Early work During the mid 2000s, Italian state railway operator
Ferrovie dello Stato became increasingly interested in the acquisition of a new very-high-speed train for its Eurostar Alta Velocità Frecciarossa (Eurostar high speed Red Arrow) services along the
Turin-
Milan-
Florence-
Rome-
Naples corridor. Having become aware of this interest, Italian rail manufacturer
AnsaldoBreda and multinational conglomerate
Bombardier Transportation decided to partner up to produce a suitable train in 2008. It was decided to centralise design work by the joint venture at a single location, working out of an office at Bombardier's manufacturing plant at
Hennigsdorf. Other requirements included the train being suitable for a condition-based maintenance programme, while it was capable of being operated across seven different European countries, specifically the railway systems of
Austria,
Belgium, France, Germany,
Netherlands, Spain and
Switzerland. The maximum speed specified by the tender exceeded that of the initial design, thus the design team was reassembled by
AnsaldoBreda's
Pistoia facility for a period of six months to revise the design to comply with the requirements outlaid. Marco Sacchi, Hitachi Rail Italy's head of engineering, attributed the outcome as having been a result of the specially developed solutions involved in the train's design that had gained Trenitalia's favour. The joint venture moved into the detailed design phase immediately following news of the selection. By this point, the train has received its official service designation, the 'Frecciarossa 1000'. On 26 March 2013, the first trainset was unveiled during a public ceremony at the Ansaldo-Breda facilities in
Pistoia; this train was formally named
Pietro Mennea, in memory of the Italian
world record holder of the 200 metres track sprint event from 1979 to 1996, who had died five days earlier.
Into service During June 2015, commercial services using the type commenced, having officially entered service for
Expo 2015. According to Bombardier, following the first three months of service, Trenitalia had reported back to them that they had experienced the easiest introduction of a new train into service in their history with the type, and that it had attained all of its reliability targets. On 26 November 2015, it was reported that one of the ETR 1000-Frecciarossa eight-car sets reached during testing; however, under normal initial conditions, the trains will be limited to as this remains the maximum permitted speed on the Italian high-speed network. On 26 February 2016, a Frecciarossa 1000 reportedly attained a peak speed of while traversing the Torino-Milano high speed line. On 28 May 2018, the Italian
Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport and the
ANSF announced that no further tests will be carried out and the speed limit of will not be raised. After applying for French approval in 2019, Frecciarossa 1000 services between Paris and Milan began in December 2021. == Spain ==