In 1937 the FS ALn 56 railcar, expressly designed for the cogwheel line, made it possible to reduce the travel of passenger trains to 90 minutes.

However, already by the end of the 1930s the troublesome maintenance problems and the excessive travel time pushed the FS to design a new line, however the start of construction for the new track was delayed, in part by the Second World War.

The Ministry of Public Works project envisaged a route with a tunnel of approximately 17km with maximum slopes of 18 feet per thousand and radii of curvatures of at least 300 meters, with a new station in Cosenza and electrification of the line.

[1] The tunnel includes inside, at km 9+180, the Santomarco movement post exercised later in the DCO remote control for the crossing of trains.

[1][2] The original project envisaged the insertion of the new track only from the north at the exit of Paola station and south to Castiglione Cosentino.