Legambiente, from Roma-Lido to Pinerolo-Torino: here are the worst railway lines in Italy

In Sicily there are 1,267 km of single-track lines, 85% of the total of 1,490 km, while 689 km, or 46.2% of the total, are not electrified. The journey times are embarrassing: for example, to go from Trapani to Ragusa takes 13 hours and 14 minutes, changing 4 regional trains. In all this, the public debate and the economic resources for solving the mobility problems of southern Italy, Legambiente recalls, "seem to revolve around the realisation of the Messina Strait Bridge with a total authorised expenditure of 11.63 billion euros, divided into 9 years".

Legambiente points the finger at the Meloni government's strategy. It points out that in the last budget law, approved last December, for the first time since 2017, no funds were even provided for rapid transport linked to metro, tramways, and trolleybuses, as well as for cycling and soft mobility.

In 2023, the environmental association's survey still emphasises, the NRP, which envisaged extensive interventions on the railways, has been remodelled: 620 million to speed up the Rome-Pescara corridor were blocked by the lengthy administrative process; the intervention on the Ertms railway signalling system, the safety system for the latest generation of railways, was skipped due to the lack of raw materials; the Palermo-Catania would not have been included in time for the completion of the interventions in 2026, and was therefore rescheduled.

A total of 840 million has been cut from the High Speed/High Capacity rail system in the South: Orsara-Bovino (Naples-Bari line) for 53 million, Caltanissetta Xirbi-Lercara (Palermo-Catania line) for 470 million, Enna-Caltanissetta Xirbi (Palermo-Catania line) for 317 million. In order not to plunder the railway system of the many necessary resources, the Orte-Falconara and the Metaponto-Potenza, as well as other regional routes, have been included in the new planned interventions. The new hydrogen trains being purchased have been reduced by a third: from 150 to 50.

In the survey, Legambiente also speaks of 'good news'. One of these for the South comes from the Bari-Bitritto line, a project that dates back to 1986 and the start of work to 1989. The awarding of the rail service, although delayed with respect to the planned inauguration in September 2023, has taken place but is on schedule. The association hopes that the service will soon be upgraded to full metro rail standards. Among other good news, the trend of recovery in the number of travellers per day continues, although for 2022, from the data collected on a regional basis, we are still about 25 per cent down on 2019. For 2023, Trenitalia declared, for the Frecciarossa, +7% compared to 2019, for Intercity +10% compared to 2019, and for regional transport +18% again compared to 2019. RFI's electrification plan also continues, with the last section to be completed being the Roccaravindola-Isernia in Molise and the forecast of activating about 1,200 km of line by 2026 and 54.6 km beyond 2026, for a total investment of more than 2 billion euros.

But the challenge is called future. For Legambiente, if Italy really wants to meet the objectives of the European Green Deal, to cut emissions by 55% by 2030 and to zero them by 2050, it will be necessary until 2030 to provide new funding of 500 million a year to strengthen the regional rail service with the purchase and revamping of trains; 200 million a year to improve the Intercity service or an increase of at least 1 billion in the National Transport Fund (which finances rail and road transport).