The Regional Metropolitan Railway System (Sistema Ferroviario Metropolitano Regionale – SFMR) is an integrated transport system having the railway system as backbone. It aims at satisfying Veneto Region transport needs reducing environmental pollution, traffic congestion and road accidents number. To reach this goal, the integration of road (public and private) and railway systems is a key conditions.
The Veneto Region will implement the SFMR over the whole territory, the project will involve existing and future railway network and all the adduction roads to the rail system.
The SFRM is a key example of the so-called system planning approach. It means that the first step has been the definition of target objectives and identification of existing restrictions then a first working model was proposed and the impacts on both transport systems and on the territory were assessed. The results were then compared with the settled objectives and being not satisfied, the process was repeated iteratively until results matched the settled objective. This process led to the definition of an operational model that maximize the benefits and minimize the impacts.
Successively, the assessment of the existing infrastructures has been performed to verify their compatibility with the defined operational model.
This allowed the identification of the most critical areas to whom an upgrade would have been necessary. Lastly, simulations has been carried out to verify how the (improved) infrastructures network would manage the final operational model, therefore all the impacts have been assed (e.g. social, economic, technical, financial, environmental, managerial, etc).
After having completed the evaluation and assessment phases, design phase was commenced.

MAIN ACTIVITIES PERFORMED WITHIN THE SFMR PROJECT:
1. The development of the integrated operational model;
2. The integration of the SFMR system with the main roads and motorway network;
3. The definition of the rolling stocks;
4. The identification and definition of interventions necessary on existing infrastructures;
5. The definition of an integrated tariff system;
6. The definition of the user information systems;
7. The definition of the management structure.
Due to project extension and to its overall economic value i, Veneto Region has decided to implement the SFMR in different stages, according to the available funds. Therefore, at present, some interventions have been carried out, some are in progress or under contract, while others are in the design phase (preliminary, final or construction) or under the system engineering assessments.

SOME FIGURES:
• 970 km of existing railway network to be verified
• 172 km of new railway lines
• 407 level crossings to be eliminated
• 162 stations to be renovated
• 37 new stations
• 120 new trains

VIDEO: The "rendez-vous" system