Pendolaria 2025: less and less funding for trains, except for the Bridge
Rights — di Simone Santi
According to Legambiente's Pendolaria 2025 report, there is less and less funding for trains, except for the Ponte sullo Stretto.
Pendolaria 2025: less and less funding for trains, except for the Bridge
According to Legambiente's Pendolaria 2025 report, there is less and less funding for trains, except for the Ponte sullo Stretto.
- As much as 15 billion euros for the Ponte sullo Stretto, while the national transport fund falls to 2009 levels: the Pendolaria 2025 report exposes the paradox of Italian public transport.
- The 2026 Budget Law defunds many local projects, from Rome to Milan and Naples.
- Circumvesuviana and Rome's Metro Mare are the worst lines, but difficulties are widespread across Italy.
While Italian cities struggle to guarantee efficient public transport, major infrastructure projects continue to drain enormous resources. This is the paradox captured in the Pendolaria 2025 report by Legambiente, its snapshot of the year taken in December. One figure above all: the Fondo Nazionale Trasporti, adjusted for inflation, will in 2026 be 38 per cent lower than in 2009, while the newly approved 2026 Budget Law cuts crucial funding for Rome's Metro C (50 million euros, which may yet be provided by the Lazio Region, just as the capital's third metro line was gaining momentum with the opening of the Colosseo station after 12 years of construction works), Milan's M4 and the Afragola–Napoli rail link.
Il rapporto Pendolaria 2025 di Legambiente: per il trasporto pubblico locale -38% di risorse dal 2009, diminuisce il numero di treni regionali. 'La legge di Bilancio definanzia tre opere' #ANSA
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Between the Ponte sullo Stretto and local public transport: Pendolaria's assessment
The contrast between major infrastructure projects and urban mobility is stark, according to Pendolaria: the much-debated Ponte sullo Stretto di Messina, if it ever sees the light of day, will cost 15 billion euros for just 3 kilometres, while a third of that sum – 5.4 billion – would be enough to build 250 kilometres of tramways across 11 cities: infrastructure capable of concretely improving the quality of life for millions of people.
Particularly so because local public transport continues to lose ground: in 2024, Pendolaria reports, 185 fewer regional trains ran compared to 2023, due to ageing rolling stock not being replaced. All this while the impacts of the climate crisis – also driven by road traffic pollution – continue to grow: from 2010 to 2025 Legambiente recorded 229 extreme weather events, with damages estimated at up to 5 billion euros per year by 2050.
La Circumvesuviana si conferma peggiore ferrovia d'Italia nel report Pendolaria napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025/1…
Life as a commuter: troubles from north to south
The worst lines tell a dramatic story: the Circumvesuviana, in Naples, has lost 13 million passengers over ten years; the Roma Nord–Viterbo line recorded more than 8,000 cancelled services in the first ten months of 2025; and the Milano–Mortara–Alessandria suffers from chronic delays. Long-standing wounds remain open, such as the Catania–Caltagirone–Gela and the Palermo–Trapani via Milo lines, both closed for over a decade. "The data shows that a lack of public transport is becoming a dramatic factor of social exclusion," notes Roberto Scacchi, Legambiente's Mobility director. "Families spending up to 10.8 per cent of their income on getting around far exceed the European threshold of 6 per cent, and are forced to give up work, study or healthcare." There are positive signals too: the average age of regional trains has fallen to 14.7 years, daily passenger numbers are up (2.538 million), and electrification and line-doubling works continue on routes such as Pistoia–Montecatini and Genova Voltri–Sampierdarena. In Florence, the "Ti porta Firenze" scheme reduces season ticket costs by up to 80 per cent, while in Milan the new Milano–Trento–Bolzano service is up and running.
Elisabetta Benassi is the latest contemporary artist to transform the giant Metro C silos in Piazza Venezia as part of the Murales project.
Legambiente is calling on the government to restore funding for rail and urban public transport, bringing the Fondo Nazionale Trasporti back to its real 2009 levels, increasing services and frequencies, developing integrated and sustainable mobility, and investing in infrastructure that genuinely improves everyday life while reducing traffic, pollution and healthcare costs.