The “Listening Forum for gathering requests for the improvement, efficiency and development of infrastructure” is the forum for ongoing discussion between RFI, the General Directorate for Transport and Railway Infrastructures of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the “Stakeholders” (licensed railway companies, Regions and Autonomous Provinces, Framework Agreement Holders), with a view to making decisions on the start-up of investments more efficient and plan their respective activities in a mutually supportive manner. The Listening Forum, set out in section 2.6 of the NS - Network Statement, was set up in accordance with the provisions of Rail Service Regulation Office (URSF) Decision no. 400/5 of 2013 and Italian Transport Authority (ART) Resolution no. 140/2017.

RFI ensures the Listening Forum is launched by 30 April each year. Within 30 days of the start of the Listening Forum, the stakeholders involved (the "Applicants") send RFI their requests, supported by documentary analysis on the actual advantages of the proposed measures, their economic viability (costs/benefits) and the qualitative improvements of the infrastructure concerned.

Once the term established by the Infrastructure Manager for the submission of proposals, the preliminary assessment phase starts, the purpose is to identify the proposals that require further investigation (“subject to investigation”) in order to establish any planning entry.

In accordance with Italian Transport Authority Directive no. 151 of 21 November 2019, by 30 January each year RFI publishes on its website a final report of the process of analysis and assessment of the proposals made by the interested parties together with the contributions they have submitted, making the documentation available for the following 5 years.

In addition, as provided in paragraph 2.6 of the Network Statement, when the public RFI Listening Forum was called the documentation relating to the equipped areas available and service facilities for which decommissioning/conversion is planned may be consulted on the “Equipped areas” page. RFI will take into consideration the requests formulated by the participants in the listening forum also in relation to the aforementioned documentation.

In accordance with Italian Transport Authority Directive no. 227/2022 and relating requirement 2.3.3.1 as specified under appendix A of the aforementioned Directive, RFI provides the list of stations for which decommissioning and/or conversion to a stop with the indication of the related service facilities.