏昂之間修建一條高速鐵路，與現有的鐵路連接並行。盡管有報道稱，自1997年以來，兩座城市之間的人流和貨運量均呈下降趨勢，但該公司仍在2001年批準了該項目。當地居民強烈反對這項大型工程，認為出於環境和經濟原因，官員們應該停止該項目。抗議活動一直在持續進行。
尼科萊塔·多西奧是一位退休教師，也是反對TAV高鐵項目的運動聯合創始人。她表示，隧道建設過程中，劇毒的石棉和鈾礦沉積物將會重新浮出水麵，“這將造成環境破壞”。她還說：“現有鐵路的運力利用率隻有20%左右，他們應該優先利用現有運力。”
利益衝突
意大利高鐵項目的故事與意大利公共工程管理失敗的現狀不謀而合，商業和政治往往相互交織。意大利政壇醜聞層出不窮，其中不乏挪用公款的案例，例如SISMI-Telecom事件，該事件揭露了政府和企業官員利用竊聽公民電話獲取的職業機密牟利。TAV高鐵項目的建設也暴露了其不正當的商業行為和裙帶關係。
鐵路總承包商Impregilo的母公司、家族企業Gavio集團去年7月被控腐敗，並被指控賄賂米蘭省前省長菲利波·佩納蒂。與民主黨關係密切的拉文納建築合作社CMC獲得了勘探隧道工程的合同，而由前中右翼基礎設施部長皮耶特羅·盧納爾迪的妻子擁有的Rocksoil公司則在法國方麵贏得了多項合同。
“議會尚未就TAV項目進行投票，”舊金山加州大學國際與比較法教授烏戈·馬泰表示，“目前隻有一項可追溯至2001年的法律，規定了2002年至2013年間所有大型基礎設施項目的規則，”這給政客們留下了很大的回旋餘地。
馬泰先生補充道：“TAV項目隻是公共資金流向私人利益的最新例證。” “民主黨對CMC的偏袒合情合理，因為這筆錢間接地支持了該黨。”
米蘭理工大學交通經濟學教授、世界銀行顧問馬可·龐蒂表示，沒有必要修建一條連接都靈和裏昂的新鐵路。“裏昂地處偏遠，所以客流量非常低：現有線路的貨運能力為20噸，但目前僅運送3噸貨物。”他還補充說，該項目“意味著建築商和銀行將獲得巨額利潤”。
漫長的曆史
工程原計劃於2005年10月開工，但多年來一直遭到抗議者的阻撓，他們甚至將建築工人趕走。幾個月後的12月，警方幾乎摧毀了當地抗議運動“反對TAV”的靜坐示威，隨後5萬名抗議者襲擊並破壞了工地。
當局與當地民眾的關係變得異常緊張，以至於政府成立了一個技術委員會，負責與當地市長進行談判。 2008年，他們達成協議修建TAV鐵路，但許多人仍然反對。內部人士聲稱，談判並未考慮獨立報告，這些報告指出該鐵路對環境有害且經濟上不可行。
如果工程開工時間晚於 2011 年 6 月，意大利將失去歐盟資金，這促使警方驅散了因抗議活動重啟而引發的新一輪靜坐示威??。次月，7 萬人占領了該地區，但很快被驅散。隨後發生了一係列衝突、路障和自發示威活動，導致 42 人被起訴，罪名包括煽動暴力、造成人身傷害和破壞公共財產。為了緩和局勢，技術委員會提出了一項折衷方案。委員會表示，一條更便宜、規模更小的鐵路線，僅包含一條隧道，可以將成本降低至 30 億歐元。
結局不盡如人意
這項低成本項目並非沒有批評者。
都靈理工大學的多位教授在一份報告中指出，修訂後的方案缺乏對其經濟可持續性的充分分析。 “政府聲稱不會造成任何直接或間接的環境損害。這是錯誤的：任何工程，無論大小，都會產生一定的影響，而在這個案例中，石棉礦藏帶來的危險卻被輕描淡寫了。”
2012年5月，瓦爾迪蘇薩的地方選舉演變成了一場關於鐵路的公投。民主黨和西爾維奧·貝盧斯科尼的自由黨聯手推出支持該項目的候選人，但在許多城鎮仍然敗給了反對鐵路建設運動的候選人。
與此同時，鐵路建設仍在繼續，批評人士依然持懷疑態度。“沒人會用卡車把貨物運到火車上：裝卸時間太長了，”龐蒂先生歎息道。
After 20-year battle, protests over Italian high-speed train derail
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0725/After-20-year-battle-protests-over-Italian-high-speed-train-derail
By Giorgio Ghiglione Contributor |TURIN, ITALY
Farmers lost the battle against a high-speed train they see as serving the economic interests of the Italian elite and causing harm to the environment.
Luca Abba, a farmer from Val di Susa, a valley that connects Italy to France, was electrocuted last February while climbing a high voltage pylon during protests against the construction of a new High Speed Railway Line (TAV) between Italy and France in a desperate attempt to resist expropriation.
He survived, though severe health problems persist. But the tragic incident was evidence of the tensions that have been rising for almost two decades between the valley’s local communities and the central government, culminating in violent clashes between protestors and contractors since construction finally began last summer. The project has become emblematic of a public works culture that is driven far more by politics than local need: the current rail connection is underused and environmental problems could arise.
In 1991, the Italian National Railway Co. first proposed construction of a high-speed rail line between Turin and Lyon, alongside the existing connection. It gave the green light to the project in 2001, despite reports of declining traffic of both people and goods between the two cities since 1997. Local inhabitants strongly oppose the megaproject, claiming environmental and economic reasons should prevent officials from continuing. Protests have been ongoing.
Highly toxic deposits of asbestos and uranium minerals would resurface during the building of tunnel, which “would cause environmental devastation,” says Nicoletta Dosio, a retired schoolteacher and co-founder of the movement against TAV. “The existing railway’s capacity is underused at around 20 percent: they should [first] use it.”
The family-owned Gavio Group, head of the railway's general contractor Impregilo, was charged with corruption last July and accused of bribing Filippo Penati, former president of the province of Milan. CMC, a construction cooperative in Ravenna with close ties to the Democratic Party, was awarded the exploratory tunnel works, while Rocksoil, owned by the wife of the former center-right infrastructure minister Pietro Lunardi, won numerous contracts on the French side.
“There hasn’t been a parliament’s vote about TAV,” says Ugo Mattei, a professor of international and comparative law at the University of California in San Francisco. “There only is a law that dates back to 2001 that states the rules for every great infrastructure project to be realized between 2002 and 2013," leaving much leeway for politicians.
The “TAV is just the latest example of a transfer of public money in favor of private interest,” Mr. Mattei adds. “The Democratic Party’s favors to CMC make sense because the money is supporting the party indirectly."
Marco Ponti, professor of transport economics at the Polytechnic University of Milan and a World Bank consultant, says that there's no need for a new rail line connecting Turin with Lyon. “The traffic is very low, because Lyon is in the middle of nowhere: The existing line has a capacity of 20 tons of goods, and currently carries only three." He adds that the project "means enormous profits for builders and banks.”
Relations between the authorities and local people became so strained that the government formed a technical committee to negotiate with local mayors. In 2008, they reached an agreement to build the TAV, but many still disagreed. Insiders claim that the negotiations had not taken into account independent reports suggesting that the railway was dangerous for the environment and economically unsound.
Italy would have lost European funds if the works had begun later than June 2011, spurring the police to evacuate a new sit-in prompted by the renewed activity. The next month, 70,000 people occupied the area but were quickly dispersed. A series of fights, road blocks, and spontaneous demonstrations followed, causing the indictment of 42 people who were accused of inciting violence, inflicting personal injuries, and damaging public property. In an attempt to defuse the situation, the technical committee proposed a compromise. A cheaper and smaller rail line, consisting on just one tunnel, should reduce the cost to 3 billion euros, it said.
A number of professors at the Polytechnic University of Turin stated in a report that the revised proposal lacks a proper analysis of its economic sustainability. “[T]he government says there will be no environmental damages, either direct or indirect. That’s wrong: any kind of work, big or little, will generate some impact, and in this case the danger posed by asbestos deposits has been played down.”
In May 2012, local elections in Val di Susa turned into a referendum on the railway. The Democratic Party and Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom Party joined forces by presenting candidates supporting the project, but were still defeated by candidates from the No-TAV movement in many towns.
Meanwhile, construction continues and critics remain skeptical. “Nobody will transport its goods by trucks to trains: loading times are too long,” Mr. Ponti sighed.
In 1991, the Italian National Railway Co. first proposed construction of a high-speed rail line between Turin and Lyon, alongside the existing connection. It gave the green light to the project in 2001, despite reports of declining traffic of both people and goods between the two cities since 1997. Local inhabitants strongly oppose the megaproject, claiming environmental and economic reasons should prevent officials from continuing. Protests have been ongoing.
Highly toxic deposits of asbestos and uranium minerals would resurface during the building of tunnel, which “would cause environmental devastation,” says Nicoletta Dosio, a retired schoolteacher and co-founder of the movement against TAV. “The existing railway’s capacity is underused at around 20 percent: they should [first] use it.”
Conflict of interest
The high-speed railway saga fits into the narrative of Italy’s failed public works management, where business and politics often overlap. The long list of political scandals in Italy includes incidents involving the misappropriation of public funds, such as the SISMI-Telecom affair, which exposed government and corporate officials capitalizing on professional secrets that were obtained through wiretapping citizens' phone lines. The construction of the TAV has also exposed questionable business practices and nepotism.The family-owned Gavio Group, head of the railway's general contractor Impregilo, was charged with corruption last July and accused of bribing Filippo Penati, former president of the province of Milan. CMC, a construction cooperative in Ravenna with close ties to the Democratic Party, was awarded the exploratory tunnel works, while Rocksoil, owned by the wife of the former center-right infrastructure minister Pietro Lunardi, won numerous contracts on the French side.
“There hasn’t been a parliament’s vote about TAV,” says Ugo Mattei, a professor of international and comparative law at the University of California in San Francisco. “There only is a law that dates back to 2001 that states the rules for every great infrastructure project to be realized between 2002 and 2013," leaving much leeway for politicians.
The “TAV is just the latest example of a transfer of public money in favor of private interest,” Mr. Mattei adds. “The Democratic Party’s favors to CMC make sense because the money is supporting the party indirectly."
Marco Ponti, professor of transport economics at the Polytechnic University of Milan and a World Bank consultant, says that there's no need for a new rail line connecting Turin with Lyon. “The traffic is very low, because Lyon is in the middle of nowhere: The existing line has a capacity of 20 tons of goods, and currently carries only three." He adds that the project "means enormous profits for builders and banks.”
A long history
Works were slated to begin in October 2005, but protesters have blocked them for years, literally chasing construction workers away. A few months later in December, the police nearly destroyed the local protest movement’s "No TAV" sit-in, after which 50,000 protesters attacked and destroyed the site.Relations between the authorities and local people became so strained that the government formed a technical committee to negotiate with local mayors. In 2008, they reached an agreement to build the TAV, but many still disagreed. Insiders claim that the negotiations had not taken into account independent reports suggesting that the railway was dangerous for the environment and economically unsound.
Italy would have lost European funds if the works had begun later than June 2011, spurring the police to evacuate a new sit-in prompted by the renewed activity. The next month, 70,000 people occupied the area but were quickly dispersed. A series of fights, road blocks, and spontaneous demonstrations followed, causing the indictment of 42 people who were accused of inciting violence, inflicting personal injuries, and damaging public property. In an attempt to defuse the situation, the technical committee proposed a compromise. A cheaper and smaller rail line, consisting on just one tunnel, should reduce the cost to 3 billion euros, it said.
Unhappy ending
This lower-cost project has not been without its critics.A number of professors at the Polytechnic University of Turin stated in a report that the revised proposal lacks a proper analysis of its economic sustainability. “[T]he government says there will be no environmental damages, either direct or indirect. That’s wrong: any kind of work, big or little, will generate some impact, and in this case the danger posed by asbestos deposits has been played down.”
In May 2012, local elections in Val di Susa turned into a referendum on the railway. The Democratic Party and Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom Party joined forces by presenting candidates supporting the project, but were still defeated by candidates from the No-TAV movement in many towns.
Meanwhile, construction continues and critics remain skeptical. “Nobody will transport its goods by trucks to trains: loading times are too long,” Mr. Ponti sighed.
