High-speed Adriatic railway, it would cost 44 billion but would be worth 95 of GDP: all the numbers – Corriere.it

Little is said about it. Because it costs so much. But those who have the foresight to look to the future continue to imagine it. Because dreaming, on the other hand, is cheap. The dream is that of an Italy that aims to create development also on the Adriatic coast after having done so on the Tyrrhenian one, with the effects that are there for all to see: it takes less time to reach Milan from Naples (4 hours and 30 minutes) than from Pescara (4 hours and 44 minutes), despite the latter distance (521 kilometres) being two thirds of the former (790 kilometres). Of course, the existing Adriatic railway line, which runs along the coast, can be speeded up, as is being attempted. But something other than the high speed that changed the mobility of the Tyrrhenian coast. By creating a new gap, compared to the historic North-South one: the East-West one.

The disinterest of politics

On the political front, very little is said about it. He did it, as Minister of Culture (for the possible repercussions on tourism), Dario Franceschini in an interview with Courier of May 2020 in which he underlined how the infrastructure, not surprisingly, should be part of a grandiose Reconstruction with a capital R, because the infrastructural gap in our country is not only between North and South, but also between East and West. On the Tyrrhenian side high-speed trains and large airports, practically nothing on the Adriatic side. And since then nothing has moved on this front (not even in words, which instead are wasted on another infrastructure such as the bridge over the Strait). now, for, Confindustria Ancona has decided to calculate how much the work would cost and what the possible fallout would be to show the potential of high speed on the Adriatic backbone as a lever for the development of the national economy as explained in the introduction to the analysis by the Confindustria and Open Economics Study Centre.

The impact on GDP and employment

Well, the numbers of this new section Bologna-Ancona-Pescara-Foggia-Bari — 610 kilometers divided between Puglia (30%), Marche (25%), Emilia Romagna (20%), Abruzzo (20%) and Molise (5%) — they say that pulling back the Adriatic railway backbone to build a new high-speed line would cost about 44 billion euros. But 95 of GDP would be generated (as well as significant benefits also for tourism, industry, pollution and quality of life), with the creation of 144,000 stable full-time jobs divided, to varying degrees, across all Italian regions. In those involved in the works (Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Molise, Puglia), on the other hand, the project construction site alone would contribute to an average GDP growth of 0.6% on an annual basis, while at national level the contribution to growth would be around 0.4%.

The times of the work

Going into the details of the impact of the Adriatic high-speed project, the planning phase would last three years – with a cost of 5 billion, an impact on GDP of 12.7 billion and the creation of 42,000 stable full-time jobs — while the infrastructure construction site — with a cost of 39 billion and an impact on GDP of 82 billion, with the creation of 102,000 stable full-time jobs — would last 10 years. Overall, therefore, it would take 13 years to complete the work. Provided that an example is not taken from what is happening (certified in 2022 by the Court of Auditors) for the simple doubling of the track on the Termoli-Lesina railway section, only 32 kilometers of the currently existing line: not a single kilometer completed in 21 years of projects since the CIPE approval in 2001.