A simple nail plunged Italy into real railway chaos. At dawn on October 2, the electrical station that powers the circulation system at the Rome junction breaks down. Delays accumulate, sometimes approaching four hours. More than 250 trains are canceled, from TGVs to Intercity to regional convoys. The capital, whose public transport is already congested in normal times, is completely paralyzed. Cascading repercussions on many links affect the entire network, cutting the peninsula in two.
Traffic was finally restored three hours after the intervention of workers from Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) and Trenitalia, but traffic would only resume very gradually until the evening. The hypothesis of a cyberattack or technical incident is quickly ruled out. “A private maintenance company drove a nail into a cable, explains Matteo Salvini, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. “It is not possible to invest billions in new trains and the network and then allow one insignificant mistake to send half of Italy into a tailspin.”
700 projects in progress, or in the process of being completed
If the “inconvenience caused” during this dark day is exceptional, the structural situation of the Italian rail network remains no less worrying. In its latest annual report, the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART) says it records some 10,000 interruptions on transalpine lines each year. Their duration continues to lengthen. The ART thus requires “a significant change in network management and its maintenance to guarantee the competitiveness and viability of the country.” The modernization and development of railway infrastructure are, however, among the priorities of the European recovery plan, of which Italy is the main beneficiary with around 200 billion euros.
On the peninsula’s nearly 25,000 kilometers of railway lines, 700 projects, worth 36 billion euros, have been launched or are in the process of being launched by 2026. This year, more than 1 200 kilometers of lines are affected, with interventions relating to electrification, renovation of stations and maintenance of bridges, tunnels and tracks. “There are too many construction sites, on which too few specialized workers are mobilized,” points out trade unionist Alberto Russo. The numerous private companies to which RFI delegates the maintenance of sometimes dilapidated lines are often understaffed, with young workers. and inexperienced.”
SNCF targets 15% market share in 2030
Punctuality suffers. That of long-distance, high-speed passenger rail services stood at 80% in the first half of 2024. It collapsed to 61% this summer. For Andrea Giuricin, specialist in transport management at the University of Milano Bicocca, the TGV, which only arrived in Italy in 2009, is a victim of its success. “The network on which two companies already operate, Trenitalia – public – and Italo – private -, is completely saturated, he notes. Of the 1,000 trains which pass through Termini station in Rome daily, a third are TGVs There are 164 Milan-Rome per day, while there are only 90 Madrid-Barcelona, 60 Paris-Lyon and 38 Berlin-Munich. grow with the arrival of the French, for which we are not at all prepared.”
In 2026, SNCF-Voyageurs plans to cross the Alps. For the moment, rail traffic between the two countries, provided by Trenitalia, is suspended in both directions following the rockslide in Maurienne in August 2023. It should be restored in the first quarter of 2025. The ambition displayed by SNCF-Voyageurs is to achieve, in 2030, a market share of 15% in Italy. The French company is ultimately aiming for 13 daily round trips, spread over two routes: 9 between Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples, as well as 4 between Turin and Venice.
“This new competition, hopes Andrea Giuricin, will force the government to take a serious look at network congestion, by better distributing flows towards stations previously considered minor, such as Rome Tiburtina or Milan Garibaldi. But above all by rationalizing traffic on the too often mixed lines which see TGVs, regional trains or freight convoys passing through.” The Meloni government has other priorities: busy reducing the country’s enormous public debt , it is studying the modalities for privatizing part of the public group Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, the operator of the network.
.