The background
Where did the first railway in Italy start? In the industrial city of Milan? In the country’s capital, Rome?
The answer is none of these – the first railway built on the Italian peninsula was the Naples-Portici line, which ran 7.2 kilometres through what was still part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies at the time. It was inaugurated in 1839 in the presence of King Ferdinand II.
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Later on, the Naples-Portici line was expanded and became the Naples-Salerno line, connecting the two cities by high-speed rail. But not all areas in southern Italy have been so lucky, and big differences can be seen, for example, along the Naples-Bari route.
The challenge
There is currently no direct rail link between Naples and Bari. The Caserta railway station, which lies on the Rome-Bari line and on the Naples-Caserta line, is the only point where the two lines cross. All being well, travel times between Naples and Bari (a roughly 260-kilometre journey) are currently just over four hours. Furthermore, the high-speed rail system does not link well with the local and regional system. For instance, the Afragola high-speed railway station is not connected to the regional rail network – it is only connected to the two other high-speed stations (Naples and Rome).
The action
The project “Variante alla linea Napoli-Cancello”, or double-track Naples-Cancello line, involves building a new main railway line of roughly 15 kilometres to replace the existing one, with an average speed of 100 to 130 kilometres per hour.
Under the project, four new stations will be built in the Naples metropolitan area, all connected to the Afragola high-speed station. The Napoli-Cancello section is part of the project to upgrade and modernise the Napoli-Bari railway corridor, which aims to improve the rail connections between Rome, Napoli and Bari.
Project preparation started many years ago, so when JASPERS began providing assistance most of the technical studies and designs had already been finalised. As a result, JASPERS’ focus was mainly on supporting the Italian authorities in preparing a good major project application, with adequate studies and supporting documentation, such as options analysis, cost-benefit analysis and climate change mitigation and adaptation assessments.
This was achieved thanks to close and efficient collaboration with the stakeholders involved (mainly the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, the Italian railway infrastructure manager). This ensured that the process was finalised by the scheduled deadlines and that the project was included in the planned operational programme (PON) for 2014-2020.
The results
Overall, the project promotes railway transport by offering more reliable, safer and faster services. It plans to improve the interconnection between high-speed, long-distance routes and local and regional routes. Once completed, travel time will be cut to around two hours on the Napoli-Bari route, and to around three hours on the Rome-Bari route.
The railway improvements are likely to result in a shift from road to rail. This will have environmental benefits thanks to lower emissions of harmful gases and CO2 along the Napoli-Bari corridor and in the Naples metropolitan area.