Local organizers have been forced to limit ticket sales for February’s Winter Olympic events in Cortina d’Ampezzo amid mounting concerns over transport congestion, intensified by delays in completing a new cable car meant to ferry spectators up the mountain.
The stalled Apollonio-Socrepes gondola project has become the clearest warning sign of Italy’s wider transport challenges as it prepares to host a Games split between Cortina, Milan and several venues across northern Italy.
With the Olympics just over two months away, construction of the key cable car link – designed to move thousands of fans from the town center to the Tofane alpine skiing venue, where the women’s races will be held – remains significantly behind schedule.
Cap on ticket numbers
In the town itself, Cortina will host curling, as well as bobsled, luge and skeleton in the new sliding center.
Massimo Bortoluzzi, the provincial transport councilor, said uncertainty over the cable car project and delays in preparing collection points for spectators heading to events have prompted a preliminary 15% cut from initial spectator estimates of 200,000.
"We need to draw a line. We’ve come too close to the deadline and now risk problems finding drivers and shuttles,” Bortoluzzi told Reuters.
Organizers have temporarily restricted the number of tickets available for events in Cortina to match the transport system’s current capacity and to avoid excessive traffic, a spokesperson for the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, the local organizing committee, said, without providing precise figures.
Traffic to be limited during games
Set in the Dolomites, Cortina is one of Italy’s best-known winter resorts and staged the Games in 1956, but it has no rail station and access by the only main road into town can often be slow at peak times.
Cars remain the primary mode of transport in a town of roughly 5,500 permanent residents.
Special measures are being introduced to ease congestion during the Olympics, which run Feb. 6-22.
Only vehicles with permits will be allowed to access parts of the town.
The permits are being issued to local households, second-home owners and service providers during the Games.
Fans with tickets for Olympic events will have to leave their cars at designated areas and take shuttle buses to reach the venues.
Cable car faces pressing deadline
The cable car is expected to help ease overcrowding by moving visitors directly from an elementary school in town to the slopes.
The project, known as a gondola ropeway, involves 10 pylons and three stations – valley, intermediate and summit – with 50 cabins seating 10 people each, capable of carrying 2,400 passengers an hour.
Bogged down by a lengthy approval process, the contract was not awarded until July. The project also faced a legal challenge from a group of local residents who sought to block it in court.
In an area prone to landslides, a ground crack further complicated construction.
Simico, the state-backed agency in charge of building the Games infrastructure, has repeatedly said it will deliver the gondola on time, pointing to the sliding center as an example of earlier delays that were eventually resolved.
In an interview with state broadcaster RAI on Nov. 22, Simico special commissioner Massimo Saldini said the bulk of the project will be ready by the end of December, with final testing to follow in January.
Franco Sovilla, who owns a historic bookshop in Cortina, said he is looking ahead to the long-term benefits.
"Right now there’s only one road to reach the Tofane slopes, and without this link, traffic would be heavy. It will also help ease congestion after the Games,” he said.