Trenitalia’s goal is to unite the capitals of Europe with its Frecciarossa highspeed trains.
FS operates in France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands
The FS Italian State Railways Group is already present in Europe with Trenitalia France in France, in high speed in Spain with Iryo trains and in Greece with Hellenic Train. In Germany (where it is the second largest rail freight operator) FS is present with lTX Logistik freight transport and with regional transport with Netinera Deutschland, whereas in the Netherlands it operates Qbuzz, the third largest operator of local public transport in the country.
"We have a lot of ideas in the oppipeline”
In a recent interview Carlo Palasciano, chief international officer of the FS Group, outlined the European future of the Frecciarossa. "We have a lot of ideas in the pipeline. We want to use our Frecciarossa 1000 to connect major European capitals, and we are studying how to create new routes. Our objectives are very well defined and we are confident that in the coming months we will have even clearer ideas.”
Paris will be an important hub
One of the prime projects in the pipeline is France. “Certainly the Paris-Lyon line, also in function of what will then be the start of the new tunnel that will connect Italy and France with high speed, the famous TAV. Then we want to focus on Paris which has an enviable position geographically-speaking. We want to start our trains from Paris in various European directions. For the development of the high-speed network at a European level, the role of the stations is also very important. They must be increasingly dedicated to highspeed services, as is already the case in Spain, in order to manage other than commuter traffic and other solutions.”
A 25% market share in Spain
Palasciano recalls the launch in 2021 of the Paris-Milan Frecciarossa, “now suspended due to the interruption of the Frejus tunnel. However, the service should resume in the autumn. In Spain we arrived in November 2022, and in 2023 we became an important player in a market where there are now four operators. In Spain our market share is 25% and, more importantly, we get high customer. satisfaction. The figures from our last annual report speak for themselves: the turnover of FS's foreign activities have increased by 30%, thanks mainly to the launch of high-speed trains in France and Spain and the development of logistics in the Central European market integrated with Italy."
