Roughly a third of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean TEN-T Corridor runs through Italy, which is investing serious money in improving the rail infrastructure included in it, albeit with some difficulties. Recent developments involved two projects: the Trento bypass, in the north, and the Salerno-Reggio Calabria line, in the south, both carried out by WeBuild.
The Trento bypass will be a new underground railway providing better access to the Brenner axis and the future Brenner Base Tunnel. The section is now ready to be excavated, after all the preliminary works have been completed. These operations are expected to start in Autumn, Italian media TrasportoEuropa said. The total cost of this initiative revolves around 1,3 billion euros.
However, the commissioning of the Trento bypass has now been shifted four years, from 2026 to 2030. The initial 2026 deadline would have allowed Italy to finance the project through Italy’s recovery and resilience plan (PNRR). Unfortunately, respecting this deadline turned out to be impossible, which means that the money needs to come from somewhere else. The Italian infrastructure manager RFI is still guaranteeing the resources needed, but some might see this as a missed opportunity.
Salerno-Reggio Calabria railway
Regarding the Salerno-Reggio Calabria, RFI just announced an investment of 1,6 billion euros for the construction of the Santomarco Tunnel, a 22-kilometre section north of the port of Gioia Tauro. The Santomarco Tunnel is just a small part of the whole future Salerno-Reggio Calabria line. The opening of the tunnel is planned for 2032, while it is more complicated to estimate when the full upgrade of the 445-kilometre line between Salerno and Reggio Calabria will be completed.
The new infrastructure will create a high-capacity, high-speed line next to or replacing the current one, built in the late 1800s. Building new infrastructure along this vital axis for southern Italy has always been difficult. For example, the construction of the highway between the two cities was quite the ordeal, as it was a seemingly never ending process stretching from the 1960s to just a few years ago. Hopefully for the rail industry, building the railway line will be a smoother process, but only time will tell.