FERROVIE DELLO STATO READY FOR THE COMPETITION IN EUROPE
Italy’s biggest company, the Ferrovie dello Stato railway group, is ready to compete in the domestic and in the European market. Despite the heavy deficit recorded at the end of 2006 and the further difficulties caused by the global crisis, the FS Group put budgetary reforms in place and launched the High Speed system in Italy over a short period and ahead of forecasts. Ferrovie dello Stato has implemented a real revolution in mobility, laying the foundations to re-launch regional transport and to improve the quality of services at the same time.
In fact, what has been defined as ‘Italy’s fast underground’ — 1,000 km of dedicated line on a total network of more than 16,700 km — has made it possible to specialise services, taking the pressure off the historical line and bringing benefits to the entire railway system, including metropolitan and freight traffic. High Speed railway connects the main Italian cities and crosses an area where 65 per cent of the transport demand is concentrated; it has changed Italians’ habits as well as moving the country’s social, economic and cultural life forward. The Italian HS railway success is also due to unquestionably competitive travelling times: 37 minutes from Bologna to Florence across the Apennines; 65 minutes from Bologna to Milan and one hour from Milan to Turin. The Frecciarossa Fast trains (Rome to Milan non-stop), which cover the distance between Roma Tiburtina and Milano Rogoredo in 2 hours and 45 minutes and accompany passengers into the city centre, provide a series of additional services. With 68 trains running between Rome and Milan every day, HS rail has won the challenge against aeroplane travel, attracting more than 55 per cent of the daily travellers between the two cities.
High Speed rail has turned into a historical turning point for Italy, which hasn’t seen such a clear change since the post-war period. Now, one and a half million people choose the train to travel between Rome and Milan each month; this is 22 per cent more than in 2009, when the monthly average was one million travellers — not to mention the Milan–Naples line, which has shown an impressive 31 per cent increase. This extraordinary record was acknowledged by the World Travel Market in London in November 2009, when it gave Trenitalia the Global Award for moving more than 10 million people in the first 10 months of the year.
Apart from the main Turin–Salerno HS line, other rapid connections have also been inaugurated in the north-east, south and south-west directions with the Frecciargento trains to Venice, Verona, Bolzano, Bari and Lamezia Terme. This is additional to all Trenitalia’s specials and low-cost offers that have made the High Speed service accessible to everyone.
High Speed rail also means increasingly eco-sustainable transport. The sharp increase in passengers registered up until now has helped tip the scales of transport quotas in favour of the railways to the benefit of the environment and the climate: the constant increase in travellers is also translated into carbon-emission savings of an estimated 30,000 tonnes per year.
The commitment of Ferrovie dello Stato to build up Italian mobility through the opportunities provided by the High Speed line also comprises the construction of new stations in Turin (Porta Susa), Rome (Tiburtina), Naples (Afragola) and Bologna. World-famous, international contract-winning architects have designed the first three, and they will become true third-millennium railway hubs to be ready in 2011, whereas in Bologna, the historical station will be fully renovated and a new underground station for fast trains will be built in 2012. When the HS stations are operating in the city centres journey times will be reduced even further, so Italians will be able to travel even more easily between the main cities in Italy in a day.
These are important results for the group, headed by Mauro Moretti, current Chairman of CER and Vice-Chairman of UIC, in addition to improved safety and punctuality. In the last two decades, with the introduction of increasingly high-performance technologies, there has been a steady reduction in the number of accidents classified by the UIC as ‘typical’, and between 2006 and 2009 they fell by a massive 63 per cent. With regard to punctuality and customer satisfaction, at the moment 93.4 per cent of passengers declare that they are happy with the HS service and satisfaction rises to 95.3 per cent for HS Fast rail.
Another important goal was also achieved in 2010: a contract worth more than €1.5bn for the construction of 50 very fast, new-generation trains. Mauro Moretti says the new very high-speed train will be “the most beautiful and the most modern on the market with exceptional features — outclassing even the ultra-technological Japanese train sets”. The new HS train can exceed speeds of 400km/hr and will travel at 360km/hr on the Italian network, guaranteeing transmission of the same stresses and acceleration as they have at 300km/hr. With the upcoming liberalisation of the railway system, the new supertrain will allow Ferrovie dello Stato to renew the Italian fleet to handle domestic competition and to make competitive inroads into the European markets. We hope that the European legislative framework for passenger transport, as already indicated by the EU itself, can actually be converted into regulations that are certain and the same for all operators so as to guarantee a truly competitive market.
