A 20 meter plane travels above San Babila Square. Address Linate, suspended motionless at a height of four and ten meters to symbolize the proximity between the city’s historic center and the city’s airport whose distance as of today is shortened to 12 minutes. the M4, fifth subway line that will unite from West to East, the Forlanini airport and San Cristoforo, finally reaches the center (Here the story of the inauguration).
An (inflatable) plane in San Babila
The inflatable plane with blue livery and the inscription «with M4 you fly to Linate» looms over the opening this morning, when the line will be extended with two new stops: Tricolor and San Babila precisely, transformed into a large pedestrian area. At the same time, a reproduction of the square will be installed at the city’s airport metro station, complete with flower beds and a copy of the fountain created by architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni. Both facilities will remain throughout the week. The M4 is twenty years old (the project dates from 2005), the first six stops were open seven and a half years late last november (supposed to be ready in 2015), two more today and the next 13 will go live in block in a year and a half.
top speed
Each train on the route can carry up to 600 people and can reach a top speed of 80 kilometers per hour, for a total of 24,000 passengers per hour in each direction when the entire line is operational.
the next stops
The Linate, Repetti, Forlanini station, Argonne, Susa, Dateo, Tricolore and San Babila airport stops are currently active. At the end of 2024 all the others that go from the center to the east axis of Milan will open at the same time: Sforza Policlinico, Santa Sofia, Vetra, De Amicis, S. Ambrogio, Coni Zugna, California, Bolivar, Tolstoj, Frattini, Gelsomini , Segneri and San Cristóbal. It will be a third and last opening structured in a single batch, despite “each new stop being in a different state of production,” explains Mm.
Construction sites in the city
The mole finished digging the line’s tunnels more than a year ago: they are relining, bottoming, railing, and systems being created. Then the works of the stations. He Sforza and De Amicis stops They are the ones that have suffered the most delays. The Municipality expressly opted not to open works in the city center during Expo 2015: the delay in Sforza continued even more because the site coincided with the area of the hospital and the university, about De Amicis for the numerous archaeological finds during the excavations. Although the opening will take place in a single block for the last 13 stations, construction sites will undergo changes in the coming months, says Mm, “as has already happened in the western section where the works have been reduced or have almost completely disappeared.” The tendency is to diversify work by work but the certainty is of its progressive reduction, «as happened in Washington, Frattini or Gelsomini. Construction sites are mobile realities, since the most important processes are completed, the cesates are removed and the orsogril nets with the least impact are placed. The sound-absorbing panels must remain until the work is completely finished.
surface repairs
For each construction site, then, as will be shown today for San Babila Square and as it has been for argonne, an important superficial arrangement is foreseen. By the end of the year, the entire remodeling of Corso Europa and Largo Augusto will be ready, which will become completely pedestrianized. And then interventions such as the one in via Molino delle Armi, with expansion of sidewalks, pedestrian areas and bike lanes; Sant’Ambrogio with the reconstruction of the pusterla, San Cristoforo with the cycle-pedestrian promenade: “As the works disappear, new fruitful areas will emerge.” After the ribbon cutting this morning in the presence of Mayor Beppe Sala and Minister Matteo Salvini, the M4 will be available from 1:00 p.m. and will be free all day. While on the axis of Corso Indipendenza and Corso Concordia there is a party.
