Italy's renowned high-speed rail network is encountering a persistent wave of delays and disruptions, prompting Ferrovie dello Stato, the country's national railway company, to propose a temporary reduction of 15% in high-speed train services.

This strategic move, aimed at optimizing operations during ongoing infrastructure upgrades funded by the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility (Pnrr), seeks to address congestion and enhance service reliability.

The Italian railway network spans 16,800 kilometers, including approximately 1,000 kilometers dedicated to high-speed routes.

Despite boasting modern high-speed tracks between Turin, Milan, and Florence, and again from Rome to Salerno, the segment connecting Florence and Rome remains particularly problematic due to concurrent commuter and regional train services.

This portion of the network supports an average of 320 trains daily, exceeding its optimal capacity of 200 trains.

The network's challenges are exacerbated by aging infrastructure and frequent technical malfunctions, notably on routes such as Orte-Rome where electrical issues arise almost daily.

Stefano Donnarumma, CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato, has emphasized the need for rationalizing train operations, underscoring the plan's alignment with an earlier strategic proposal unveiled in December.

"More than cutting services, the focus is on optimizing and rationalizing the existing framework," Donnarumma stated, highlighting efforts to align infrastructure works with traffic demands and enhance user communication.

Efforts to address these issues are complicated by the ambitious infrastructure projects concurrent with regular operations.

With over 1,200 sites presently under construction, industry experts warn that any minor disruption could propagate across the network, inducing what has been described as a domino effect.

These projects, fueled by Pnrr investments, are critical to modernizing Italy's transport infrastructure, yet they compress the railway's operational margins during this transitional phase.

A critical piece of infrastructure underway includes resolving bottlenecks in major transit hubs like Rome, Florence, and Milan, with Bologna serving as the sole station effectively segregating regional and high-speed services via a subterranean tunnel.

An analogous tunnel in Florence, first approved in 1999, has only recently commenced construction after extensive legal investigations revealed corruption and malpractice, impeding progress.

Edoardo Rixi, Vice Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, has been a proponent of this reduction strategy aimed at minimizing commuter inconvenience and streamlining operations.

The current traffic volume of high-speed services has surged from 308 trains per day in 2017 to peaks of 400 in the present day, stressing the pre-existing infrastructure and necessitating an urgent response.

While the trimming of services might initiate discussions within the Italian government, the Ministry of Infrastructure, largely influenced by the political party Lega, is anticipated to support such operational adjustments.

As the railway grapples with these enduring challenges, the future of Italy’s high-speed rail may considerably depend on the timely completion of its ongoing modernization efforts.