Milan’s new driverless metro trains will travel at 80km/h. Credit: Hitachi Rail.

The second phase of the Milan metro’s line 4 – known as the Blue Line – opened on Tuesday 4 July, meaning passengers can travel from the Linate Airport to the new San Babila station in the centre of the city. 

It will take 12 minutes to ride from the airport to the middle of the city and just an eight-minute walk from the world-famous Duomo di Milano, which cuts the current journey time in half. 

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Two new stations open on Tuesday, at Tricoloure and San Babila. The doors open to the public at 1pm, after a morning of events and activities to celebrate the new extension. Travel between the two new stations will be free on Tuesday. 

The cross-city line opened its first segment in November, connecting the airport with the Dateo station and the full 15km track is expected to be operational in the second half of 2024. The Blue Line will then serve 21 stations, with a 30-minute full-journey run time. 

Trains will travel at 80km/h and carry 24,000 to 28,000 passengers an hour in each direction when the entire line is fully operational. 

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The line is entirely underground, and the rolling stock is fully automated driverless trains provided by Hitachi Rail. It was initiated in 2011 and was estimated then to cost €1.7bn ($1.85bn). The final costs will be apparent when the full line is unveiled next year. 

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Webuild is one of the construction companies involved in the project and its CEO Pietro Salini previously described the project as an example of “Italian excellence”. 

“The M4 is a story of Italian excellence. It has been an enormous effort to work both above and below the city contemporaneously, contributing to a redesign of what lies below the surface and what lies above it with projects of urban renewal,” Salini said at the opening of the first section of the line. 

Read more about the M4 project here.