After almost 1,600 days of operation and around six million passengers transported by the system in total (1,783,735 in 2024, with an average of 4,874 passengers per day), on Thursday 27 March the first of the three vehicles of the Marconi Express, the monorail link between the airport and Bologna station, will undergo a general overhaul. According to ministerial regulations, the general overhaul is mandatory for all public transport vehicles, and is essential to ensure the technical efficiency and safety of the vehicle over time.
In operation since its inauguration on 20 November 2020, the vehicle has travelled 650,000 kilometres, carrying around 2 million passengers. The general ovwerhaul requires the vehicle to be taken out of service and transported to an external workshop, where it will undergo a complete check of all structural, mechanical, electrical and electronic components. At 17 metres long and weighing 23 tonnes, the vehicle will be taken from the shed at the Lazzaretto station. Without being dismantled, it will be lifted by a crane to a height of approximately 9 metres and transhipped onto an articulated truck used for exceptional transport thanks to a specially designed piece of equipment. The general overhaul will subsequently be performed on the other two vehicles.
For technical and safety reasons, the monorail service will be suspended from 9 p.m. to midnight on Wednesday 26 March and from 8 a.m. to noon on Thursday 27 March. A substitute shuttle bus service will be operated with the following departure points:
- at the airport on the ground floor at the arrivals exit;
- at Lazzaretto station in Via Terracini;
- at the central station in Via Carracci.
Transfers take approximately 25 minutes, with an intermediate stop at Lazzaretto station.
In order to allow ordinary maintenance to be carried out on the other two vehicles in operation, Marconi Express also announces that from Monday 7 April to Wednesday 16 April, and from Monday 19 May to Friday 6 June, the monorail connection will be flanked by the supplementary shuttle bus service. These periods have been planned to reduce inconvenience for passengers and interfere as little as possible with traffic at Marconi Airport during holidays and major trade fairs in Bologna and Rimini. During routine maintenance work, the monorail connection will run every 15 minutes.
The costs and methods of purchasing tickets for the shuttle bus service are the same as for the monorail service.
Should the activities change from what is scheduled, updated information will be given through the website and all Marconi Express channels.
