Ribbon-cutting ceremony for San Babila and Tricolore stations with  Italian Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala

Webuild CEO Pietro Salini: “Proud to have achieved this engineering feat with the best trades in the sector to show once again how together we can create technologically advanced infrastructure in our country”

• By 2024, all of the other stations towards the other end of the line at San Cristoforo will be inaugurated

• As of today, eight stations are open to the public along the new M4

• Urban renewal in the areas near the stations recently opened along the M4

MILAN, July 4, 2023 – Milan’s Linate airport is now just 12 minutes away from the city’s historic centre following today’s inauguration of the San Babila Station of the new M4 metro line. The Tricolore Station, which precedes San Babila along the line’s route from the airport, has also opened to the public. Present at the official ceremony, alongside Webuild Chief Executive Pietro Salini, were Italian Infrastructure and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, and Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala.

"Italy is back up and running again with the new infrastructure that the country is equipping itself with. It is closing a decade-long investment gap in the sector that limited its competitiveness. We are particularly proud to have built this technologically advanced metro line, which strengthens Milan's leadership in Europe as one of the most liveable cities. Some of the best trades and managers in the industry were put to work on this project to overcome very complex engineering challenges in a densely populated city. Even in this project, we have worked alongside the superintendencies for the recovery of archaeological artefacts. We have shown how – as with the Metro C line in Rome – it is possible to develop cities all the while safeguarding history and the culture of the generations that preceded us. In other words, we once again managed to work together – public and private – to realise the works that this country and its citizens need,” said Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild.

San Babila and Tricolore join the six stations of the M4 that are already in operation, running from Linate Airport to Piazzale Dateo, before heading to the centre via the Repetti, Stazione Forlanini, Argonne and Susa stops. Once fully completed, the line will have 21 stations and 15 kilometres of track, running across the city to connect the eastern end where the airport is located with the western end to the San Cristoforo terminus.

Milan's M4 is one of the most significant underground sustainable mobility projects in Europe. To date, 6,000 passengers use the line every day on the route from Linate to Dateo, and these numbers are set to grow with the opening of the two new stations. In 2024, all the other stops up to the terminus San Cristoforo will also be open, including Sforza Policlinico, which will ensure a connection with the M3 line. Once completed, the M4 will help take 180,000 vehicles off the streets, producing significant benefits in terms of reducing CO2 emissions.

The M4 is a fully automated light rail system that runs entirely underground. It is driverless, and the carriage doors open only at the station stops, with the platforms separated from the moving cars by protective glass in order to guarantee maximum safety for all passengers. 

As has already happened with Viale Argonne, today's inauguration was also an opportunity to return public spaces to the city such as Piazza San Babila with urban regeneration in mind. As the construction sites are completed one by one, a radical renewal under the green and sustainability banner will be conducted, with the streets that cross squares being opened to pedestrians rather than vehicles, along with new green areas and bicycle paths.

Webuild has a remarkable track record in the field of sustainable mobility, which includes the construction of more than 800 kilometres of metro lines. Among the most innovative projects underway in Italy is the construction of the Metro C line in Rome, where work recently started on the Venezia Station in the city centre. In Paris, there is Lot 2 of Line 16 of the Grand Paris Express, while in Riyadh, the Group is building Line 3, the longest of the lines under construction in the Saudi capital, with an extension of approximately 42 kilometres and a total of 22 stations.