How would you assess Trenitalia's arrival in France?
Roberto Rinaudo - The results have been very positive, even though we have had to we concentrate on Paris-Lyon due to landslides at the end of August in the Maurienne valley, which caused the service to Milan suspended until June 2024. Our fillings were over 80% on the Paris-Milan and are greater than 65% on the Paris-Lyonwhich is constantly increasing. All this with 95% of satisfied customers, particularly business travellers who have a choice on board the trains between Executive, Business, Sala Meeting and Standard, our 2nd class. They appreciate the presence of electrical sockets and ports. USBthe wifi and the existence of a portal providing access to films, videos or newspapers. It also allows you to order and be served a meal instead in Business or Standard class [this service is included in Executive class]. In the end, our arrival has enabled us to increase our offer, lower prices and improve the quality of the service we provide. La competition stimulates growth because the SNCF also recorded good results on these two routes.
What are Trenitalia's ambitions?
Roberto Rinaudo - Trenitalia hopes to increase services on the Paris-Lyon route but we need theauthorisation from SNCF Réseauthe infrastructure manager. The aim is then to expand onto the high-speed network in France and Europe, towards Belgium and the Netherlands for example. Economic and technical studies are under way to identify the next openings, the availability of train paths, the stations served, etc. Announcements are expected in the coming months.
What is the biggest obstacle to opening up competition in France?
Roberto Rinaudo - This is unquestionably the cost of rail tolls which is, for example, four times more expensive on the Paris-Lyon route than on the Milan-Rome route. In this case, the cost of the infrastructure is borne by the airlines, whereas it is partly covered by the State in France. Italy. This complicates the business model and forces new operators to position themselves on the most profitable routes. We need to find the right equation to reduce tolls by around 20% while managing to make up the difference for SNCF Réseau, which is responsible for track maintenance. In my opinion, the solution would be to lower ticket prices which would lead to increase in volumes by a stimulation of the request travel. It's this virtuous model that works in Italy where tolls were lowered by 38% in 2015 on the high-speed network. This was followed by an increase in sales thanks to a fall of more than 30% in fares. This model obviously involvesincrease traffic capacity on TGV lines and to have enough trains to implement this volume policy. It's a long process, but in my opinion it's the right one. inevitable in France. And that will benefit travellers. Then there is the cost of energy, which last winter rose from €112 to €473 per megawatt-hour. To lower the bill, Trenitalia has signed up with a new energy supplier, Endesa [a subsidiary of Italy's Enel], as it is no longer obliged to use SNCF Réseau's services in this area. Here again, it's a good thing to have competition at a time when electricity prices are rising sharply.
