Bari-Naples train, via the direct connection from 10 July

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Naples and Bari will be closer from next July 10 with a direct rail link between the two capitals, which for the people of Bari heading to Campania as for the Neapolitans heading to Puglia will mean avoiding a change of train in Caserta to continue the journey. The mayors of the two cities had signed a memorandum of understanding on 4 May and formally asked the Ministry of Transport and the RFI group for a direct line, a connection that has been talked about for years and announced as something already done in recent years.

This time it seems that we are getting serious: the two mayors, Antonio Decaro and his Neapolitan colleague, Gaetano Manfredi, have in fact been summoned to Rome, in the presence of Minister Matteo Salvini, precisely to agree on the methods for launching the service defined as “experimental” .

The details are not yet known (exact journey duration, ticket cost, timetables, frequency of daily or midweek connections, etc.) but Decaro hopes “to know them in the next few days to communicate it to citizens”. For the city, adds the mayor of Bari who thanked Salvini for having followed up on the request “it is a victory”. That is, he marks, in some way, the recognition that the city has changed, has a strong tourist vocation and has grown thanks to the work of citizens, businesses, operators.

In short, behind the yes to the connection is the growth of Bari and its metropolitan area and therefore the good right to ask for “more efficient mobility with a connection that anticipates the end of the Naples-Bari works”. For the part that concerns Puglia, there are in fact two sections involved: the Bovino–Cervaro, 23 km long and completed in 2017, and the Bovino–Orsara, approximately 11.8 km long, mainly in tunnels and which is characterized by the construction of the “Orsara” tunnel (about 10 km long), almost entirely double-tube. The expected design speed is 200 km/h for the uncovered sections and 250 km/h for the tunnel section.

The section, whose project was carried out in a coordinated manner with the Hirpinia – Orsara section, should be completed by 2026. The amount of the works is 562 million euros, financed. Obviously, the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, is also satisfied: «A commitment adopted in recent weeks by national and local institutions is thus maintained. This connection represents only the first step in consolidating a strategic connection of shared actions on the Naples-Bari axis in terms of mobility, culture and training”.