High-speed trains aim to connect all of Italy

The debate on railway investments in our country is now on the agenda and at the center we find the dilemma of whether infrastructures generate development or vice versa. A demonstration of the first is the high speed. As confirmed by studies of the Federico II University of Naples, the cities excluded from the Tav circuit are growing less than those that are inside. It is precisely for this reason that local authorities and businesses are "raising their voices" to also be reached by high-speed trains.

Looking at the results, cities with high-speed stations have seen a GDP increase of 10% from 2008 to 2018, against 3% in the provinces without this service. Not to mention the environmental ones, according to which air, road and traditional rail traffic have significantly reduced.

The high-speed train has 40 million passengers a year, a disproportionate number if you think of the 6,5 million it started with a decade ago. By managing to connect cities outside the High Speed ​​Train circuit, in order to increase their growth, more than 10 million passengers per year could be added to the current ones. Many projects are underway, but first of all the trains to Reggio Calabria, Bari and Lecce, Palermo-Catania-Messina, Ancona, Pescara, Genoa and Trieste must be strengthened.

Finally, after years of promises made and then broken to the Apulian city, a train arrives heading to Naples, launched by Trenitalia for March. In Sicily, by 2028, journey times will be reduced both for the Catania-Palermo section (by almost an hour) and for Catania-Messina (by about 25 minutes), for a total cost of 6 billion. As regards Genoa-Milan, on the other hand, with the third crossing point the reduction will be significant by 2023, by one hour. 

The situation of Salerno-Reggio Calabria is much more complex, given that 3 billion would be needed just for speeding up, but at the moment no more than 780 million are available. From Venice to Trieste, given the abandonment of the High Speed ​​project which would have required two decades for its implementation, a speeding up intervention is planned, worth 1,8 billion, so as to reduce the times by 50%. Significant savings also on the Adriatic line, 40 minutes between Bologna and Bari and an hour to Lecce. No less are the problems for Rome-Pescara, given that it lacks funding to speed up traffic and increase capacity.

These are infrastructural and technological interventions for a value of 27 billion, a large part of which are already available, with the aim of reducing journey times and at the same time increasing the transit capacity of trains, so as to reduce intermediate stops and excessively long timetables.

Il investment plan for Southern Italy it was also one of the main topics that the CEO of FS Italiane, Gianfranco Battisti, addressed during the meetings held in Brussels with the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, the European Commissioner for the Economy Paolo Gentiloni, and the deputies of the Transport Commission of the European Parliament.

However, Battisti has not forgotten the projects that FS is carrying out across the border. In fact, during the meetings, the planning of the preparatory activities for FS Italiane's entry into the French and Spanish high-speed railways was discussed, as well as the new initiatives for the operation of the future English high-speed network and the review of the trans-European network in the name of greater integration of the country into the network of the old continent.