Thread by @ChittiMarco

Today, the much-awaited, 5, 5 km, 8 station, metro line 6 in Naples was finally (re)opened* (with limited service) after a 40+ years-long saga that is emblematic of how the bad choices and habits of the 1980s still haunt Italy today.

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Naples' line 6 has a very troubled history. It was initially planned in the early 1980s as the "Linea Tranviaria Rapida", an LRT-like system mixing at-grade and grade-separated segments crossing the city East-West roughly along the coast.

It was planned following the approval of a national law encouraging the construction of "LRT-like" systems, to be built with local and national funds with the involvement of the state-controlled IRI conglomerate, via non-competitive 30 years "concessions of sole construction"

Both Naples' LTR and its twin system in Genoa were awarded to Ansaldo, that at the time was part of the giant state-owned IRI conglomerate, and were to be build in small lots as funds became available over a very long time framework, a common (bad) practice at the time.

Despite receiving funds from disparate sources, the construction advanced slowly and was plagued by geological problems (a TBM stuck forever underground) and by 1990 only a very short segment of the western part was briefly used for shuttle service during the World Cup.

Works were finally halted in 1993, as the project was hit by the general paralysis of public works following the Tangentopoli scandals, the 1992 financial crisis, and multiple geological problems that made cost ballooning, despite many civil works being in advanced state

The project was resurrected in 1997, as the city went through a more positive political period and what appeared as generalized "municipal renaissance" of Italian politics: a bold new transportation "plan of the 100 stations", calling for its conversion into a light metro.

The planned line 6 was intended to be shorter, fully underground and to connect with line 1 and ferries at a new large transportation hub at Piazza Municipio. the newer stations would follow the "Stazioni dell'Arte" paradigm, each one being a unique architectural masterpiece

In the late 1990s, work restarted and in 2007 a short segment, mostly paralleling lines 2 and the Cumana rail between Mostra and Mergellina was opened. Unsurprisingly, due to its shortness and duplication of existing lines having better service, the line had a very low ridership

Following the transit funds cuts of 2011-12, this segment was closed, in theory also to allow for its upgrade in preparation for the opening of the full line "only a few years later". Meanwhile, the four initial stations fell in a state of disrepair

Meanwhile, the rest of the line encountered multiple challenges: a building collapsed due to bad geology and design problems, funding, never-ending conflicts with the contractor that triggered a sort of termination of the 30-year concession, heritage disputes, etc.

The (re) opening of the line has been announced as imminent for many years, as every year it was postponed to the next year and so on until now, offering politicians multiple occasions for "fake" inaugural ceremonies that made the public even more cynical and disillusioned.

Meanwhile, following a planning tradition of beating around the bush, unfortunately common in southern Italy, the line still lacks critical components: more trains and a proper maintenance center, whose procurement has been finalized only very recently

For this reason, and because of the chronically delayed testing and commissioning by an overcautious and understaffed transit safety authority, the line will start with a reduced service and will not be able to deploy its full potential until 2026. If we are lucky.

The current rolling stock is the 1980s-built Ansaldo-Breda LRT vehicles first used in the 1990 World Cup shuttle service, then briefly in 2007-13, and then again now. They will soon be retired having mostly been sitting around unused. An enraging waste of public money.

The story of this project is so complicated that even the Court of Auditors gave up when they tried to reconstruct the actual final cost, as a lot of spending in the 1980-90s is hard to track. The most credible number is €1.4 bn for 5.5 km, €250 m per km, a record for Italy.

Tomorrow regular (reduced) service will start for the public. People will be able to admire the outstanding architectures and renovated public paces.

But its full utility as a transportation service is yet to come, despite 40 years in the making.