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Trips that are cancelled, trains with frequencies that are, to say the least, disrespectful of citizens, inadequate economic resources to make public transport on the railway more competitive compared to private transport on the road; delays that become normality.

A day of ordinary madness is the title used to describe the daily life of commuters in Campania. Legambiente captures this snapshot in its new Pendolaria 2023 report, which reviews rail transport in our country. In Campania, 245 trains were in circulation in 2021, with an average age of 21,4 years, far from the national average of 15,3 years. 72% of trains are over 15 years old, demonstrating that some trains are truly too old to operate and provide adequate service.

In Campania, the age of the EAV rolling stock (formerly Circumvesuviana, Sepsa and MetroCampania NordEst) still weighs with an average of 25 years, compared to less than 18 years for Trenitalia. The number of people taking the train and local public transport, leaving the car at home, is decreasing: in Campania (-43,9%), going from the peak of 467.000 trips in 2011 to approximately 262.000 in 2019. The inefficiency of public transport in Campania has inevitably contributed to shifting many people towards the use of private cars, in a context, that of Naples, which already showed very high data on motorization rates.

In fact, there are 613 cars per 1.000 inhabitants in Naples, an increase in recent years. Far from Madrid where the motorization rate is 480 vehicles per 1.000 inhabitants, in London 360, in Berlin 350 and in Paris 250.

“It's really still too slow - comments Mariateresa Imparato, president of Legambiente Campania - as the numbers in the Report show, the ecological transition of the transport sector in our Region. The recipe for making travel in our cities better and easier is tested by the best European and national experiences: suburban railways, modern tramways and efficient and effective undergrounds, integrated with local rubber transport services and shared mobility, with a network of cycle paths and urban pedestrian areas and “30 zones”.

Mobility needs to change in Italy and Campania. This is demonstrated by the many successful experiences described in our Report, which confirm people's willingness to leave their cars at home when trains, metro, trams, and buses are competitive and operational. Targets for increasing the supply and quality of public transportation must be set in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) to aim to double the number of people traveling on regional trains, metro, trams, and buses, and in other metropolitan areas (by strengthening and integrating various forms of sustainable mobility).

We need to invest in infrastructure, in some cases really fundamental and decades late, but also in services, modern trains, interconnections between the various means of transport and with soft mobility, and guarantees of accessibility and inclusiveness. We need to invest in urban, suburban and extra-urban railway lines, strengthening the regional and Intercity train service.”

Moving the comparison to the kilometers of metro available to citizens of some selected European cities, it is evident that, with the exception of Milan, the Italian realities are decidedly behind. The kilometers of metro per 100 thousand inhabitants of Naples, for example, stop at 1,5, remaining very far from other capitals such as London (4,93), Madrid (4,48), Berlin (4,28). The reason for these numbers lies in the fact that investments in cities, and in particular in rail, continue to be ignored, privileging infrastructure and road transport.

This year, after the most intense period of the pandemic, the ranking of the worst railway lines returns, that is, those situations, emblematic in different ways, that highlight where we should start to relaunch the offer of public transport on rails, with benefits in terms of less pollution and less congestion in our cities, but also quality of life and reduced spending for people.

And once again among the worst lines at a national level we find the Circumvesuviana. Although we have been denouncing it for years, the inconveniences and the incredible situation in which tens of thousands of commuters in Campania find themselves continue to be ignored, due to the conditions in which the former Circumvesuviana lines find themselves. It is about 142 km, divided into 6 lines and 96 stations, which develop around Vesuvius, both along the coastal route towards Sorrento, and on the internal side on the slopes of Mount Somma, until reaching Nola, Baiano and the Agro nocerino sarnese.

In the last months of 2022, many episodes have created inconvenience for traffic and commuters. Situations already experienced in previous years, with accidents, delays and cancellations that force commuters to work endless days and to give up using the train as a daily means of transport because it is unreliable. On these lines, the most dramatic situation concerns the cut in service which has exceeded 10% compared to 2010. Something positive is moving, with significant investments by the Campania Region for the renewal of the rolling stock; 40 trains under construction and a tender planned for another 40/50 new trains. Unfortunately, the delivery of the first train is not expected before September 2024.

Allocated resources: A sore point for rail transport is the inadequate attention from the Regions. In 2021, the allocations were, on average, equal to 0,57% of the regional budgets, an improvement compared to the 0,34% recorded in 2020, but a decrease compared to the 0,65% of 2019. The problem is that in many Regions, after the state cuts, resources were not recovered from other budget items. Certainly not up to the amount of commuters present are the funding of the Campania Region equal to 0,23% of the regional budget.

And in the Legambiente report it cites the works useful to the south and among these it mentions among those approved the new Afragola-metro connection, with a tender worth over two billion euros, which also includes the purchase of 30 trains necessary for the service. This metro, of about 15,5 km, will allow to connect the high-speed station of Afragola to that of Piazza Garibaldi in Naples, the Capodichino airport, Piazza Carlo III. It is estimated about 200 thousand travellers per day and over 400 million per year. And among the good news of 2022 it is worth highlighting the new funding for the purchase of regional trains and the modernization of local lines.