Yesterday saw the beginning of the construction of People Mover: a land funicular that will connect Tronchetto island and Piazzale Roma, a point in which land traffic enters the city. A monumental work that will completely change a side of the city and that will be running from summer 2009, costing 21 million euros. The funicular will carry up to 3000 people per hour (with a 1 euro ticket ), travelling at a speed of 26 Km / h on a route of 857 Km.

The funicular will be remote-controlled: it will not only carry the 20 million tourists visiting Venice every year but also people who live in Venice and prefer to park their car at Tronchetto where parking tickets are cheaper than in Piazzale Roma. The creation of the funicular will definitively modify the town entrance: the count-down for the Calatrava bridge has already started, it will link Piazzale Roma and the railway station and will be in place by the beginning of August.

People Mover has been designed by the architect Francesco Cocco: it’s a superelevated monorail ( the maximum height difference amounts to 6 and half metres ) on which four-wagons, eco-friendly and silent trains will travel, carrying up to 50 people each. The itinerary includes the halfway stop of Marittima Station in which a big garage is about to be built. The funicular service has a 3 minutes duration and trains run every 3 minutes. People Mover has been designed by the Doppelmayr company that has already constructed more than 200 funiculars world-wide. The funicular station in Piazzale Roma will replace Sant’Andrea parking lot that will be transferred into the municipal garage.

In the meantime, Venice municipal administration will seize this opportunity to reframe Piazzale Roma’s structure with the construction of an underground tunnel to allow cars’ exit from the garages: it will be in place in two years. Moreover, the sub-lagoon project in still ongoing, it will connect the airport and Tessera with Murano and the Arsenale area.