Venetian Canal
March 11, 2008
Italy has an extensive transit network. The national rail system is over 12,000 miles long, and over half of that trackage is electrified. Italy has a network of high speed trains that is being expanded, further decreasing travel times between many important cities on the network such as Naples, Rome, Milan, Turin, and Venice. The high speed network was the first of its kind in Europe, opening in 1967 between Bologna and Florence with trains attaining speeds of up to 143 MPH. Conventional trains serve the regional lines and other intercity services that do not have high speed services.
Seven cities have subway systems, the largest of which is in Milan with 101 stations. Rome’s subway has over 70 stations in service, the first of which opened in 1955. Among the newest subways is the system in Turin, which was built prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Many systems used to have extensive tram and trolleybus networks. Very few of these systems are left and they are much smaller than they used to be. Among the cities still operating trams are Rome, Milan, Naples, and Turin, and some of these cities still use trams that have been in service since the 1940s (Rome) and 1920s (Milan). Trolleybus systems can be found in Rome and Bologna, among other cities.
