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July 31, 2020 The distancing on trains ends: all Trenitalia and Italo high-speed trains can now travel with one hundred percent of the seats occupied. No more empty seats, therefore, despite the contagion curve has been growing for a few days and the contagion index (Rt) is now close to 1 at a national level. A decision that blew up the experts: "it is a choice - say by the government's Scientific Technical Committee - that is of great concern".And Lombardy also says goodbye to the meter of distance between passengers: the new regional ordinance in force from Saturday to 10 September provides that on trains, buses, local and regional metropolitan plots 100% of the seats are allowed and 50% of standing places, always with the obligation of a mask.
The possibility of returning to travel with the maximum capacity available on high-speed trains would be due to the realization of a series of conditions that were foreseen by the Prime Minister's decree signed by Giuseppe Conte on 14 July. In fact, the provision established the possibility of making trains run at full capacity provided that certain conditions are met: among these, the measurement of temperature before boarding the trains, with thermoscanners and thermometers which, as of today, are present in all the high-speed stations, the self-declaration by passengers to certify that they have not been in contact with people infected by Covid-19, a sort of new model like the one that millions of Italians used during the lockdown, the obligation to wear the mask on board the trains with the replacement every 4 hours.
However, conditions that do not reassure experts and scientists who, on the contrary, are "decidedly against" the end of the distancing. Already yesterday the Scientific Technical Committee had raised the alarm - "the trend is growing, we are worried by the evolution of the contagion curve" - and today they have reiterated the need not to let down their guard.
The choice made on high-speed trains, say CTS sources, "is of great concern". Also because it was taken without waiting for the expert opinion. On Thursday morning, according to what was possible to reconstruct, the MIT sent the Committee a request for evaluation of the new plan for the trains but at the meeting held in the afternoon the topic was not addressed, given that on the table there is were other issues. The analysis of the request that arrived from the offices of Minister Paola De Micheli was scheduled for Thursday's meeting.
"We have not given any opinion" they still say from the Committee, underlining that it will be precisely Thursday the occasion to reiterate the "determined will oppose" the choices made. The situation could however change in the next few hours in light of the new indications contained in the new Dpcm. However, it should not arrive before 7 August and which should contain "harmonization" - say government sources - of all the measures currently in force which must be extended until 15 October.