Turin-Lyon – Key aspects for a correct communication of a mega project to stakeholders 

Turin-Lyon high-speed railway line represents an emblematic example of wrong communication of a project; during the long course of his definition, development and decision many miscommunications have been done and then many efforts have been made to try to remedy in progress, giving up the initial project and experiencing new approaches and new sharing and formation tools. This contribution tells and shares the route of the conflict management, of the reviewing and updating of the communication of the project, which has been going on for 10 years by now, for the purpose of verifying if there is an “antidote” and if it’s possible to learn from this experience in order to avoid those mistakes from reoccurring. The Turin-Lyon high-speed railway line experience teaches that it’s better to anticipate the confrontation, to dialogue and negotiate from the beginning, with the utmost transparency, on shared data and information, in a system of rules of the participation route that must be codified and ensured by the infrastructure operator, demanding the same “good faith” from all the interlocutors. Denying the problems, providing reassuring representations of the risk in order to avoid conflict it’s insane; the best way to contain conflict is to anticipate and to handle it. The worst way is to ignore it. In this context, a national law would definitely be appropriate; the new Procurement Code introduces a preliminary stage of the participative consultation procedure, similar to French Débat Public, which still needs to be declared and made operational with realism avoiding ideological approaches. I don’t believe in the voluntary unregulated negotiation; clarity is needed, specific and defined roles of the various actors, including the arbitrator that must be commonly accepted, making clear that the final decision (like in France) is always up to the public decision-maker.