Italian (urban) Letters

Build trams. But build them well.

Understanding what tramways are, what they do best and how to employ them.

Dec 5 • Marco Chitti

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November 2025

Why I’m still skeptical about ALTO’s HSR project

A reality check and a plea for transparency.

Nov 5 • Marco Chitti

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5

5

October 2025

The High Speed Rail and the city - part 2

More tracks, but for whom? The case of the Bologna-Castel Bolognese fast quad-tracking and the problem of disentangling mixed traffic.

Oct 27 • Marco Chitti

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2

1

Genova and its railways

A mapped story of ships, boats, tunnels and freight trains.

Oct 8 • Marco Chitti

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1

July 2025

The High Speed Rail and the City – part 1

Routing High-Speed Rail in urban areas: the case of Florence

Jul 29 • Marco Chitti

36

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5

April 2025

Down with the BRT, long live the Bus

Why Bus Rapid Transit is a failed planning concept

Apr 10 • Marco Chitti

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25

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February 2025

The Long Modernization of the Italian Railways

Why High-Speed Rail is not the only modern rail.

Feb 18 • Marco Chitti

50

5

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January 2024

Demystifying the Contraflow Transit Lanes

or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Contraflow Transit Lanes

Jan 8, 2024 • Marco Chitti

19

7

1

October 2023

Rethinking transit in downtown Montréal

Repenser les transport en commun au centre-ville de Montréal

Oct 16, 2023 • Marco Chitti

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4

1

December 2022

Getting bus priority right. Lessons from Bologna

Why our buses are slow and what need to be done to make them fast.

Dec 22, 2022 • Marco Chitti

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13

6

November 2022

Planning a region-wide integrated transit system (part I)

Part I - The hierarchy of services

Nov 1, 2022 • Marco Chitti

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1

October 2022

A brief visual history of rail electrification in Italy

In this post, my first ever long-form post, I’m going to break down the long story of rail electrification that I summarized in that animated map posted…

Oct 11, 2022 • Marco Chitti

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