The Strait Bridge has just passed another test. Or at least that’s the optimistic version. The less optimistic one says that the Transport Regulatory Authority accompanied its opinion on the economic-financial plan and on the tariff system of the work with a long series of findings, requests for further information and observations. Technically it’s not a failure, but not even the type of document you read while imagining fireworks over the Strait.
The Authority requests greater guarantees, more transparency on some tariff mechanisms and further checks on the economic sustainability of the infrastructure. In short: before running it is better to check the road better.
And it’s not the only issue that has emerged in recent weeks. While the work continues its journey between opinions, checks and corrections, the Stretto di Messina company will have to return 12.375 million euros to the European Union for delays in project activities financed by Brussels. Twelve million, inside a work worth 13.5 billion, almost seems like pennies that ended up under the seat. The problem is that those pennies were European, and in Brussels they have this somewhat unpleasant fixation: if they finance something, then they want to see what has been done.
On March 22, 2023, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Matteo Salvini was sitting in Bruno Vespa’s study in front of the model of the Strait Bridge. The question was simple: when will the work start?
We expect construction to begin in summer 2024.
A few seconds later a time estimate also arrived.
Five years.
On the model, it must be said, everything already worked. The Bridge was there, beautifully composed, with its lanes, its tracks, its record span and the air of someone who had already booked the ribbon cutting. Then, outside the television studio, that annoying creature called reality reappeared: papers, deadlines, plans, opinions, budgets.
Moreover, Europe had already bet on part of the project. In October 2024, the Stretto di Messina company and the European agency CINEA signed an agreement for the co-financing of the railway executive design through the Connecting Europe Facility program, with a contribution of approximately 25 million euros allocated to railway design activities. It is precisely within this framework that the story of the sums to be repaid and the delays accumulated along the way fits.
In 2023, during that same interview, Salvini defined the Bridge as a work capable of guaranteeing “environmental savings unique in the world” and eliminating 140 thousand tons of CO₂. But then CO₂ is not moved by plastic models. Look at the trucks, the ferries, the slow trains, the goods that continue to travel as they can. And you do the math.
Before the pylons, the delays
The Bridge over the Strait has been described for years as a strategic work for the South, a piece capable of improving connections between Sicily and the continent and of strengthening rail transport of goods. The problem is that infrastructures do not exist in isolation. A bridge connects two banks. A mobility system connects territories.
For this reason the story of the lost European funds takes on a value that goes beyond 12 million euros. Remember that such a work requires a huge administrative and planning machine, where even preliminary activities can accumulate delays and costs even before the actual start of the works. Meanwhile, public discussion often continues to focus on the Bridge as an object in its own right, as if it were a self-sufficient solution.
A bridge without a net
The real environmental issue is not just the Bridge, but everything that should get there. In fact, a large part of the Sicilian railway network continues to coexist with single-track sections and speeds that in many areas remain far from the standards of high-capacity railways. Calabria is also affected by numerous modernization and strengthening interventions which will still require years to be completed.
The same Integrated Infrastructure and Mobility Plan of the Sicilian Region highlights how the improvement of railway competitiveness comes from a long series of widespread interventions on the existing network, from electrification to the elimination of infrastructural bottlenecks. Even the largest bridge in the world is of little use if the trains that are supposed to cross it continue to move slowly before and after crossing.
Sustainability is not in the rendering
When we talk about the Strait Bridge, the environmental theme is often evoked. The argument is well known: encouraging rail transport means reducing dependence on road traffic and reducing part of the emissions associated with transport.
This is correct reasoning, at least in theory. Sustainability, however, is measured on real results and not on simulations. According to ISPRA, the transport sector represents over 28% of national greenhouse gas emissions, confirming itself as one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonise.
To truly reduce this impact, competitive, frequent and reliable rail connections are needed. We need efficient regional networks. We need functioning stations, intermodality and services capable of convincing people and businesses to leave their cars or trucks behind. In other words, sustainability doesn’t just cross the Strait. It passes along thousands of kilometers of tracks.
The question that remains open
The 12 million to be returned to Europe will not change the fate of the Bridge. They are not enough to decree its success or failure. However, they serve to bring the debate back to a less ideological and more concrete terrain.
If one day the Bridge is truly completed, what railway network will it find at its ends? Will the connections between Palermo, Catania, Messina, Reggio Calabria and the rest of the peninsula be competitive enough to generate sustainable mobility? The Bridge could also become a jewel of Italian engineering. First, however, we should decide where to put it. Because even the most expensive necklace, over a holey t-shirt, just stays there to make a scene.
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