Trenitalia offers national rail transport in Italy and international connections to
Austria,
France,
Germany, and
Switzerland.
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 discount schemes available for non-residents of Italy on regional trains. 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.
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 – long distance services up to 200 km/h using regular coaches •
InterCity Notte – long distance night trains
High-speed rail (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 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.
International passenger services Current •
Iryo, a high-speed operator in Spain owned by Trenitalia and
Air Nostrum, 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. 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 service between Paris and Milan, using
Frecciarossa 1000 trains. Two trains a day run from
Gare de Lyon and
Milano Centrale in each direction with intermediate stops at
Lyon Part-Dieu,
Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux and
Modane in France and
Torino Porta Susa in Italy.
Former •
Artésia was a company jointly owned by Trenitalia and
SNCF, operating trains between France and Italy. It ceased operating in November 2011 after
SNCF purchased a stake in
Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori. •
Thello was a private railway service formed as a
joint venture with
Transdev. In September 2016, Trenitalia bought out Transdev's 33% shareholding. It operated night trains between Paris
Gare de Lyon and
Venezia Santa Lucia railway station 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 (DfT) to run train operating company
c2c from
National Express which has a contract to operate the
Essex Thameside franchise until November 2029. In the same month it took a 30% stake in a joint venture with
FirstGroup, named First Trenitalia, that was later shortlisted to bid for the
East Midlands Railway and
West Coast Partnership franchises. 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. 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==