Trenitalia is continuing its European expansion. The Italian company, a subsidiary of the FS (Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane) group, has started test runs of its Frecciarossa high-speed trains on the Rome–Munich and Milan–Munich lines. Commercial launch for these routes is scheduled for summer 2027, as soon as all authorisations and certifications have been obtained. Four daily return services are planned for this project, which is being carried out in partnership with Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Austrian railways, ÖBB.
As they have to cross Austria, these long-distance services will take 6 hours 30 minutes and 8 hours 30 minutes respectively, with stops at the stations of Florence and Bologne (for the line serving Rome), followed by Brescia, Verona, Rovereto, Trento, Bolzano and Innsbruck. Journey times are expected to fall by a good hour once the works in the Brenner tunnel between Italy and Austria are completed.
From December 2028, Trenitalia and DB have committed to facilitating connections, towards Naples on a Frecciarossa on the one hand, and to Berlin and Frankfurt on the other on an ICE3. Krakow in Poland is also being considered. «The start of dynamic testing in Germany and Austria represents an additional step in this project, confirming our ambition to make high-speed rail the benchmark for transport across Europe », said Gianpiero Strisciuglio, the CEO of FS Group, in a press release.
Interoperable high-speed trains on the European network
The new Frecciarossa trains have been designed to support Trenitalia's international expansion policy. These trainsets can indeed run on the various European rail networks, in France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, where Trenitalia already operates under the Iryo brand. The company recently announced an order for 19 trains from Hitachi Rail to compete with Eurostar from 2029 on its cross-Channel routes between London and Paris. This is an investment estimated at around €2 billion. Launched in France at the end of 2021, Trenitalia stated that it had passed the milestone of 6 million passengers carried in mid-August. However, its cumulative losses since this launch are said to be around €150m.
