Thread by @ChittiMarco

A couple of consideration about transit spending for operation in Italy, following @yfreemark 's piece about the US

In Italy, public subsidies amounts to € 6.6 bn annually (2017), but mostly comes from the "federal":
Central govt -> € 4.8 bn (72%)
Local govt -> € 1.8 bn (28%)

That covered some 2 bn in vehicle*km of service (incl. bus/tram/metro/train/ferry), for 5.2 billion passengers, for a total costs (subsidy+fares) of € 11 bn divided as 7 bn for urban transit (4€/vehicle*km) and 4 bn for rail (15.5€/train*km), the rest for ferry

note that that data is uncomplete, though. It covers only the regions with "ordinary statute" and not the four regions with autonomous statute and the two autonomous provinces, that encompass a little less than 1/6 of the population

What is interesting it's the distribution of national and local ressources depending on regions and areas.

What stands out is that national funds are unevenly distributed and local matching funds reflects different levels of commitment to transit from the Regions

The reasons for the uneven distribution of national transit funds are multiple, but essentially linked to the ill-conceived and half-backed devolution of transit powers and spending to the regions in the early 2000s, but also to different geographical characteristics and needs

More interestingly, the numbers don't reflect the usual rhetoric of a South abandoned by the Govt.
Central regions are the ones that get the most par capita in subsidy, at € 100.6 /inh. Southern ones get only slightly less (99.8) and northern ones even less, at 89.7

The real differences are in the local contribution. Again, it's the Center that stands out with € 63/inh. versus 34.8 in the North and only 14.6 in the South. This comes with no surprise as Southern regions are fiscally weak

But there are big differences within the South: Basilicata does an enormous effort with €78/inh. in local contribution, or 0.32% of its GDP per capita, while Campania, the region with the largest transit needs, spends a meager € 0.72/inh. (!!)

Similar differences exists in the North:Lombardy spends € 69.8/inh. while Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, regions of comparable fiscal means, spend only 13.4 and 2.4 respectively. The lack of commitment is quite impressive.

Even more interestingly, commitment to fund transit doesn't match always with the usual right/left political divide. Both Lombardy and Veneto have been ruled by center-right forever and have very diff policies. Same for two historic "Red" regions, like Emilia-Romagna and Toscana

What really stands out it's Campania, that basically killed its vast transit network in 2011 and never quite got it back in terms of funds for operations. The resulting collapse of rail usage (-43%) is the most catastrophic failure in the history of the Italian transit policy