ROME (Reuters) - Finding a taxi in Rome these days is about as hard as catching a cool breeze in the heat-drenched Italian capital.
As temperatures approach record highs in the city, people seeking a cab at the central station have reported having to wait well over an hour in scorching sunlight, while taxi ranks dotted across the city often lie deserted.
Rome, along with other Italian cities, have long experienced shortages of cabs, with the powerful taxi lobbies resisting efforts to issue more licences or fully embrace the arrival of ride-hailing competitors like Uber and Lyft.
But the massive influx of tourists, coupled with the heatwave, has turned a problem into crisis and raises doubts about Italy's ability to cope with ever bigger crowds forecast by the tourism ministry in the coming years.
It also shines a spotlight on the country's inability to reform, or take advantage of new technologies.
"This would not be acceptable in the United States," said Taylor Simmons, a nanny from Seattle, waiting in a long line outside Rome's main station, with no protection from the sun.
"Given how hot it is, you would have thought there would be many more taxis."
Rome has just 7,800 taxis, with no new licences issued since 2006, and an additional 1,000 executive private hire cars, which also serve as top-end Uber vehicles. By contrast, London has some 19,000 taxis plus 96,000 private hire vehicles, according to 2020 data, while Paris has 18,500 taxis and at least 30,000 licences for private vehicles.
"It is really hard to find taxis and that is a problem not just for tourists, but for the economy as a whole," said Andrea Giuricin, a transport economist at Milan's Bicocca university.
MAJOR EVENTS
The previous government of Mario Draghi tried to reform the sector, but abandoned the plan in the face of rowdy street protests by angry taxi drivers, who traditionally draw support from the conservative parties currently in power.
The same lobby has prevented full-scale Uber operations in the country, arguing they posed a safety risk to customers.
Taxi leaders say they are being made a scapegoat for Rome's many traffic woes and complain that outside the main tourist months there would not be enough work to go around if the city council issued more licences.
"We can talk about this, but we cannot ignore the fact that bus and metro lines are poor and that, in order to keep costs down, service is reduced or closes too early in the evening," said Loreno Bittarelli, head of the Radio Taxi Union of Italy.
Rome's main metro lines shut at 9.00 p.m. during the week because of prolonged maintenance work, while the bus service is notoriously fickle, regularly hit by strikes and breakdowns.
The problem extends well beyond Rome.
Kwame Prempeh from Ghana is on holiday in Italy with his wife and three children. He waited more than 1-1/2 hours for a taxi when he arrived at Como in northern Italy from neighbouring Switzerland. In the end, his Airbnb host had to pick them up.
"Switzerland was super efficient but as soon as we crossed the border, the transport stopped working," he said, waiting in a line at Rome for a cab to take him and the family to a hotel.
"Clearly the concept of supply and demand does not exist in Italy," he said.
The government has called for talks to start with taxi leaders this week to try to resolve the problems ahead of major events that risk bringing chaos and bad headlines to the capital unless solutions are found.
Rome is due to host the Ryder Cup golf tournament later this year, attracting a slew of well-heeled visitors to the city.
Their numbers will be dwarfed in 2025 when the city welcomes an anticipated 30 million tourists for a Holy Year, when Roman Catholics traditionally flock to the Vatican City.
"Rome probably has one of the worst transport networks in the world," said sector expert Giuricin. "There is no way the city can welcome in more people without big change."
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
