AMT VERONA TROLLEYBUS PROJECT

Promoter – Financial Intermediary

COMUNE DI VERONA

Location

• Italy

Description

Construction of four new trolleybus lines in the city of Verona including depot, reorganisation of the existing public transport network and purchase of zero-emission vehicles.

Additionality and Impact

The Project concerns the construction of four new trolleybus lines in the City of Verona (Italy) for a total length of 23 Km, the acquisition of 39 trolleybuses and building of a dedicated depot.

The Project is part of the Promoter's strategy related to sustainable transport as outlined in its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and contributes to its objective of reducing the modal share of private cars to the benefit of public and active transport. As such, the Project is consistent with the objectives of the EU Green Deal as well as the EC Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy, and contributes to the EIB's Public Policy Goals related to Sustainable Cities and Regions as well as Climate Action and Environmental Sustainability.

The Project is expected to address usual market failures related to transport and urban mobility and to deliver economic benefits in terms of the overall efficiency of urban public transport, including time savings and average operating costs. In addition, a decrease in road congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution as well as an increase in road safety is expected. In social terms, the Project will provide more affordable mobility solutions and facilitate accessibility to the labour and education markets. The Promoter's effort in this respect is considerable, with only half of direct operating costs that are currently covered by fare revenues. With the support of the existing assistance in terms of work supervision, existing Promoter and Borrower's capacities are deemed adequate.

The Bank provided its technical assistance to the Borrower, thus improving the existing Project and potentially leading to a second phase. The terms and conditions of the EIB financing are expected to facilitate a timely and cost-efficient implementation of the Project thanks to the flexible drawdown schedule and the availability of a fixed interest rate option.

Objectives

Thanks to the electrification of the core part of the bus network and the anticipated modal shift from road traffic, the project is expected to reduce air and noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, road accidents and congestion on the urban road network. In addition, the project will provide affordable mobility solution to increase accessibility to jobs and study opportunities and will contribute to the reduction of transport costs across the urban area.

Sector(s)

• Transport - Transportation and storage

Proposed EIB finance (Approximate amount)

EUR 62 million

Total cost (Approximate amount)

EUR 156 million

Environmental aspects

The project falls under Annex II of EIA Directive 2014/52/EU amending Directive 2011/92/EU, and requires a screening decision by the Competent Authority. The project underwent a first EIA screening as per Directive 2011/92/EU. The Competent Authority screened out the project with a series of conditions. Due to subsequent technical changes, the project had two further EIA screenings in 2014 and 2019 in line with Directive 2011/92/EU amended by Directive 2014/52/EU. Both times the screening out decision for the variations was re-confirmed. The conditions accompanying the decision remained largely unchanged from 2012, with a few amendments to reflect the new technical solutions for various project components. The project is not expected to have significant negative impacts on the Natura 2000 network.

Procurement

The borrower is a contracting authority within the meaning of the Procurement Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU. When the tender procedure was launched in 2010, the Borrower was a contracting authority within the meaning of the applicable Procurement Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC and the contract for the implementation of the project was tendered in accordance with the relevant applicable EU procurement legislation. Tender and award notices were published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), as and where required. The procurement procedure consisted in a restricted tender procedure, with an international notification and a list of candidates prepared through a formal pre-qualification exercise.

Status

Signed - 4/07/2023