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The city of Florence equips itself with a light rail

Like many major cities, Florence has to face mobility issues. The municipality has therefore launched over the past years a vast renovation program for its urban transport. This involves widening the motorway to three lanes, building a high-speed urban tunnel, a new TGV train station, and above all a light rail network.

The municipal bus network operator ATAF was project manager for the construction of line 1 that began on the 1st of December 2004. In 2003, the city of Florence organized a competition in order to select a company that would be in charge of the construction of the two other lines, of investment funding and would operate the entire light rail network, within a “private-public partnership”.

A large-scale project...

RATP Développement teamed up with an industrial group within the company Tram di Firenze SpA for this selection. In June 2005, the city assigned to Tram di Firenze the concession for the conception and construction of lines 2 and 3 as well as the operation of the network for thirty years. The operator is the company GEST SpA, formed by RATP Développement and ATAF (49%) with a contract for a total 720 million euros signed with the concessionary company.

RATP Développement has 24,9% of the shares in the concessionary company and ATAF has 24,1%. The other shareholders are Italian construction and civil engineering companies, equipment and systems suppliers including the groups Ansaldo and Alstom, as well as Architecna Engineering SpA.

...designed and piloted by RATP Développement

This is the first private-public partnership concerning urban transport ever launched in Italy. RATP Développement created the partnership project and was representative of the promoter group.

The financing contract was signed at the same time as the private concession contract. It amounts to a total 229 million euros. Calyon and Monte de Paschi di Sienna were responsible with ISPA for the financers and financial arrangements.

The operation of the network will begin with line 1 from mid-2008, followed by lines 2 and 3 in 2009 and 2010.

Location: Florence / Italy
Client: City of Florence
Name of the structure: Florence light rail
Nature of the project: Conception, construction and operation of a light rail network