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Catania Airport Station Opens

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LNW-GW Joint

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RFI has built a station for Catania Airport south of Catania Centrale on the electrified coastal line from Messina to Siracusa, on the island of Sicily.
The airport runway is just across the boundary fence from the railway, and it always seemed a no-brainer to build a station there.
I was last there in 2017, and the last lap on the airport bus from congested Catania city centre to the airport was fraught with delay and timetable confusion.
So that should now be history.

Apparently the local metro will also run to the airport by 2026, but in the meantime it's a short shuttle-bus transfer between airport station and the terminal.
Catania airport station opens | News | Railway Gazette International
The station is located a few hundred meters from the airport entrance, but is also linked via a free shuttle bus service operated by municipal transport operator Amt.
An elevated walkway is planned in the medium term. The city also plans to extend its metro network to the airport by 2026.

Funders of new UK stations might like to note that the €6.5m for the Catania Airport station is about a quarter of the typical cost of a similar scale of station in the UK.
 
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EAD

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The station was actually ready last December ready for the timetable change, but the road needed to get to it from the airport for the shuttle bus (should only be a few mins) got held up. There are a few videos etc up on youtube and reports on local railway sites for those that are interested. A very welcome addition as someone with family on the Ionian Coast of Sicily and therefore in normal times a regular user of the Catania Fontanarossa airport.

Just remains to see how well the timetables develop (especially later in the day for evening arrivals/departures) as normality returns and against the competing coach services which currently account for a large proportion of public transport to the airport. Still, some competitive journeys to be had already e.g. Giarre in just over 30 minutes, Giardini upto 1 hour, Messina 2 hours (some limited stop in only 1h30) and the other way to Siracusa in just over 1 hour. Of course being local trains prices are good too e.g. to Messina is €8.40 or Giardini €5.60 etc.

Edited to add this link to a local railway site - the entry neatly summarises the services ferroviesiciliane
 
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Taunton

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Funders of new UK stations might like to note that the €6.5m for the Catania Airport station is about a quarter of the typical cost of a similar scale of station in the UK.
Interesting comment. Because it's often said that building works in Sicily are so expensive, because of Mafia penetration of the industry, concrete supply in particular.

I wonder what this says about Network Rail's management of their supply chain.
 
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