Trenitalia SpA is the primary train operator of Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the

Italian government The government of Italy is that of a democratic republic, established by the Italian constitution in 1948. It consists of Legislature, legislative, Executive (government), executive, and Judiciary, judicial subdivisions, as well as of a head of ...

. It was established in 2000 following a

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

directive on the

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

of rail transport. In a comparative study by the European umbrella organization Transport & Environment (T&E), Trenitalia 2024 achieved the best result of 27 companies. The criteria were reliability, booking, amenities on board and taking bikes on medium and long-distance connections.

History

The Italian government formed Trenitalia to comply with

regulations. The

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

's First Railway Directive from 1991 (91/440/EC) required separation of accounting between entities which manage the rail infrastructure and entities which provide the actual rail transportation. On 1 June 2000, therefore, Italy created Trenitalia as the primary rail transportation company and on 1 July 2001 established

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) is the Italian railway infrastructure manager, subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS), a state-owned holding company. RFI is the owner of Italy's railway network, it provides signalling, maintenance an ...

(RFI) as the company overseeing the rail network. However, the separation was only formal since both are subsidiaries of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane holding and are owned wholly by the government. Trenitalia operated freight rail services under the Trenitalia Cargo brand until 2017, when Mercitalia took over state-owned freight rail and logistics operations. As of July 2014, Adria Ferries has a partnership with Trenitalia wherein tickets can be booked at any train station for onward journey to

Durrës Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the List of cities and towns in Albania#List, second most populous city of the Albania, Republic of Albania and county seat, seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is one of Albania's oldest ...

, at a steeply discounted price with respect to both tickets separately purchased. This is for connections either in Ancona or in Trieste, and continues the historical link between the Via Appia Traiana and the

Via Egnatia The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a contin ...

.Adria Ferries presenta la più grande nave per l’Albania e l’accordo con Trenitalia
/ref>

Passenger transport

Trenitalia offers national rail transport in Italy and international connections to

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The company operates both regional and long-distance trains.

Regional trains

Regional trains travel within an Italian region or between neighbouring Italian regions, and are subsidized by local government at the regional level by "Contratto di servizio". Regional trains stop at more stations than other long-distance trains, and some stop at all stations. ''Regionale veloce'' (fast regional train) are trains stopping at about half of the stations. There are no reservations for regional trains, and for this reason, there is no price advantage to acquiring regional tickets in advance online. Once bought, tickets for regional trains have to be validated at the station before departure. "Validation" in this case means placing a date/time stamp on the ticket by inserting it into a (usually) green and white machine either in the station or along the track. This is because regional tickets are not for a particular date or time but are valid for a period (two months for tickets bought before 1 August 2016). The date/time stamp is to show that the ticket cannot be reused. From 1 August 2016, tickets are valid for the 24 hours chosen by online buyers; the date of use can be changed until the previous 24 hours of the later date. The date of use can be anticipated until the 24 hours following this adjusting operation. The omission about the period of use at paper shops will involve a one-way daily ticket issue. This change aims to hinder fare evasion. There are no discount schemes available for non-residents of Italy on regional trains.

Long-distance trains and high-speed trains

Trenitalia's long-distance trains are mainly of two types, the high-speed ''Frecce'' ("Arrows") trainsets and the semi-fast classic ''InterCity'' trains with the following brands being used as of 2024: * Frecciarossa - long distance high-speed services up to 300 km/h * Frecciargento - long distance high-speed services up to 250 km/h * Frecciabianca - long distance services up to 200 km/h *

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...

- long distance services up to 200 km/h using regular coaches * InterCity Notte - long distance night trains

High-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport network utilising trains that run significantly faster than those of traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated railway track, tracks. While there is ...

(managed by RFI) service in Italy commenced in 2008 with about of new track on the Turin-Milan-Bologna-Rome-Naples-Salerno route that allow trains to reach speeds over , although current maximum commercial speed is . There are currently four generations of ElettroTreno in service on the network. Trenitalia ordered 50 high-speed trainsets in 2010. The new trains are the

ETR 1000 The Frecciarossa 1000 is a High-speed rail, high-speed train operated by Italian state railway operator Trenitalia and the private Spanish high-speed rail operator Iryo. It was co-developed as a joint venture between Italian rail manufacturer Hit ...

series. They are long, non-articulated trains, with distributed traction, and capable of up to operation, although current service plans are limited to . Mauro Moretti, at the time chief executive of FS group, said FS was considering long-distance international services to France, Germany, or even Spain and the United Kingdom. The trains entered service on the Italian high-speed network in 2015.

International passenger services

Current

Iryo Iryo is the brand of ''Intermodalidad de Levante S.A.'' (ILSA), a private high-speed rail operator in Spain. The company is jointly owned by the Italian state-owned railway company Trenitalia (51%), the Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum (25%), ...

, a high-speed operator in Spain owned by Trenitalia and

Air Nostrum Air Nostrum (doing business as Iberia Regional) is a Spanish regional airline based in Valencia that merged with CityJet in 2023, forming the region's largest aviation holding company, Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines (SARA). An affiliate ...

, as part of the ILSA consortium. ILSA was selected by ADIF, the company that runs Spanish rail infrastructure, as the first private operator to be granted access to the Spanish rail market. The Trenitalia consortium will run high-speed services on the Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Valencia/Alicante and Madrid-Malaga/Seville lines, branded as IRYO. Services will start running in January 2022. The service contract will have a duration of 10 years. The ILSA consortium will offer 32 daily links with a fleet of 23 trains. * TILO: 50% owned by Trenord (formerly these shares were owned by Trenitalia), 50% owned by the

Swiss Federal Railways Swiss Federal Railways (, SBB; , CFF; , FFS) is the national railway company of Switzerland. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Bern. It used to be a State-owned enterprise, government institution, but since 1999 it has be ...

. The company runs the regional services between Italy and Switzerland. The staff all change at the border and are either FS Trenitalia or SBB CFF FFS. Trenitalia operates all fast trains to/from Switzerland in the Italian portion of the route. * Trenitalia France was created in October 2021 by repurposing the former Thello subsidiary. In December 2021, Trenitalia France launched the Milan–Paris Frecciarossa, an

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

service between Paris and Milan, using

Frecciarossa 1000 The Frecciarossa 1000 is a High-speed rail, high-speed train operated by Italian state railway operator Trenitalia and the private Spanish high-speed rail operator Iryo. It was co-developed as a joint venture between Italian rail manufacturer Hit ...

trains. Two trains a day run from

Gare de Lyon The Gare de Lyon, officially Paris Gare de Lyon (), is one of the seven large mainline railway stations in Paris, France. It handles about 148.1 million passengers annually according to the estimates of the SNCF in 2018, with SNCF railways and ...

and

Milano Centrale Milano Centrale () is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Italy, and is the second busiest railway station in Italy for passenger flow (after Roma Termini) and the largest railway station in Europe by volume. The station is a terminu ...

in each direction with intermediate stops at Lyon Part-Dieu, Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux and

Modane Modane (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in southeastern France. The commune is in the Maurienne Valley, and it also belongs to the Vanoise ...

in France and Torino Porta Susa in Italy.

Former

* Artésia was a company jointly owned by Trenitalia and

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

, operating trains between France and Italy. It ceased operating in November 2011 after

purchased a stake in Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori. * Thello was a private railway service formed as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with

Transdev Transdev, formerly Veolia Transdev, is a France-based international private-sector company which operates public transport. It has operations in 17 countries and territories as of November 2020. Transdev was formed on 3 April 2011 via the merg ...

. In September 2016, Trenitalia bought out Transdev's 33% shareholding. It operated night trains between Paris

and

Venezia Santa Lucia railway station Venezia Santa Lucia () is the central station of Venice in the north-east of Italy. It is a terminus and located at the northern edge of Venice's historic city (). The station is one of Venice's two most important railway stations; the other on ...

and daytime trains between

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

via

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

and

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionovernight services between Paris and Venice were suspended in March 2020 due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with the daytime train cut back to run between Nice and Milan. In June 2021, all services were withdrawn, with Trenitalia announcing a focus on high-speed services between the two countries following the pandemic. The withdrawal was criticised, given the reduction in services between Nice and Milan. Thello was renamed Trenitalia France in October 2021.

Operations in the United Kingdom

In January 2017, Trenitalia won a bid from the

Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...

(DfT) to run train operating company c2c from

National Express Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...

which has a contract to operate the

Essex Thameside Essex Thameside is a railway contract, and former franchise, for the provision of passenger services on the London, Tilbury and Southend line in east London and south Essex. It was formed on 26 May 1996, following the privatisation of British Rai ...

franchise until November 2029. In the same month it took a 30% stake in a joint venture with

FirstGroup FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland.East Midlands Railway East Midlands Railway (EMR; legally Transport UK East Midlands Limited) is a British train operating company owned by Transport UK Group, and is the current operator of the East Midlands franchise. Originally owned by Abellio (transport compan ...

and West Coast Partnership franchises.West Coast Partnership and South Eastern rail franchise bidders
Department for Transport 22 June 2017 It was also shortlisted to bid for the South Eastern franchise in its own right. In August 2017, Trenitalia withdrew from the South Eastern contest, citing a desire to concentrate its resources on its bid for the West Coast Partnership. Likewise in April 2018, along with FirstGroup, it withdrew from the East Midlands contest citing the same reason. In August 2019, the First Trenitalia consortium was awarded the West Coast Partnership contract. Avanti West Coast ran its first train between London and Manchester on 8 December.

Tickets

Tickets can be bought online, in the stations or from approximately 4,000

travel agencies A travel agency is a private Retailing, retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related Service (economics), services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel supply chain, suppliers to offer different kin ...

including those outside Italy. It is common for people to buy tickets from the official website after looking up schedules. Since long-distance trains, unlike regional trains, usually require a reservation, it is advantageous to buy tickets in advance. This also gives buyers access to a variety of discount schemes offered by Trenitalia. All "premium" long-distance trains generally share the same discount schemes, even though their fares may differ. Unlike mini fares, which existed before 2012 and required two days of notice, all tickets may be purchased at the last minute if they are still available. All large rail stations have staffed ticket windows and self-service

ticket machine A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartphone. For instance, ...

s for this purpose. Such machines, which either say "Trenitalia" or "Rete Regionale" ("regional network"), differ in the types of payment accepted.

Rolling stock

ETR 400 Roma Tiburtina train station 24 20181231

Fara Sabina - stazione ferroviaria - elettrotreno Trenitalia Rock

Currently, there are several trains that run the Trenitalia service:

Regional trains

Locomotives A locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for longer and heavier freight train ...

Electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

** E.464 * Diesel ** D.445

Coaches

* Carrozze Vicinale a Piano Ribassato * Carrozza MDVC/MDVE * Carrozze UIC-X (''type 1997R'') * Carrozze Vivalto (''NCDP/CDPTR'')

Multiple Units

* Electric ** ALe 582 ** ALe 642 ** ALe 426 (''TAF'') ** ALe 501/502 ''"Minuetto"'' ** ETR 324/425 ''"Jazz"'' ** ETR 563/564 CAF Civity (only used in

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...

) ** ETR 421/521/621 ''"Rock"'' ** ETR 103/104 ''"Pop"'' * Diesel ** ALn 668 ** ALn 663 ** ALn 501/502 ''"Minuetto"'' ** ATR 220 Tr ''"Swing"'' ** ATR 365/465 ''(only used in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

)'' * Hybrid ** BTR 813 "Flirt" (only used in

Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...

) ** HTR 312/412 ''"Blues"''

High-speed trains

ETR 460 The ETR 460 is an electric multiple unit (EMU) tilting train produced by FIAT Ferroviaria (now Alstom Ferroviaria) since 1993. It is also known as the Pendolino after the family of trains from which it comes. The ETR 460 is a development of th ...

ETR 470 ETR 470 ('' ElettroTreno 470'') is a high-speed tilting electric multiple unit, which is now only operated by the Greek company, Hellenic Train. Introduced in September 1996, nine units were built for the Italo-Swiss firm Cisalpino. They w ...

* ETR 485 * ETR 500 * ETR 600 * ETR 610 *

ETR 700 The Trenitalia ETR 700, originally NS Hispeed V250, is a High-speed rail, high-speed train designed by Pininfarina and built by Hitachi Rail Italy, AnsaldoBreda originally for NS International and National Railway Company of Belgium, NMBS/SNCB ...

InterCity

Locomotives A locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for longer and heavier freight train ...

** E.401 ** E.402B ** E.403 ** E.412 ** E.414 ** E.464 ** D.445 * Coaches ** 1° class Gran Confort coach ** 1° and 2° class UIC-Z1 coach ** 1° class

Eurofima coach The Eurofima coach, or European Standard Coach (), is a passenger car (rail), passenger car designed for use on international railway routes in Europe. It was commissioned by the European Company for the Financing of Railroad Rolling Stock (Frenc ...

Criticism

In early 2012, Trenitalia released a web advertisement to promote its change from two classes of train compartments into four classes. Passengers travelling by the fourth class were not permitted to use the on-board cafeteria or enter the carriages reserved for the other three classes. This change alone reportedly caused controversy, but more followed with the release of the accompanying web advertisement. The web advertisement showed only white people seated in the upper three classes, as well as a black family in the fourth. Italian online media observed this and branded the advertisement as "grotesque". Other complaints of racial discrimination followed in UK newspapers, social media and online. Trenitalia withdrew the web commercial and quickly substituted it following the allegations of racism. Since 13 January 2012 the cafeteria is accessible also for passengers of lower classes.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Companies based in Rome Italian brands Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Railway companies established in 2000 Railway companies of Italy Italian companies established in 2000

History

Passenger transport

Regional trains

Long-distance trains and high-speed trains

International passenger services

Current

Former

Operations in the United Kingdom

Tickets

Rolling stock

Regional trains

Locomotives A locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for longer and heavier freight train ...

Coaches

Multiple Units

High-speed trains

InterCity

Criticism

See also

References

External links