Sustainable travel from north to south? We need infrastructure. Here are the numbers of a phenomenon

Moving around, traveling in an ever faster and more sustainable way, perhaps leaving the car in the garage, presupposes finding an efficient, integrated and accessible system of transport services from north to south that only the improvement of the infrastructural network can help to achieve. For this group state Railways led by Luigi Ferraris is accelerating the pace in spending the investments necessary for this new system to become a reality quickly, both for passengers and for goods. A few numbers help to understand the size of the financial commitment supported also with the help of Pnrr funds, of which 83 percent of the investments are already in progress. The plan envisages a total of 200 billion in investments over the next 10 years, of which 180 billion for infrastructure, and even more in detail 125 for railways and 55 for roads. In the first half of 2023, the Infrastructure Pole of FS awarded contracts for 14.3 billion euros and a further 10 billion represent the value of the tenders launched. In particular, 11.9 billion were awarded by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), the lead company of the Infrastructure Pole. Of these, 7.63 billion come from the funds allocated by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in line with the objectives that this also sets itself in terms of reducing territorial differences. It is no coincidence that southern Italy has been awarded seven billion of 11.9 billion in new tenders and the total investments that the FS industrial plan envisages for this area of ​​the country in the next ten years amount to 80 billion, of which around 47 billion will be spent to improve connections with northern Italy but also with the rest of Europe. Anas, another company of the Infrastructure Pole, has instead awarded works for 2.4 billion euros between maintenance and new works.

The tenders to improve the infrastructure system are continuing at a rapid pace in the second half, such as the one announced a few days ago for the construction of the Verona railway junction (value 253 million euro) to the consortium of companies formed by Pizzarotti, Saipem and Salcef and for the Codogno - Cremona - Mantua line (470 million) to the consortium of companies Pizzarotti, Saipem, Icm and Salcef. Overall, the Polo has about 4,000 construction sites underway throughout Italy for over 49 billion euros in new strategic works and maintenance of existing lines with the involvement of 8,000 companies. By the end of the year, a further 107 construction sites will be launched for new railway and road works, for over 12 billion euros (split between the Italian railway network with 90 construction sites and 11 billion; Anas 17 construction sites and 1.1 billion). An intense roadmap that moves in compliance with the times, as confirmed by the data of 2022 which saw the Infrastructure Pole launch tenders with a total value of over 25.5 billion and 15 billion in contracts awarded. More railway junctions and more road works will help to increase the possibility of traveling by train and bus in Italy with the consequent reduction of pollution, accidents and urban congestion.

Among the main works that Ferraris' Fs is carrying out through RFI, there are the Third Pass of the Giovi and the Genoa junction, the Fortezza-Verona, where activities have also begun for the Trento ring road, the Brescia-Verona-Padua, the Venice-Trieste, the completion of the doubling of the Adriatic section between Pescara and Bari, the Palermo-Catania-Messina, where all the lots have been contracted out, and the eagerly awaited Naples-Bari line. This massive mobilization of financial resources and means, aimed at modernizing existing infrastructures and building new ones, is supported by the work of around 40,000 employees, to which the Infrastructure Pole plans to add 8,000 with new hires in 2023 and over 31,000 new entries over the course of the ten-year business plan. A commitment also in this case concentrated in the south of the country where RFI will hire over 5,000 people over the course of the plan. An ever bigger team, but also ever younger, given that RFI has always managed to lower the average age from 48 to 40 in the last 4 years.