It is commonly said that Hitler brought about a miraculous recovery in Germany in the 1930s, and improved the country greatly. There have been plenty of threads here in the past quashing that perspective as mostly false, and demonstrating how it was really an unsustainable house of cards.
But what about Mussolini. There is the saying that at least he made the trains run on time, which while intended literally, also applies to the more general improvements he supposedly brought to Italy. So, leading up to Italy's entry into World War II in 1940, just how much of an effect did Il Duce have on the quality of life in Italy? Did things really improve because of him over the previous decade or two? Did the trains really run on time? Or is that just as much a crock of apologist schlock as the false accolades thrown at Hitler?
In answer with regard to the trains, Mussolini's regime did improve the conditions of Italian rail networks somewhat. The state forced all railwaymen to join a Fascist union and this imposed some degree of uniformity to the rail network's personnel. A number of prominent Fascists like Roberto Farinacci were former rail officials and had a working knowledge of the railways and their defects. But even more far-reaching than these administrative reforms was the opening of new rail-stations and expansions of track that eliminated the bottlenecks that caused Italian trains to have a reputation of being chronically late.
However, much of this Fascist improvements were more cosmetic than substantive. The Italian rail network collapsed under the pressure of the Second World War. The regime was also a prisoner of its own rhetoric, the phrase "make the trains run on time" originated out of the bombastic rhetoric about the transformation of Italy into a modern state under Mussolini's auspices. When these discrepancies with reality did not match the rhetoric, then the bombast of Fascism became more apparent.
Sources
Bosworth, R. J. B. Mussolini's Italy Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945. New York: Penguin Books, 2007.
Clark, Martin. Mussolini. Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman, 2005.
Painter, Borden W. Mussolini's Rome Rebuilding the Eternal City. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.