International

Infrastructures

The main indicators related to the presence of infrastructures show the province of Milan to be an outstanding area at a national level. The zone is intensively urbanised and has an integrated transport system, comprising an extensive rail, road and motorway network, an important European-level airport system and a high level of commuting within the Province.

In regard to road conditions and traffic, the motorway network is currently being adapted to cope with ever-increasing volumes of traffic and new high-capacity road links are being created between Milan and the cities of Lombardy (the Pedemontana, BreBeMi and the new Tangenziale Est).

Click on the map to see a full-size image.

Infrastructures in the province of Milan
 

The map shows motorways in orange, regional roads in yellow, railways in blue, and the underground network in red.

Milan has an integrated international airport system: Malpensa, Linate and Orio al Serio. Almost 28½ million passengers passed through the Malpensa and Linate air terminals in 2008, with over 21 million from Malpensa and more than 9 million from Linate, and a total for the two airports of 419,000 metric tons of goods. These figures show a reduction in comparison to 2007, with the larger decrease, of around 19%,  being recorded for Malpensa.  Source: SEA Spa) 

Its railway system, thanks to which Milan constitutes an important strategic junction, is undergoing continual upgrading to high speed lines. The rail link system allows integration between the networks of the "Ferrovie dello Stato" (Italian State Railways), the "Ferrovie Nord Milano" (North Milan Railways) and the three lines of the Underground, and so represents a decisive infrastructure for traffic reorganisation. 

Regarding road mobility, in 2008 around 2 million trips were made daily away from and towards, or within the territory of the Province of Milan. 49% of journeys in the commune of Milan were made by private vehicles or motorcycles, 82% in the entire province, and in the area of Brianza, 84%.  Public transport provided by the ATM (Milan Transport Company) covers a network of 1,347 km, linking 72 communes. This includes 74 km of underground lines that transport 328 million passengers each year. Source: ATM – Mobility Charter 2008 - Data as on 31/12/07). The integrated provincial public transport network is coordinated by the Province of Milan, which looks after the appointment of services and management contracts.

On the subject of data communication infrastructures, the provincial capital in Milan is the most cabled city in Italy and Europe, with 2,700 kilometres of cabled streets and 300,000 kilometres of laid fibre optic cable. 

The following graph shows the general level of the various infrastructure ratings for the Milanese area. In 2007, the total rating value for Milan was 145 (Lombardy 112, Italy 100)

Indicators of the main infrastructures in the Milanese area
Top to right: Road networks, rail networks, airports, energy and environmental plants and networks, telephone and telecommunications, banking networks and services, educational structures, healthcare structures.

 
Source: The Lombardy regional statistical yearbook 2008

The Milanese territory has an important scientific park, composed of several universities. The following graph shows the number of students enrolled in three-year degree courses and single cycle specialist courses for the 2007/2008 academic year in Milan's universities.


Students enrolled in the year 2007/2008

 Source: Istat (Italian National Institute of Statistics) Year 2008 


There are several research centres, including the National Research Council (CNR), the Nuclear Physics Institute (INFN) the “Mario Negri” Pharmacological Research Institute, the National Tumour Institute and the European Institute of Oncology (IEO), which are highly capable of attracting researchers.