The dream (or nightmare, depending on your point of view) of a stable connection between Sicily and Calabria changes skin again. The Government has decided to move 2.8 billion euros from the Bridge’s budget to plug a hole: the debt of Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), the company that manages the tracks on which we travel every day. The new date to mark on the calendar for the opening of the work is 2034, a postponement that tells a lot about the state of health of our infrastructures.
The lifesaver for commuter trains
Why take away funds from the Bridge and give them to the railways right now? The answer lies in RFI’s portfolio. In recent years, the company has pushed hard to modernize the national network and meet the PNRR deadlines, investing a record 9 billion euros in a single financial year. This titanic effort forced the Ferrovie dello Stato Group to advance enormous capital to companies and suppliers to keep the construction sites open despite the expensive materials and logistical complexities.
To prevent indebtedness from blocking the works or slowing down payments, the decree on the commissioners provides for the injection of liquidity: 1.8 billion in 2026 and one billion in 2027. It was decided to secure the existing railway system – used daily by millions of students and workers – as a priority over a work still on paper. This move guarantees that extraordinary maintenance and technological upgrading of the tracks are not stopped due to financial tensions, safeguarding the regularity of the regional and national service.
Timetable
With the movement of funds, the times of the Bridge inevitably become longer. If the initial proclamations spoke of record times, today the reality of the accounts and the findings of the Court of Auditors require prudence. The expenditure planned for the four-year period 2026-2029 has been reduced, moving the heaviest portions towards 2032 and 2033.
The new calendar sets the start of work in September 2026. From that moment on, approximately seven and a half years of construction work will begin, with the aim of completing the structure by the end of 2033. 2034 will be the year of the debut: the moment in which the first trains should finally cross the Strait. This postponement allows us to better absorb the institutions’ observations and manage environmental authorizations, often at the center of heated disputes due to the impact on the marine and coastal ecosystems of the two shores.
The governance of the project also changes structure. The idea of a single super-commissioner with absolute powers, initially mooted for the CEO of the Stretto di Messina company, falls. Control returns to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, which has appointed specific operational figures to manage the “access works”. Aldo Isi (CEO of RFI) will follow the railway part, while Claudio Gemme (CEO of Anas) will take care of the road connections.
This subdivision aims to resolve a historical paradox: the risk of building a cathedral in the desert. The objective is to proceed with the work on the tracks and roads of Sicily and Calabria in parallel with the construction of the central span. Without modern railways and adequate roads leading to the bridge, the work would remain a truncated infrastructure, incapable of generating the desired benefits for the South.
The crossroads of sustainability
This financial maneuver rekindles a fundamental question for those who care about the environment: what is really needed for mobility in the South? If the Bridge remains the symbolic work, the movement of billions to RFI confirms that the real emergency is the care of an ordinary, often crumbling network. Strengthening the Sicilian and Calabrian railway lines, which are still largely single track or non-electrified today, represents an ecological priority to reduce the impact of transport.
The challenge for 2034 is to demonstrate that the great work is an accelerator for rail transport. The Government continues to defend the project as strategic, while the opposition criticizes the continuous changes of direction. The fact remains that, for now, priority has gone to the railway’s accounts. The 2.8 billion transferred will serve to ensure that, at least on the current tracks, citizens’ journeys do not end abruptly.
