Transport in turmoil: flights and trains in crisis, Italy split in two

These are dark days for those who have to travel by plane, train, or car, just in time for the big holiday departures. Not forgetting commuters and those who still have to travel out of necessity. On Friday, a computer disaster sent air transport worldwide into a tailspin, with over 5,300 flights cancelled (231 in Italy) and many airports paralysed. A weekend of passion, particularly in Italy, for those who had to take the train, with heavy delays on regional and high-speed trains. Epicentre of the crisis: the Florence Santa Maria Novella station. For days, the transport unions (Uiltrasporti) have been denouncing 'the frequent and consistent delays accumulated by trains between infrastructure failures and degradation of rolling stock'. And today, Monday 22 July, a new case. The Santa Maria Novella railway station and the Florence-Rome line are still in the limelight, while the Southern Tyrrhenian railway line remains interrupted due to the derailment of a goods train a few days ago in Centola (Salerno), with local administrators speaking of 'a blow for tourism in the South'. But let us go in order.

The departure board at Santa Maria Novella began to give the numbers, of delays, from early Monday morning: 70 minutes to Milan. Half an hour to Venice and another half an hour to Turin Porta Nuova. The cause, as Trenitalia points out, is another breakdown in the circulation systems on the Florence-Rome high-speed train. This time caused by lightning. It promises to be a new day of chaos for trackside Italy. The first black day was Friday with the breakdown near Rovezzano (Florence) that brought the whole of Italy to its knees for an entire day with delays of up to 160 minutes. Saturday another nightmarish morning, this time not because of a breakdown, but because of a person walking on the tracks. Today, travellers woke up to another technical fault and more delays.

The case, according to the Corriere Fiorentino (online version), broke out at six o'clock in the morning: a fault on the line in the Arezzo area caused all the trains in the queue, High Speed, Intercity and regional trains, to slow down. Delays of up to 70 minutes accumulated. In the meantime, Rfi technicians were on site and had finished repairing the damage by 9.30am. At 9 a.m. the situation was back to normal in the direction of Rome, but towards the north there were still delays. At 11 a.m. on the high-speed train there were still delays of up to 86 minutes in the northbound direction, up to 29 in the southbound direction. Then the situation gradually improved.

Complicated days are forecast for rail connections between Calabria, Basilicata and Campania. Trenitalia has advised travellers in recent days to reschedule journeys to the Cilento (southern Campania) as reaching the region will be particularly difficult. Until next Friday, barring any further unforeseen events, the southern Tyrrhenian Sea will be interrupted due to the derailment of a goods train in Centola about a fortnight ago. "A real blow," calls the mayor of Camerota, Mario Salvatore Scarpitta, "for a land already afflicted by connection problems. It is a hard blow in the middle of summer, when there is tourism to work with'. For the next four days, the tourist destinations of Palinuro, Camerota, Ascea, Pollica, Acciaroli and others will be inaccessible by train. Those travelling from the north will have to stop in Battipaglia, while those arriving from the south (Reggio Calabria) will stop in Sapri, with the need to continue their journey by replacement buses. On the Milan-Syracuse, Turin-Reggio Calabria and Rome-Syracuse-Palermo routes, no intercity night buses will run for the duration of the disruption.

Trenitalia offers a refund for those who decide to cancel their journey.