Le French government announced last week that it was issuing a call for tenders in 2020 to allow competition on two railway lines, which will serve as a test: Nantes-Lyon and Nantes-Bordeauxtwo minor lines representing a combined passenger traffic of 1.1 to 1.2 million passengers. Rail competition would then begin in 2022This makes France one of the last major countries in the European Union where there is still no competition on domestic routes.
While the EU has set 2023 l'definitive opening to competition of railway lines with the 4th rail package, some countries have already seized the opportunity to allow competition to become established. The United Kingdom was the first country to do so, at the end of the 1980s, with all the problems associated with a total and brutal deregulation.
On the continent, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the Czech Republic are the countries that are now introducing rail competition. A few days ago, Spain announced a reduction in charges for the use of its high-speed lines in order to encourage the arrival of new operators. This year should see the launch of routes by Intermodalidad de Levante (Ilsa), a subsidiary of the air carrier Air Nostrumwhich would like to launch a TGV line from Montpellier to Barcelona and Barcelona. Madrid via Perpignan. Ilsa is currently in the process of purchasing the trains for this future link, which could be extended in the longer term to Marseille.
But the most interesting model is probably to be found in Italy, which has allowed a second operator to set up on its high-speed lines. Faced with Trenitaliathe national airline, there is now the alternative of Italo. Last year, the company operated 90 trains a day to 20 cities throughout Italy, carrying more than 1,000 passengers in 2018. 17 million passengers compared with 12.8 million in 2017 and just 11.1 million in 2016. Italo, a subsidiary of Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori S.p.A., operates 25 Alstom AGV 575 and 17 Alstom EVO trains.
Italo's arrival has resulted in a substantial improvement in services and train comfort. Today, Italian trains, both Trenitalia's and Italo's, depart and arrive on time. Both companies offer a business class with access to a exhibition in the country's main stations. On board the TGVs, passengers benefit from ergonomic seats with power sockets, in-seat catering and Wi-Fi. Both train companies offer all their services online.
Trenitalia is now tackling the modernisation of its regional services. The national rail carrier has put its Jazz trains on regional routes and continues to open new routes. The latest major regional route is the reopening on 8 September of the Trieste-Ljubljana route in SloveniaThe line had been abandoned for more than ten years. The line had been abandoned for more than ten years. Another new feature for Trenitalia is the possibility from 18 December to take the Freccia Rossa (TGV) directly from the airport of Rome Fiumicino to Florence, Pisa, Bologna, La Spezia, Genoa and Venice, avoiding a transfer at Rome Termini or Tiburtina. At the inauguration on 18 December, Trenitalia's Managing Director, Gianfranco Battisti, said that high-speed trains would also be introduced this year from Rome's La Spezia airport. Milan Malpensa.
