2008, so, the '08 financial crisis unfolding at the time (and a product argueably of the proceeds of one of its causes at anchor in the bay***).
We were on a guided holiday based in Vico Equense, a clifftop town round the coast from the city, between Naples and Sorrento (the port for ferries to Capri).
The tour was set up to take advantage of the odd drop of local transport and the tour guide who had... deep knowledge of the area and tales to tell as a result... was very proactive in (a) ensuring that as a group we did experience the train and also that (b) the risk to anyone in the party of first hand experience of the aphorism 'See Naples and die' was kept to a minimum. It quickly emerged that the railway gave her no concerns at all as to safety and security, with not a hint of what happened to work colleagues visiting Naples*.
So, train from Vico Aquense to Pompeii, using two' of a number of well-situated stations. My recollections: electrified line, frequent trains, busy, cheerful and it would be a pity if the 08 crisis put a spanner in this as in much else. Aside from other considerations, given the terrain, if it happens to be going to where you need to be, the line must be able to beat the road traffic hands down.
Visiting Pompeii, Naples, Herculaneum, our tour guide recruited a second guide from the city itself who was also a woman, was around 5 feet 2 and was, er, prepared to be very territorial on our behalf and at one point basically dismantled another (non-neapolitan) guide who'd allowed *their* party to outstay its welcome.
Other trips out were mainly by coach as they tended to involve several destinations sequentially. Also, in the case of Vesuvius and thinking of public transport, the light railway and funicular to the crater rim are both long gone though scant remains of the various evolutions, including what was presumably the cable from the cable lift that replaced it, were to be seen from the summit.
Even confined to the coach, this *did* allow people to admire the enterprise of Italian engineers both road and rail - a newish concrete viaduct just south of Vico Equense being one example that was particularly striking when viewed from the road. I never found out how new and what happened to the previous structure, mind. Below is a photo of the station in Vico Equense, sandwiched between two tunnels.
But then... tunnels. Cumae is among other things the ruins of an ancient greek colony, on the coast to the North of Naples and our guide (originally Faroese) recounted that she tended to make a morning trip there herself in early May to enjoy the light and remind herself that winter had truly passed.
We visited too, and by a road junction turn to the old settlement, what looked to be of all things, the portal of a double track rail tunnel***, which given that we were a year or so into organising Bath's Two Tunnels campaign, I later looked up what it might have been. It's the 'Grotta di Cocceio' built in Roman times, a kilometre long, and connects to the thoroughly ominous Lake Avernus - the tunnel was intact until World War Two in course of which it was wrecked by the Nazis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotta_di_CocceioMark
*Short break in Naples, hired a car at the airport, boxed in and brought to a halt on a Neapolitan dual carriageway, generally roughed up and relieved of luggage and possessions.
** Yacht 'A'.
*** The northern portal of the 'Grotta di Coccaio' is very findable on Google Streetview.
