The new integrated mobility project presented in Milan combines railroad and environmentally friendly car sharing, following a partnership between FN Mobilità sostenibile and Enel. An experimental phase will take place in Varese and Saronno.
Car sharing plus train. Starting from next April, people in the Italian Lombardy Region will travel ‘green’, with electric shared cars. The E-Vai 3.0 project, launched by FN Mobilità Sostenibile (a company of Ferrovie Nord Milano) in partnership with Enel, will be active until 2018 in Varese and Saronno, but the 12 cars made available to test the project are set to revolutionise travelling habits in the whole of Italy. Lombardy is of course an excellent testing ground, with its railway stations usually distant no more than five kilometres from each other. These are the best conditions to enhance a service for home-station commuting, and then from there on train to work and the other way around.
“The initiative presented today in Milan – said FNM Spa president Andrea Gibelli – is part of our 2016-2020 strategic plan: integrating different types of sustainable transportation, promoting home-work journeys that will reduce traffic and pollution”. The project has huge potential also regarding extra-work daily habits, considering that 87% of the 37 million cars in Italy are used to travel less than 60 kilometres a day. To this end, there will be distinct time slots and recharging stations close to where the main users live (without additional or consumption costs). The slot from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. is reserved to cars to be used by companies or public organisations, while at other times cars can be shared or else passengers can travel alone.
“We believe that innovation should mainly serve customers, environmental sustainability and technology” – commented Enel’s Head of Market Italy Nicola Lanzetta. “E-Vai 3.0 addresses both businesses and residential customers, for electric and sustainable transportation, and is therefore part of a broader path of evolution of mobility”. As pointed out by FN Mobilità Sostenibile CEO Luca Pascucci, the Lombardy Region is particularly interested in this project, presently unique in Europe, except for a similar service launched in Vienna, in Austria.
Three recharging stations will be installed at the train stations in Varese and Saronno, where the rest areas are located, each with six parking spaces. The “Green Traveller” deal will be proposed to these private users, while the “Corporate Package” will be offered to businesses.