Travel panic is engulfing Italy as the rail industry has been thrown into chaos at a time when many people are heading on their summer holidays.
Since the 2008 launch of the high-speed rail network between Rome and Milan, trains have become the preferred means of travel across Italy for locals and tourists. The network also connects Naples, Bologna, Florence and Turin.
Rome attracts 35 million yearly visitors with tourists going to the city to learn about its rich culture and history, not to mention the pleasant climate.
However, disruptions have become increasingly frequent with train delays becoming a constant fixture due to numerous maintenance works disrupting tourists’ and locals plans.
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, the publicly controlled group that owns train operator Trenitalia and the national train network RFI, said that 23 percent of all high-speed trains it operates were late in 2023. The group said the situation had improved slightly in the first half of this year.
Ferrovie will invest a total of €124bn in infrastructure over the next 10 years, according to the Financial Times.
Transport economist Andrea Giuricin said the planned investments would bring improvements but disruptions in the meantime were inevitable. The fact that Italy has as many as 377 high-speed trains scheduled per day does not help. “We have a mixed system, there is no spare capacity and as soon as there’s a hiccup on the line, the situation becomes highly complex,” he said.
The planned upgrades will bring segregation of the high-speed line from the regular one, through the construction of underground rail links. The next underground rail link is expected to be completed in Florence in 2028.
Another issue is that Italy has a meagre 1,000km of high-speed rail tracks — mainly between Turin and Salerno, south of Naples. This means high-speed trains travelling further south, east to Venice or down the Adriatic coast, will have only limited access to the high-speed network.