One of the biggest challenges at this month's Winter Olympics may be off the slopes: moving hundreds of thousands of spectators and athletes over a vast swath of northern Italy.

The Games are being organized at seven sites — the most spread-out Olympics ever.

Italian authorities argue that organizing events up to hundreds of kilometers from each other will limit the environmental impact.

But "the more fragmented the venue layout, the more complex the mobility demands — not only for athletes and officials, but especially for spectators, who generate the largest transport volumes", said Robert Steiger, a professor at Innsbruck University in Austria specializing in the effects of climate change on tourism.

Andrea Gibelli, head of the local branch of Italy's state railways, said in November that "the real challenge will be to offer a service that can compete with private transport".

"With these spread-out Olympic Games, the first instinct is to say: 'I'll go by car,'" he said.

Spectators are "strongly encouraged to arrive by train, or to park outside restricted areas and then continue by shuttle", Andrea Scrocco, transport director for the Olympics, told reporters.

Road or rail?

In Milan, there will be a stepped-up train, metro and bus service, that will also run at night.

But getting to the mountain sites will be more difficult, as there is no high-speed Olympic train like there was at Beijing 2022.

A spectator going to watch the skiing in Cortina and arriving at the nearest major airport — Venice — would have to take a bus from the airport to Venice train station to take a regional train, then a bus, then walk to a ski lift and finally walk to the slopes.

A more convenient cable car to and from the entrance of Cortina has not been completed.

For spectators, car travel will often remain faster, despite the risk of traffic jams, very limited access to the resorts and reservation-only parking.

Uber, a partner of the Games, could benefit from the chaos, and expects its activity to double in and around the Olympic zones during the event.

Infrastructure delays

Italy has pledged to invest 3.5 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in infrastructure for these Games, notably on roads and railways to reach the resorts.

Transport Minister Matteo Salvini is inaugurating infrastructure every week.

But most of the planned tunnels and bridges, presented and funded as the "legacy" of the Games, will not be ready for several years.

As of Jan 22, only 40 of the 95 planned projects — including sports facilities — had been completed, according to the Olympic works delivery company Simico.

Two small tunnels were inaugurated on Jan 26 after many delays, to access Cortina from the plains by bypassing villages.

But the tender for the 1.5-kilometer tunnel that is supposed to ease access to the Longarone valley has only just been launched.

Between Milan and the Bormio-Livigno hub, where ski and snowboard competitions are scheduled, a new road bridge was inaugurated with great fanfare in mid-January.

But only one of the two planned lanes is open.

Moreover, the Swiss canton of Graubunden, through which many spectators will pass on their way to Bormio-Livigno, is asking Lombardy for 4.4 million euros for traffic and parking management.

"I believe we made the right decision in opting for a more dispersed Games, but that has ... created additional complexities,"Kirsty Coventry, the president of the International Olympic Committee, has said.

AFP