Rome rail chaos leads to train cancellations and delays across Italy.

Italy's transport minister Matteo Salvini faced heavy criticism on Wednesday after the suspension of rail traffic between two of Rome's main train stations led to travel chaos.

Train services were suspended between Termini and Tiburtina for several hours on Wednesday morning due to a "rare fault" in the power supply line, the Italian railway infrastructure manager RFI said in a statement.

The rail chaos caused massive inconvenience for train travellers in Rome and across the country - including on high-speed services to Milan, Naples and Turin - with more than 100 train cancellations and delays of up to four hours.

Exasperated commuters posted pictures on social media of blank travel timetables in Termini and Tiburtina stations, amid a sea of online anger, despair and irony.

#Roma Termini questa mattina. Semplicemente, non sai da dove partirà il tuo treno. Ma puoi sempre salire su uno a caso e magari sei fortunato. pic.twitter.com/dBLoHK1JGG

— Marco Cattaneo (@marcocattaneo) October 2, 2024

Much of the rage was directed at Salvini, with many commentators noting that he preferred to post about Festa dei Nonni - Grandparents' Day - instead of addressing the travel chaos in the Italian capital.

"This government makes Italy travel with at least an hour of delay, every day", stated Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition centre-left Partito Democratico (PD) party.

"Minister Salvini deals with everything except the transport emergency while under his leadership the duration of line interruptions increases year after year and the ones who pay the highest price are the passengers", Schlein said, adding: "Today's fault is just the umpteenth page of the daily odyssey that those who travel by train experience every day".

Nicola Fratoianni, leader of the left-wing Sinistra Italiana, wrote on Facebook: "There is a minister who continues to blather on about everything, but he clearly doesn't do the job for which the ministry was assigned to him. Salvini should go home for incompetence and stop causing damage".

Photo: REPORT / Shutterstock.com.