Power cut at Termini due to a ‘nail’: RFI fined 1.75 million

Almost 500 trains cancelled – including high-speed, Intercity and regional services – 70,000 minutes of delays, chaos at stations and disruption continuing into the evening, with thousands of tourists and commuters stranded on the platforms awaiting news. 2 October 2024 was a day to forget for rail transport: a fault on a power line during night-time works at the Rome rail junction had split Italia in two, causing enormous disruption to passengers. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini reported that technicians had attributed the fault to “a private contractor who drove a nail into a cable”.

In July 2025, the Transport Authority had initiated penalty proceedings against RFI for that ‘extremely serious disruption to rail services’: the investigation concluded with a fine of 1.75 million being imposed on the company responsible for the management, maintenance and development of the national rail infrastructure.

According to the authority headed by Nicola Zaccheo, RFI ‘has not taken appropriate measures to ensure the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure, thereby guaranteeing its accessibility and functionality’. The resolution explains that the maximum amount of the fine of 2 million euros has been reduced by 250,000 euros, ‘in view of the actions taken following the infringement’.

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana acknowledges the decision of the Transport Regulatory Authority and ‘reiterates that it promptly implemented all the necessary measures to ensure the resumption of services’. The company explains that the incident was ‘attributable to the actions of a contractor external to the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group, which was carrying out night-time works’. The incident can be classified exclusively as an infrastructure failure and, as such, was managed through a series of measures that enabled full operations to be gradually restored, ensuring that rail services gradually returned to normal’.

For its part, RFI, when heard by the Transport Authority at the end of July, had also emphasised that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport had also requested information and, ‘following the response, did not deem it necessary to raise any objections’.