Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), the Italian public railway operatorplans to launch a high-speed line linking a large part of Europe. Initially, the line would start at the axis occupied by Thalys/Eurostar, in this case Paris/Brussels/Amsterdam. Eventually, the possibility of integrating a service in both Barcelona and Berlin.
Carlo Palasciano Villamagna, International Director of FSrecently reported in the Financial Times about a project for a link between Paris and Barcelona. And it plans to launch the Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris route.
FS is benefiting from the increased competition rules on high-speed lines adopted by the EU in 2019. And from the Dutch government's intention to open up international rail routes to competition from 2025 onwards. The first routes are from the Netherlands to London, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin.
In his interview with the FT, Carlo Palsciano Villamagna indicated that the Amsterdam-Brussels route is very popular. In fact, this route will continue to grow. Dutch railways NS and SNCB plan to double the number of trains on this route by 2025..
NS states that the two companies will jointly operate up to 32 trains a day instead of the current 16. From 2025, half of these trains will leave fromAmsterdam Zuid, instead of Amsterdam Centraal. This will cut journey times by 45 minutes.
Whereas Trenitalia is also studying the launch of a Paris-Barcelona route, FS's international director is considering a different positioning to that of his competitors. In particular, by linking Amsterdam-Brussels-Paris with its future Paris-Barcelona link.. " Why not continue from Paris eastwards, i.e. from Brussels to Amsterdam? Trenitalia could even extend it to Berlin." he explained.
