Italy's "High-Speed/High Capacity System" involved the improvement and re-organisation of the railway network to accommodate growing traffic and greater mobility among the main metropolitan areas. The project can be defined as a high-speed quadrupling of the existing network and railway system.

Owing to the dimensions of the work, the engineering-related challenges, the sheer amount of manpower involved, the importance of the financial commitment, and the orographical and hydrogeological features of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, the Bologna – Florence High Speed Railway line represented a major engineering challenge in our Country and one of the most important projects in Europe.

The activation of the new railway connections, moreover, revolutionized the perception of the distances between some of the country's most important cities, which had traditionally followed independent development paths. Bologna and Florence — by now separated by a train journey of just 35 minutes — are today two faces of a trans-Apennine city of one million inhabitants.

Main Technical Data:

Line length: 79 km

Viaducts and bridges: 1.2 km

Natural tunnels: 72 km

Man made tunnels: 1.8 km

Intersections with the existing line (n. 2): 9.5 km