ITALY's high speed lines are being built in the shape of a giant T with the spine stretching from Milano in the north to Napoli in the south. The bar of the T is formed by an east-west route that will link Torino to Trieste.

After the final section of the direttissima opened between Roma and Firenze in May 1992, attention switched to Roma - Napoli. Since then, a start has been made on the line from Firenze north to Bologna and Milano, which is being built in two stages. By far the most demanding is the 78·8 km Firenze - Bologna section, of which no less than 73·3 km runs in tunnel under the Apennines. Construction has advanced rapidly, with general contractor Fiat/Cavet reporting in March that 91% of tunnelling was finished and 74% of all works were complete. On the 182 km Bologna - Milano section, general contractor Cepav Uno has completed 40% of the work.

Construction began in 2002 on the Torino - Novara section of the 125 km Torino - Milano line, the objective being to finish this section in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics. General contractor is Fiat-CavToMi and the project is half-completed. TAV Chief Executive Antonio Savini Nicci expected work to begin during April on the outstanding section from Novara to Milano.

Completing the bar of the T-shaped network across northern Italy is the line from Milano to Venezia and Trieste. A 24 km section between Padova and Venezia is already in hand, and general contractor Cepav has been allocated the 112 km route between Milano and Verona. Nicci hopes that the scheme will advance quickly following agreement on December 5 2003 to the preliminary design under new legislation intended to speed up the process of authorising major projects. This should see detailed design start in 2005, at least for the section between Verona and Padova.

Another line is planned between Milano and Genova. Known as the Terzo Valico route, the 54 km alignment in the provinces of Genova and Alessandria includes 36 km in tunnel. The preliminary design for this section was approved on September 29 2003, and €319m was made available for initial works. General contractor will be Cociv.

On the direttissima between Roma and Firenze, TAV is implementing an upgrading programme that includes strengthening of power supplies, improvements to signalling, train control and telecommunications, as well as alterations to tunnels and other structures to bring the line up to the standard of the other high speed routes.

Tunnel under Firenze

Plans have finally been agreed for a new 9 km alignment through Firenze that will allow trains between Roma and Milano to avoid reversal at Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. No less than 7 km of the 9 km alignment between a junction at Rifredi in the north of the city and Campo di Marte on the existing line to Roma will run in tunnel.

A new station for high speed services will be located at Belfiore, a short distance north of SMN. Work on this is due to start in 2005 for completion in 2009. Sir Norman Foster and Arup were chosen from a list of 10 architects as the winners of a competition to design Belfiore station, which will cost €240m.

• CAPTION: The national network in Italy is electrified at 3 kV DC, but the Roma - Napoli line is wired at 25 kV 50Hz; this is one of Trenitalia's fleet of dual-voltage ETR500 trainsets Photo:David Campione
• CAPTION: A pair of Class E402 locomotives waits south of Frosinone on March 2 with an <acronym title="European Train Control System">ETCS</acronym> test train