The two regions signed an MoU for the project in July 2014, and the report, presented by Mr Vincenzo Ceccarelli and Mr Giuseppe Chianella, the respective transport regional councillors of Tuscany and Umbria, recommend two locations for the station:
• Rigutino, South of Arezzo and 100m from the Florence - Rome line and could result in the restoration of Frassineto station, and
• Creti, in Cortona, a straight, flat and open section at Km175 in the Di Chiana valley.
The costs and additional travel times for these options are estimated at €40m and five-and-a-half minutes. Other suggestions, including upgrading existing stations at Arezzo and Chiusi were €2.4-4m cheaper, but increased travel times by 11 and 13 minutes respectively.
The study's technical team also examined how best to serve a catchment area of two million people and the impact on interchanges between conventional and high-speed trains at Florence station if a certain number of the 90 high-speed trains using the line daily stopped at the new station.
The project is under consideration as part of the proposed merger of Umbria, Tuscany, and Marche in a macro region.
After all stakeholders provide feedback on the project, it will be handed over to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. Italy's minister for infrastructure, Mr Graziano Delrio, a former major of Reggio Emilia, was an advocate of the similar MedioPadana project in Emilia Romagna on the Milan - Bologna high-speed line, which opened in June 2013.
