Beppe Grillo's Blog

Translorh, the rail that kills

Blog interviews: Gino De Pauli
(6:13)

Translorh is Padua’s tram system that kills. The name of a horror film, on a par with the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and “The Wolf Man”. In Padua, where you could always move around on a bicycle with no risk whatsoever, now there’s Translorh, the killer monorail. Trams have been constructed in Italy for more than a century. They have even been exported to San Francisco. The Padua administration has gone beyond itself and has created war trams. Translorh is the “friendly tram” a bit like “friendly fire”. It captures the cyclist like a praying mantis and it slices off a limb or just kills him decisively. 250 injured and one death. The blog has interviewed Gino De Pauli, the president of the campaign group for the victims of Padua’s tram.

”Greetings friends of the blog, I am Gino De Pauli, the president of the campaign group for the victims of Padua’s tram. I am talking to you from Padua because here a really big problem has arisen that has brought about the need for 250 people to go to hospital and unfortunately the death of one person.
In 1992, the City of Padua started on the process of having a traditional tram. In the various stages that followed that decision, the Right wing did not want this tram, so once they got into power, they didn’t want it to happen. Thus what has been created is a hybrid, called the Translorh and it has not been approved: neither the rail, nor the vehicle.
The difference between this tram and the traditional tram can be seen by looking at these models of tracks that we have created.
The first model is for a traditional tram like the ones in Milan, Rome and other Italian cities. With a bicycle, you have to cross the track at 90 degrees. That’s true for a traditional track and for the new system in Padua. If inadvertently, because of the dynamics of the traffic, you happen to slide the wheel of the bicycle into the Milan tram track, the wheel would be able to keep moving and you would have the chance to put your feet to the ground and save yourself. On the other hand, what happens in the monorail of the new Translorh, Padua’s new system? The monorail is higher than the surface of the road by a centimetre or even two and what happens? That the wheel finds itself on top of this two centimetres iron and rubber, there’s no longer any friction. It happens that inadvertently, because of the dynamics of the traffic, the bicycle slips into the groove, and it gets trapped inside the groove that has been created by the two inclined planes. With the naked eye we can see that there is a substantial difference between the two tracks. The crux of the innovative system is formed by two tires and a central guiding mechanism that is hooked on to this rail that comes above the road surface by one or even two centimetres. Now I will show you with the set of wheels that we have created by hand to show how it works.
There are two small wheels that hook in and carry the vehicle with the lateral wheels that support the weight. All the guidance system is centred on this monorail. That’s why it has to come up higher than the road surface. But what happened? Since it experienced derailments, they thought to cut the resin with which the monorail is blocked so that the wheels themselves can be inserted, but with a slope that is much wider so that it is possible to have a greater area of contact. As they are wider, they can hook onto the monorail better and thus avoid derailments, in fact, for quite some time now, there have been no derailments. However, this creates problems as the motorcycles are still slipping on the rails, but whereas before the resin was cut, they could even get sorted in some way, now the wheel of the motorcycle slides into the rail and gets blocked: you have to think of the weight of the person plus the weight of the motorcycle and thus the air inside the tire tends to go down into this groove, to get blocked and then to catapult the person or to make them lose their balance and send them to hospital.
Up until now more than 250 people have been injured and one person died on 5 June 2008.

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Comments

Interesting rant, mauro. Unfortunately you have posted into the English language part of Grillo's blog, so your message will, largely, go unread (even posting twice won't help here).

For the English speakers, here are a couple of English links - one to Wikipedia (English) and another to the French website of the manufacturer. As said on Wikipedia, the problem is also that the whole system is tied to the French manufacturer for all spare parts and replacement trams for the future. Nice business if you can get it, eh!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translohr
http://www.lohr.fr/transport-public_gb.htm

Posted by: Luke Dixon | November 2, 2009 02:58 PM

basta!!!!! porca puttana, dico basta a questa indecenza, a questo signore che non rispetta nessuna regola, basta ai giornalisti, politici , industriali compiacnti, basta a questo modo insulso di fare politica ed informazione, basta alla mancanza di trasparenza, etica. morale, senso del comune, basta agli evasori che continuano ad evadere, basta a tutti quelli che non fanno il proprio dovere di cittadini responsabili, basta, basta, dove sono finiti i politici con un poco di dignita', dove siete? venite fuori, fatevi vedere , fatevi sentire, qui dove vivo oramai da 24 anni qualsiasi politico , giornalista, imprenditore che fosse stato al centro di tutto questo marciume, da cosi' tanto tempo, srebbe finitoooo! ci siamo stancati di essere presi continuamente per il culo, di sentirci dire, look you have Berlusconi. E' una farsa, chi e' questo individuo, questo disonesto, donnaiolo da quatrro soldi, bastaaaa!!!!!! Gary Hart per una storiuccia a luci rosse non ha potuto continuare la sua corsa alla casa bianca, il governatore dell' illinois Blagoievic per aver cercato di comprare il seggio lasciato libero da obama si e' dovuto dimettere, il senatore del'alaska per aver ricevuto tanagenti idem, come si puo' continuare ad accettare un personaggio del genere, Svegliaaaa!
guardiamoci intorno, osserviamo, non possiamo accettare tutto questo. Bastaaaaa!

Posted by: mauro zanutto | November 1, 2009 08:25 PM

I am, of course, very sorry for anyone who has been hurt by coming into proximity with Padua's new tram system. But to ascribe these unfortunate situations to a political party, as Mr. De Pauli wants to do, boggles my mind, as did his laborious technical explanation of the roots of the problem. The solution to the problem? Stay off the track!

Posted by: Mike Pellegrini | October 22, 2009 06:52 AM

Should Italians believe Tremonti's ludicrously false pronouncement on the idea of a "posto fisso" (steady job) in place of the precarious working conditions people now endure, then Italians will believe in anything. Tremonti and Berlusconi know very well that in this economy there is no such thing as a "steady job". This is another deceptive maneuver to avoid blame for the increasing unemployment on tap. It's like they''re saying, "High unemployment? Don't blame us. We believe in a steady job." Steady job? How can a car manufacturer keep workers working when demand for cars is decreasing? And that question goes for all private sectors. In other words, harping on this issue is a waste of time. This is but a diversionary political tactic used to confuse and keep people believing in chimeras. We live in times of high unemployment caused by lack of work. There is either work or not. No work no job. Nobody can guarantee a job for life to anybody. Tremonti and Berlusconi are bullshitting the Italian people.

Posted by: louis pacella | October 21, 2009 11:59 PM

I am a cyclist and cycle over 200 km a week, more in the warmer weather. I am also a mass transit supporter. At least in Italy you still have trams from the earlier part of the 20th century. In America, due to the poltical party of the automative industry most trams and train lines were removed in favor of the automobile. Now because of America's reliance on oil, America has to sacrifice over 300 people a year to maintain bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, and oh yeah, 45 military bases in Italy employing over 5,000 Italians. As an American, I would like to see all the military bases closed in Italy and take that money and reinvest in American cities so Americans could start to build tram systems for their cities.

Posted by: Paul Scaglia | October 21, 2009 10:51 PM