en.Wedoany.com Reported - Italy's infrastructure management company Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI, part of the FS Italiane Group) has opened the first completed section of the Naples-Bari high-speed railway line—the 15.6 km Naples-Cancello high-speed segment. Built by Webuild, this section connects the southern rail network to the national high-speed system via the Afragola junction, and simultaneously launched a direct Naples-Lecce service with a total travel time of approximately 5 hours. With the new section in operation, travel time between Naples and Bari has been reduced from over 4 hours to about 3 hours and 30 minutes, with the ultimate goal of the entire line being to cut travel time to under 2 hours.
The Naples-Cancello section traverses the highly urbanized area of the Naples metropolitan region, linking the Naples-Bari line to the Afragola station, a gateway to the future north-south high-speed network. The section includes 12 road connections, level crossing elimination works, four viaducts totaling approximately 4 km in length, and the 650-meter Casalnuovo tunnel. The Casalnuovo tunnel was excavated using the hyperbaric method under complex hydrogeological conditions, a technique deployed for the first time in Italy and seen in only a few cases in Europe, such as London's Crossrail and Amsterdam's North-South metro line. The entire Naples-Bari line is part of the Scandinavian-Mediterranean TEN-T corridor and will ultimately feature 145 km of new track, 15 tunnels, 25 viaducts, and 20 stations, covering 32 municipalities. Over 5 million residents will benefit from improved transport conditions along the Adriatic-Tyrrhenian corridor, with the project directly and indirectly supporting approximately 10,200 jobs and involving a supply chain of over 7,500 companies.
Investment in Italy's high-speed rail is accelerating. Industry data shows that capital expenditure on Italy's metro and urban rail transit reached €2.35 billion in 2025, a 27% year-on-year increase. For comparison, the 49 km Brescia-Verona high-speed section, also part of the TEN-T network, has a budget of €2.7 billion. The Naples-Cancello section is notable for its extreme urban density and the application of hyperbaric excavation technology. Meanwhile, private capital is also entering Italy's transport asset sector, with Partners Group, which manages over $185 billion in assets, supporting the NGI infrastructure platform, indicating growing confidence among institutional investors in the sector.
Hyperbaric excavation technology stabilizes water-bearing strata by maintaining high air pressure within the tunnel. The Casalnuovo tunnel is the first deployment of this process in Italy and one of only about three such cases in Europe. Specific construction costs for this section have not been disclosed by RFI or Webuild, with independent estimates for the entire Naples-Bari line standing at approximately €5.8 billion. The completion date for the entire Naples-Bari line has not yet been confirmed, and subsequent fleet planning and service design for the project still face unclear timelines. However, the successful application of hyperbaric tunnel boring technology in this project demonstrates Italy's capability to execute similar works in complex urban brownfield environments, which could help reduce perceived risks for future high-speed projects in other Southern European cities.
