Turin metropolitan authority says yes to TAV

(ANSA) - Turin, December 10 - The conference of mayors of the Turin Metropolitan area on Monday voted in favour of a motion to back the controversial TAV Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link. The motion presented by the centre-right and centre-left opposition passed with 167 votes in favour, eight abstentions and one vote against.
    Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino, whose 5-Star Movement (M5S) has long been hostile to the project, did not take part in the vote.
    The approved motion called on the mayor to "recognise the benefits of the project for the whole metropolitan area and carry out actions to support its completion in the scheduled time frame". The M5S-League national government has said it will decide whether to press ahead with the TAV after a new cost-benefit analysis.
    Appendino described Monday's vote as a "political act".
    "The Turin-Lyon is a highly divisive issue that it is hard to talk about," she said.
    "We are waiting for the conclusion of the cost-benefit analysis and the legal analysis about the eventual cost of stop the work, which should be finished by the end of the month".