Intermediate results for railway capacity evaluation: a network analysis for HSR services in Italy

The development of rail transport is in line with the global and European perspectives for increasing sustainable mobility, in line with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The European cohesion policy is based on the evaluation of railway capacity. It is necessary to extend the current high-speed rail lines (HSR) along the main corridor of the Trans-European network (TEN-T) to increase European cohesion. The final goal is to increase accessibility by promoting sustainable exchanges of people and freights in Europe. This paper focuses on the development of HSR lines in the south of Europe for increasing sustainable people mobility. Various European countries are planning and developing the realization of HSR line along the corridor that cross their territories. For instance, along the Scandinavian Mediterranean TEN-T corridor, Italy is developing the design of the Salerno – Reggio Calabria HSR line to extend the existing network towards the south of Italy. In this context, this paper presents a network analysis of the current railway services offered in the south of Italy. The analysis was conducted considering the daily high-speed rail services connecting with southern Italy. The results of the analysis consist of the specification and calculation of the main indicators (degree centrality, strength centrality, eigenvector centrality) obtained from the network analysis. Centrality indicators provide indications that can be linked to accessibility within a network. The obtained intermediate results show the current main gaps in terms of transport connectivity in the south of Italy, compared to the nodes of central-southern Italy, characterized by better values. The performed analyses can be extended to the entire national HSR Italian network with the aim of evaluating the capacity evolution of the entire country. The analyses and relative results of the paper can support decision-makers and takers involved in the railway transportation planning process aimed at increasing accessibility and sustainability goals for people’s mobility in the region where HSR lines are developing.