Trains, August difficult for travellers

It was all predicted and widely announced. However, as August approaches, apprehension grows for those who will have to travel by train on the Italian railway network, which will be affected by a flurry of works, leading to an increase in journey times, with foreseeable inconvenience for tourists and citizens.

Codacons estimates that travelling between Rome and Milan on 12 August by train on a Frecciarossa will take no less than 4 hours and 50 minutes (and up to a maximum of 5 hours and 40 minutes), at least 110 minutes longer than usual. The managing director of the FS group, Stefano Antonio Donnarumma, explains: 'An average of 1,200 construction sites are active every day, 500 of which are dedicated to network maintenance and about 700 to new works. Such a high number of construction sites on the Italian railway network has never been seen before, and this is due to the overlapping of Pnrr works with ordinary maintenance work". It is a precise choice of the company to concentrate the main interruptions in the heart of summer when there is a drop in commuter travellers (students and workers) due to school closures and summer holidays. Fs aims in any case to guarantee adequate train volumes.

The Milan-Bologna high-speed line will be interrupted from 11 to 17 August for the renewal of switches (rail switches) on the Castelfranco-Fidenza section (trains diverted to the historic line); the Florence-Rome Av line will be interrupted from 11 to 22 August for extraordinary infrastructure maintenance work on the Orvieto Sud-Chiusi Nord section; the Verona-Vicenza line will be closed from 5 to 25 August for construction work on the new high-speed section between Verona and Vicenza and the crossing of Vicenza station. Severe difficulties on the line between Genoa and Milan due to extraordinary maintenance work on the bridge over the river Po at Bressana Bottarone (Pavia). The works will continue until 28 September, causing route deviations and delays. Intercity trains in particular will be penalised: journeys between Genoa and Milan will be lengthened by up to an hour and trains will be diverted towards Piacenza. For regional trains between Genoa and Milan, times will be about half an hour longer and the diversion will be via Alessandria and Mortara.

High speed, but not only that, as several regional routes will be affected by works on the railway lines during the summer season. From 12 to 18 August, the Brenner railway line will also be interrupted between Brixen (Bolzano) and Steinach am Brenner (Austria) to allow major infrastructure maintenance and adaptation work. Work will also be carried out on the Rome-Naples (Ciampino-Colleferro section) to adapt the line to the new freight transport standards.

Sources in the FS group clarify: "The company has promoted a communication campaign, which started at the beginning of the year, with the aim of informing, line by line, what difficulties passengers will encounter and at what time of year, and at the same time instilling awareness of the benefits that will result from the planned interventions. Line closures will cause unavoidable inconveniences but will not prevent people from travelling'. In addition, the sales systems of the railway companies (Trenitalia and Italo) are updated with the changes and new travel times, so that passengers know about the changes before they buy their tickets.