Ferrovie dello Stato will invest 125 billion over the next ten years on the rail network. The CEO announced it Luigi Ferraris who defined the purpose of the ten-year investment plan: "In the field of transport we have a great mission: to decongest the roads for both passengers and goods".
FS investments: a 2% impact on the national GDP
FS mobility infrastructures "have an average age of over 60 today", said Ferraris during the first programmatic conference of Agens, the association that represents the interests of the transport and services sector within the Confindustria system. “For this reason, our industrial plan has foreseen 125 billion euros of investments in railway infrastructures and 55 in road infrastructures. We have 4 thousand active construction sites, for a repercussion on GDP that we have estimated in the order of 2%”.
The goal is to increase infrastructure capacity by 20%
In fact, from north to south there are many works, including within the framework of the PNRR, which see the FS Group committed to increasing infrastructure capacity. A availability that according to Ferraris “must grow by 10% in 20 years and to do this we must add new kilometers or double the existing lines. This is for both goods and passengers”. A need that must respond to the great increase in flows, which has seen passengers on trains grow this year. “In the first five months of 2023, through May 31, we recorded a 25% increase in passenger traffic on our trains. On some routes we have reached 100% seat occupancy thanks to foreign tourism". Just the is becoming a real driving force for the growth of rail transport and this is why “on 24 July we will launch a company who will dedicate himself to tourism to make the cultural and historical heritage of our country increasingly known by train". Examples include the presentation of the link Rome-Pompeii in Frecciarossa.
FS investments: more lines but also multimodality
FS is also focusing on multimodality as the key to making passengers' lives easier. In this regard, Ferraris underlined "the update of the Trenitalia App, which allows you to purchase with a single transaction, railway services, road services and park and rides managed by the companies of the FS Group".
Road transport: retired drivers but lack of new entries
Furthermore, according to Ferraris, the goal of multimodality must also be pursued in the field of logistics. “The first and last mile can travel by road or rail, but we need to develop effective multimodal terminals. Also in this case, investments in infrastructure and networks are needed”. The goal must always be to decongest the streets where there is a risk of the funnel effect. This is also due to the dynamics of the road haulage sector given that, as underlined by Ferraris, "in Europe there are 4 and a half million drivers, of these 1,5 million will retire shortly, against just 500-600 thousand new entries”. A very deficient relationship with a shortage of personnel which also concerns the public transport sector, as underlined during the Agens Assembly, so much so that, prefect Rosanna Rabuano said, we have to look carefully at the pool of immigrant workers. In the field of road passenger transport, Busitalia Veneto's initiative to expand the project goes in this direction Academy with the launch of a new class of future drivers also selected among people seeking political asylum in Italy.
Freight trains: maxi plan to renew the locomotive fleet
Furthermore, on top of the commitments of the FS Group, the renewal of the fleet whose average age, in the field of goods, must be reduced "from the current 30 to 7 years and to do this we have launched a big floor for 400 new electric and hybrid locomotives and 3.600 new generation wagons for a total investment of 2,5 billion euros”. Similar plans also in the field of passenger transport where the renewal of the regional fleet. An effort towards innovation which also regards the aspect of train traction, in which the FS Group is investing in the research of alternative fuels, as also demonstrated by the recent first trip to Calabria of a Blues fed exclusively with Pure HVO, a biofuel supplied by Eni Sustainable Mobility.
