Milan, train stopped in the Passante between Bovisa and Lancetti: about 300 passengers evacuated

On the morning of September 3, rail traffic on Milan’s Passante ferroviario was interrupted between the Bovisa and Lancetti stations. A train coming from Varese and bound for Porta Garibaldi stopped near Lancetti station after the overhead power line was damaged, and passengers were made to get off and were escorted outside.

The two available sources agree on the order of magnitude and diverge on details. Corriere Milano reports about 300 people evacuated around 10:00 a.m., with the intervention of firefighters, the railway police (Polfer), local police and medical staff. Sky TG24 places the train’s stop at around 8:50 a.m. and speaks of about 300-400 passengers.

The two timings are not necessarily in conflict: the first refers to the evacuation, the second to the train’s stop. In between there is more than an hour, which is the time needed to make an electrified line safe before letting people onto the track.

The cause indicated by firefighters

According to the account by firefighters reported by both sources, the damage to the line was caused by falling debris following drilling work carried out on the surface. This is an explanation that shifts the origin of the fault from the railway system to an external activity: the Passante runs in a tunnel beneath the urban fabric, and what happens above the vault can fall onto the tracks.

No injuries were reported.

The effect on traffic

The blockage of the section between Milano Bovisa and Milano Lancetti resulted in delays, route changes and cancellations. The Passante is the axis that links Milan’s suburban network from north to south: an interruption at that point does not remain confined to the closed section, because it forces trains passing through it to be rerouted elsewhere and has knock-on effects on lines that do not cross the affected stretch.

The available sources do not quantify the number of cancelled trains nor the total duration of the interruption at the time of publication.

What we don’t know

We do not know the exact number of people evacuated: the two available estimates — about 300 and about 300-400 — come from different assessments made under emergency conditions, and neither is currently a consolidated count. We do not know who was carrying out the surface drilling nor for what project: the attribution of the cause is the one indicated by the firefighters on site, and it remains a preliminary account. It is not known when service was restored nor whether checks are planned on the tunnel’s structural integrity in the affected stretch.

This newspaper does not cover the judicial side of news events: any determination of responsibility for the drilling work falls outside the scope of this piece. What remains are the material facts: a damaged power line, a train stopped in the tunnel, about three hundred people escorted out, no injuries, and a key section of Milan’s network interrupted for a good part of the morning.