1/ We all know WHAT are the ingredients of a Frequent "Regional Rail" network. But there is little talk often about the "HOW to get there".

The case of Lombardy is quite interesting as it shows that, no matter how long it takes, what matters is to have a PLAN and stick to it.

2/ I'm doing this thread because I ended up reading a number of documents about how, in a general framework of stagnation or even decrease in regional rail use in Italy in the last two decades, Lombardy doubled its daily rail ridership from 400,000 in 2000 to 800,000 in 2018.

3/ Of course, the most "glittering part", the piece of hard infrastructure that enabled such a stark increase in service is the "passante": a cross-city rail link opened in phases between 1997-2004 that allows for through-running of "suburban" trains

4/ But the most important part comes even earlier: in 1982, the Region devised an overall plan for the implementation of an S-Bahn network (called "servizio comprensoriale") in a ~30-40km radius from Milan. That plan kickstarted the construction of the passante in 1983

5/ Until the early 2000, the implementation was slow, because the 930m€ "passante" was locally financed with scarce ressources by the City and the Region and the responsibility of programming and financing regional rail transit was devoluted to Regions only in 1997-2000