Travellers to Italy’s capital will soon be able to visit the ancient city of Pompeii in an easy day trip.
The Italian government has announced it will add a new high speed train link from Rome to the archeological park near Naples.
Culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano said the €35 million project will offer a much faster and simpler way for visitors to reach the tourist attraction.
The train route will also connect to Rome’s Fiumicino airport, where most international flights arrive.
How do you get from Rome to Pompeii?
The current route from Italy’s capital to the archeological park of Pompeii is long and somewhat complicated.
To arrive by train, you need to first go to the city of Naples, where you change onto a tortuous if scenic regional service called the Circumvesuviana.
The journey involves stops in several small towns around the Gulf of Naples before chugging into the station of Pompeii Scavi-Villa dei Misteri some two hours later.
New high speed train from Rome to Pompeii
The new high speed link will provide a direct link between Rome and Pompeii and avoid part of the Circumvesuviana’s coastal circuit.
According to Italy's cultural ministry, the route will be part of the existing train line that connects Rome to Naples and Salerno.
The plan is to add a new stop on the line at the Pompeii archeological site.
"We will take tourists directly from Rome to Pompeii,” Sangiuliano said on TV talk show Che Tempo Che Fa earlier this week.
He said the initiative will increase access to cultural heritage and provide a tourism boost.
The project will involve the building of a new railway station and transport hub near the ancient city, which was buried in ash by a volcanic eruption in 70 AD.
At the transport hub, travellers will be able to find connections to nearby archeological sites including Ercolano and Stabiae.
When will the Rome-Pompeii train start running?
Construction on the new train station is scheduled to begin soon, though an exact date has not been given. It will open by the start of 2024, according to Italy’s cultural ministry.
The new route is part of the Great Pompeii Project founded in 2012 and funded by the EU.
How will the new train route affect tourist numbers at Pompeii?
The high speed link to the capital could mean doubling visitor numbers at the ancient site from around 20,000 to 40,000 a day, predicted Italian newspaper Il Mattino.
This could be a boon for local tourism operators and hotel owners, but it also raises concerns about overcrowding at the fragile archeological park.
At the end of 2021, Pompeii’s authorities introduced a bus service that links Pompeii to surrounding archeological sites.
The Artebus aimed to encourage visitors to widen their itineraries to avoid overwhelming Pompeii. In 2022, the ancient city received almost three million visitors.