• ITALY TRUCKS ON TRAINS
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Heavy goods vehicles could travel on trains in Italy if new plans to speed up railways are implemented. Ente Ferrovie, which runs the Italian railway system has acquired 1,000 wagons capable of carrying rigid and articulated trucks. The use, however, would mean that many tunnels would have to be reprofiled to create greater headroom.
The organisation has also built five bimodal wagons with retractable rubber wheels that can run on both road and rails, which will be tested on experimental tracks this April. Speeds of up to 2801on/h (175mph) will be possible on the new railway track while existing facilities, including level crossings, curves and certain junctions, will be done away with to increase speeds appreciably. Other possible measures included restricting passenger traffic to daylight hours with freight running at night.