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May 23, 2011
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- Back to the Past
- Assagenti rewrite a script read. NB: all references to real events and / or real people is perfectly intentional
 On the dashboard of the time machine indicates the date May 23, 1981, at 9.30 am. I get off and go into a room of the cotton warehouse in Genoa, where he held the annual meeting of the Association agent Agents Brokers Maritime Aircraft - Genoa (Assagenti). Theme of the meeting is the "Third Crossing Railroad. Actions to be taken up to the creation of a work essential to the Ligurian port.
- The Third Crossing project involves the construction of a railway line at high speed / high capacity linking the port of Genoa to the Po valley. It is a principal of about 53 km is mainly in tunnels longer interconnections both in Liguria and Piedmont. The planned spending is as high as 12,000 billion lire (in 2011 that figure will correspond to approximately 6.2 billion euro).
- Assagenti TLS Europe has appointed the company to review the project and assess their effectiveness in the light of present and future market situation and state of infrastructure. This activity was submitted by the President and CEO of TLS, Camisetti Carlo, and the President of Assagenti, John Cerruti. Under the heading "Shipping and Logistics Forum of the" publish the report of the meeting Assagenti Cerruti .
- I am here today because I am interested to know what the third passage and what it will in the coming years until 2011, the year from which party. The dissertation Camisetti is long and detailed, but is primarily a concluding sentence to clarify the usefulness of the work: "the Third Crossing - he explained - it is not necessary if the port of Genoa remained only a regional port and non-European." Why indeed, as reasons for the study, development of rail traffic to and from the port of Genoa is possible to realize the full potential of the existing line. So the third passage is fundamentally essential to make a European port of Genoa."The goal - Cerruti confirmed by introducing the theme of the meeting to journalists - is to push the boundaries of the port of Genoa at the heart of Europe."
- Camisetti data in hand shows that in thirty years, in 2011, this scenario is still valid (and I, as a time traveler, I can confirm the validity of the thesis). The study points out that the TLS Europe in 2007, even before the economic crisis, expected to occur with unerring certainty to around 2009, against a capacity of railway lines between Genoa and the Po valley of 470 trains a day will reach 73 % saturation of the network, with 342 trains a day in circulation, of which 204 cargo and 138 passengers. "Saturation line to 90% - noted - there would be room for 81 more freight trains a day." Camisetti stated, then, that in 2010, when the port of Genoa should handle more than 1.7 million container TEUs, almost 60% of this traffic (about one million TEUs) "could be moved by rail." "With the Third Pass - has made it clear - the capacity will increase to 750 trains a day."
- At the conclusion of the presentation of the study, there was a panel discussion moderated by Deputy Director of "Il Secolo XIX, Luigi Leone, which was attended by thirty people who will play significant roles in institutions. These include: Roberto Castelli, who in 2011 will be Vice-Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Claudio Burlando, President of the Liguria Region, Alessandro Repetto, president of the Province of Genoa, Paolo Pissarello, vice mayor of Genoa, and Luigi Merlo, president of ' Port Authority of Genoa. Not that the discussion has been interesting, but are issues that players of 2011 you already know and then I'll spare you.
- A single entry on the proposal to reduce the number of the Port Authority put forward by some participants. Have been highlighted the difficulties and reluctance to implement such an initiative. According to Vice Minister Castelli will be the European Economic Community (which in future will become the European Community and later European Union) to impose a concentration of the Port Authority when it decides to select the ports of European importance, based on a minimum volume of traffic handled.At that time Italy will have to decide whether to have a single port carat, European, or whether, by combining various port authorities, may present some primary nuclei at the European national port that move a significant volume of traffic.
- The meeting ended in an atmosphere of general harmony and trust. We are just at the beginning of the boom of the '80s and now the speakers have almost convinced a wary like me: the third passage seems to be essential and you will make. For the past few years is the era of the container. Already several ships capable of carrying several hundred of these boxes full of goods sailing the seas. Genoa started on the right foot. Early last decade, overcoming some resistance, its maritime and port community has realized that container traffic would not have been an ephemeral phenomenon. 1981 - proving that the phenomenon is unstoppable rise - Germany's Hapag-Lloyd has taken delivery of the new Frankfurt Express, with a capacity of 3,430 TEUs, is the world's largest containerships. Already we design ships capable of carrying 6,000 TEUs.
- It is a revolution that the water is rising on the ground.These boxes already run on the rails from coast to coast crossing the prairies, deserts and urban areas of North America. Even here in Europe we are getting ready. Genoa also included these new developments and has put his hand to a project conceived in the early '900. A rail pass, indeed. The idea is simple: to create a new line that extends beyond the Apennines connecting the docks to the plain.
- The project was resubmitted today Assagenti and aroused enthusiasm. "There is a climate - has confirmed Camisetti - very proactive." The new initiative hopes to turn a time when the de-industrialization and the decline of state holdings are putting in Genoa knee.
- The time traveler knows how things go. I've seen that the port semi-desert and the empty offices and factories do not have the courage to break the spell.Who would now say to the liver brokers Genoese in thirty years will still be there trying to convince you do not know who the Third Crossing is a work essential to the Genoese port system and the economy of northern Italy?
- Who would have thought, moreover, to record facts and opinions, rather than look to the future as logic, I had to slip back into the past?
- I leave the room and turn on the time machine to go back to May 23, 2011. The same sun now and then, heating the Ligurian capital. Also similar reflections and comments. Even now the third passage is almost a reality or remains a chimera.
- Wandering in time you look at life with detachment and realize that if our eyes to God's plan is inscrutable, it is incomprehensible even human history. Or detect and record only the uncertainties of repeated disappointments.
- I lack the courage to once again become time travelers and climb on board my way to the risk of discovering that this article should probably be dated May 23, 2041.
- Bruno Bellio
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