Convegno sull’Alta Velocità a Padova

The release of issue n.37 of our magazine, High-Speed Railways, Engineering and Landscape, was accompanied by a day-long seminar with the same title, which took place in the Aula Magna of the Engineering Department at the University of Padua. The proceedings were coordinated by Prof. Marco Pasetto, curator of the monograph issue. Several of the authors of the articles in the publication participated, along with other experts. The railways are an emblematic example of how hard it is in Italy to implement an e* ective process of infrastructure development. Very few works of strategic interest have survived the lethargy in the process of decisionmaking and the loosening constraints typical of our bureaucracy, and this has had economic repercussions. The High-Speed railways have not been successful in meeting the demand for railway transport across our Peninsula, nor have they been able to interface with the existing networks from other countries. However some of the projects on the existing railway network have been instrumental in upgrading the railway network, which was stuck at a twentieth-century level of development, making connections easier between the suburban and central areas of the city and reducing the time required for long-distance journeys, but often generating an extremely negative impact on the landscape.