ITALY: Palermo city council has approved changes to its public works plan to include the construction of four tramway extensions.

  • A: an extension of the existing Line 1 from the Palermo Centrale station to the stadium;
  • B: an extension from the Notarbartolo terminus of lines 2, 3 and 4 to Via Duca della Verdura;
  • C: an extension of Line 4 from Calatafimi to Centrale station.
  • E1: a connection from Piazza De Gasperi on rail Line A to Francia station, providing an interchange with the Passante suburban railway route.

The overall cost of the four extensions is put at €426m. This would be financed with €200m of government funding allocated for projects in southern Italy and €50m from the Sicily region, with the remaining money expected to come from existing sources and private sector co-financing.

A further three proposed extensions were not approved, but could be supported at a later stage if funding can be identified.