# "Sblocca Italia"(Unlock Italy): Italy invests in high-speed ra



## beautifulplanet (Aug 11, 2014)

Last week's Friday, there were press reports that the Italian government made a decision on a dedicated list of transportation projects to be funded with its "Sblocca Italia" (Unblock Italy) plan. The corresponding law is supposed to pass parliament in the fall.
Originally 44.8 billion Euro (approx. US$60 billion) of transportation projects were identified that were "stuck", f.e. placed on hold or left unfunded in the past because of the financial crisis and the austerity following it.
Out of those, 31.6 billion Euro (approx. US$42 billion) of projects are supposed to receive funding with the government's upcoming decision on "Sblocca Italia", among them airport, road and rail projects.

Some main rail projects among the list are supposed to provide better access to South Italy, so it can benefit from the "Revolution on rails" that took place in the years since the opening of the high-speed rail line between Turin (Torino) and Naples (Napoli).
2.9 billion Euro (approx. US$3.9 billion) of funding will go towards a new high-speed rail line (Alta Velocita) connecting Naples (Napoli) to Bari. The estimated total cost for this new line with 146.6km (approx. 91mi) of new double-track and 15 new stations is 5.297 billion Euro (approx. US$7 billion). Some state and local funding already in place. The planned average speed (not top speed) of the line is planned to be between 200 and 220 kmh (approx. 124 and 137 mph respectively). It will cut the current travel time from Naples to Bari of 3 hours and 40 minutes to just 2 hours.
5.2 billion Euro (approx. US$ billion) will also go into the south for the modernization and upgrading of the rail line between Messina, Catania and Palermo, on the island of Sicily (Sicilia).
Italian webzine Giornalettismo, part of Bonzai Media, claiming to be "apolitical" in its "healthy, old journalism", featured this nifty map as part of its March reporting on the Naples-Bari high-speed line:







source:

Tav Napoli-Bari, la linea voluta da tutti (e non ancora partita)

21/03/2014

by Maghdi Abo Abia

http://www.giornalettismo.com/archives/1418937/tav-napoli-bari-la-linea-voluta-da-tutti-e-non-ancora-partita/

in progettazione=in design phase

in construzione=in construction

in esercizio=in operation

in esercizio (linee veloci fino a 250km/h)=in operation (high-speed line up to 250kmh (approx. 155mph))

2.9 billion Euro (approx. US$3.88 billion) of "Sblocca Italia" funding goes to the high-speed rail connections towards France and Switzerland, so from Turin (Torino) to Lyon with the 57km (approx. 35mi) long tunnel in the Susa valley, and access rail lines on Italian territory towards the Gotthard base tunnel.

Besides these investments in high-speed rail, lots of other rail investments in local rail projects can be found in "Sblocca Italia". In total, 300 construction projects are supposed to be reopened (road, air and rail projects).

The first two high-speed projects Napoli-Bari and Messina-Catania-Palermo are part of the European Union's TEN corridor 5 (trans-european networks). There is another rail corridor in there, described as a current bottleneck, the "Brenner" corridor through the Alps all the way from Munich in Germany via Innsbruck in Austria and Franzensfeste (Fortezza) in Italy to Verona. As that route is part of an international cooperation, there were some concerns in Austria that no funds from Sblocca Italia have been allocated to the Brenner Base Tunnel or the Franzensfeste-Verona route. The Italian answer was that there is currently already 1.57 billion Euro (approx. US$2.1 billion) in funding available for the Brenner corridor, so in contrast to the other projects on the list it is not currently "blocked", thus no need to "unblock" it, while of course Italy remains committed to the project. Another priority for the government of Matteo Renzi - though not receiving funding now - is the high-speed line from Breccia to Padua (Padova), which could possibly also improve the connections from Verona towards Venice (Venezia) and Milan (Milano) respectively.

sources:

Dallo Sblocca-Italia escono Livorno-Civitavecchia e Brennero

August 6, 2014
by Corrado Zunino

http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2014/08/06/news/sblocca_italia_nuovo_elenco_opere-93215074/

Brennerbasistunnel für Italien nicht mehr prioritär?

August 7, 2014

by APA - DiePresse.com

http://diepresse.com/home/wirtschaft/international/3851337/Brennerbasistunnel-fur-Italien-nicht-mehr-prioritaer

Official EU list of projects within TEN 5 corridor (including map):

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/ten-t-guidelines/corridors/scan-med_en.htm

Many might applaud Italy's government for making the decision to invest in high-speed rail, and some might wish the leaderships of other countries will make similar advancements in high-speed rail possible.


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## Tokkyu40 (Aug 16, 2014)

There are some countries to the south of Canada that might profit from making transportation an issue of national economic security rather than partisan politics.
I don't remember which ones, of course.


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## Shawn Ryu (Aug 18, 2014)

HSR is killing Alitalia though. Shame.


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## cirdan (Aug 19, 2014)

Shawn Ryu said:


> HSR is killing Alitalia though. Shame.


Why?

Internal flights probably make out but a small part of Alitalia's overall business.

And I wouldn't be surprised if much of that was loss-making feeder and connecting flights anyway.

Alitalia might be better served if it tried to get HSR to serve airports and used the vacated landing slots for more profitable long-haul flights.


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