POTENZA – Between some welcome news (especially for lovers of the Lucanian Ionian coast) and old critical issues, the summer of travelers in Basilicata, as happened last year, will certainly not be easy. The planned maintenance works on the Battipaglia-Potenza-Taranto line and on the Foggia-Potenza line will significantly affect rail transport during the summer period. From 10 June to 8 September, in fact, there will be no direct Frecciarossa from Potenza to Rome and no train that can guarantee users the ability to reach the large cities of the Centre-North without making changes. These are the main consequences of the maintenance works planned on both routes.
As regards the Battipaglia-Potenza-Taranto line, the interventions on the Lucanian section will concern the Picerno and Bella-Muro stations with modernization interventions which should allow a gain of approximately ten minutes on travel times according to Trenitalia estimates. On the Foggia-Potenza route, however, convoys are stopped to allow the electrification works which will concern the stretch between Rocchetta and Melfi, with the inconveniences which in this case will continue until the beginning of next winter, or until 14 December 2024. In both in cases, replacement buses will be activated by Trenitalia. To counteract what promises to be yet another summer of “passion” for Lucanian travelers and tourists who choose our region, there are some welcome innovations that will allow us to improve the accessibility of some of the main tourist destinations of the our region such as Matera and Maratea, as part of the Summer Experience, the new Trenitalia offer for the summer of 2024 which will come into force in the second weekend of June, i.e. Saturday 9th. Announced last March, the revolution of hybrid trains in Basilicata will make it possible to increase the fleet of rail vehicles, which has historically been the subject of complaints. The new trains purchased with Pnrr funds will strengthen the Intercity offer along the Ionian coast. It is precisely on the Matera side that important stops are restored even after ten years. In fact, the connection between Taranto and Sibari will be proposed again with four trips of the announced Magna Grecia Line, with stops in Metaponto, Scanzano Jonico, Policoro, Nova Siri. But it will only circulate on Saturday and Sunday. On the opposite side, Maratea, still without the SS 18, will benefit from four pairs of Intercity, Frecciarossa and Frecciargento. For Matera, however, pending the completion of the long-awaited Matera-Ferrandina scheduled for 2026, the Freccialink connection with the direct bus for those arriving by Frecciarossa in Salerno returns. At a national level, the new summer plan will allow reaching over 700 tourist destinations. In detail, the summer offer includes more than 270 Arrows daily, for over 130,000 seats offered. Intercity and Intercity Notte will travel to more than 230 cities (70 summer destinations). The 6,000 trains per day of the Regional will reach over 1,700 destinations in a widespread manner, of which 500 are tourist destinations. Le Frecce and Freccialink (30 bus routes are added, connect more than 100 destinations throughout Italy. The Milan-Rome route, the business connection par excellence, is guaranteed by 100 trains per day (9 non-stop ones under 3 hours).
