High-speed rail in Italy
High-speed rail in Italy consists of two lines connecting most of the country's major cities. The first line connects Turin to Salerno via Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, the second runs from Turin to Venice via Milan, and is under construction in parts.
Trains are operated with a top speed of.
Passenger service is provided by Trenitalia and, since April 2012, by NTV, the world's first private open-access operator of high-speed rail to compete with a state-owned monopoly.
25 million passengers traveled on the network in 2011.
In 2015, ridership increased to 55 million for Trenitalia and 9.1 million for NTV, for a combined 64 million passengers.
History
The first high-speed rail route in Italy, the Direttissima, opened in 1977, connecting Rome with Florence. The top speed on the line was, giving an end-to-end journey time of about 90 minutes with an average speed of. This line used a 3 kV DC supply.High-speed service was introduced on the Rome-Milan line in 1988-89 with the ETR 450 Pendolino train, with a top speed of 250 km/h and cutting travel times from about 5 hours to 4.
The prototype train ETR X 500 was the first Italian train to reach on the Direttissima on 25 May 1989.
The Italian high-speed rail projects suffered from a number of cost overruns and delays. Corruption and unethical behaviour played a key role.
In November 2018, the first high-speed freight rail in the world commenced service in Italy. The ETR 500 Mercitalia Fast train carries freight between Caserta and Bologna in 3 hours and 30 minutes, at an average speed of.
Rolling stock
Service on the high speed lines is provided by Trenitalia and privately owned NTV. Several types of high-speed trains carry out the service:- AGV 575: non tilting, it can reach and has a operational speed of up to, operated by NTV as Italo;
- ETR 500: non-tilting, operational speeds up to, operated by Trenitalia as the Frecciarossa;
- ETR 1000: non tilting, operated by Trenitalia as the Frecciarossa, it can reach and has operational speed of.
- ETR 485, tilting, speeds up to, operated by Trenitalia as the Frecciargento. It operates mainly on traditional lines;
- ETR 600, tilting, speeds up to, operated by Trenitalia as the Frecciargento. It operates mainly on traditional lines;
- ETR 610: tilting, speeds up to, operated by Trenitalia on services between Italy and Switzerland;
- ETR 675: non-tilting, operated by NTV as Italo;
- ETR 700: non tilting, speeds up to, operated by Trenitalia as Frecciargento.
Along with the development of ETR 1000 by AnsaldoBreda and Bombardier Transportation, with Rete Ferroviaria Italiana working on the necessary updates to allow trains to speed up to. On 28 May 2018, the Ministry for Infrastructures and Transportation and the National Association for Railway Safety decided not to run the 385 km/h tests required to allow commercial operation at 350 km/h, thus limiting the maximum commercial speed on the existing Italian high-speed lines to 300 km/h and cancelling the project.
TGV trains also run on the Paris-Turin-Milan service, but do not use any high-speed line in Italy.
Network
The following high-speed rail lines are in use.The table shows minimum and maximum travel times.
| Bologna | Florence | Milan | Naples | Rome | Turin | |
| Bologna | - | 0:35 | 0:53 | 3:15 | 1:54 | 2:02 |
| Florence | 0:35 | - | 1:31 | 2:31 | 1:18 | 2:38 |
| Milan | 0:53 | 1:31 | - | 3:50 | 2:40 | 0:44 |
| Naples | 3:15 | 2:31 | 3:50 | - | 1:08 | 5:00 |
| Rome | 1:54 | 1:18 | 2:40 | 1:08 | - | 3:48 |
| Turin | 2:02 | 2:38 | 0:44 | 5:00 | 3:48 | - |
Milan to Salerno Corridor
The Milan to Salerno is the major north-south corridor of the high-speed network.The Milan–Bologna segment opened on 13 December 2008. Its construction cost was about 6.9 billion euro. The line runs parallel to the Autostrada del Sole, crossing seven provinces and 32 municipalities. There are eight connections with historic lines. At the Reggio Emilia interconnection a new station designed by the Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava was opened in June 2013. Calatrava has also designed a signature bridge where the line crosses the A1 motorway. The line travels through a new multi-level station at Bologna designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki.
AV in the Milan railway station. The version ETR 500 Y1 achieved 362 km/h on the Bologna-Florence line on 4 February 2009, a new world speed record in a tunnel.
The Bologna–Florence segment opened on 12 December 2009, allowing a 37-minute journey between the two cities. The Bologna-Florence high-speed section was particularly complex to build mainly because about 93% of its runs through tunnels under the Apennines range. The line has nine tunnels, from 600 meters to long, separated by short surface stretches. Florence will have a major new multi-level high speed station at Belfiore designed by British architect Norman Foster.
The Florence–Rome segment consists of the older "Direttissima" line between the two cities, with a length of. The first high-speed line in Europe, the "Direttissima" was completed in between 1977 and 1986. This segment is being upgraded by Treno Alta Velocità. Entering Rome, high-speed trains have the option of stopping at either the new intermodal station at Tiburtina, developed by architects ABD Associate led by Paolo Desideri, or Termini station.
The Rome-Naples segment heads south from the Italian capital. Service on the first new high speed segment of the project started in December 2005. This line runs through 61 municipalities in two regions and connects with the existing national rail network at Frosinone Nord, Cassino Sud and Caserta Nord. On 13 December 2009 Work was completed on the last 18 km of the line between Gricignano and Napoli Centrale. In the Campania region the line passes through Afragola where a major new transfer station has been built, designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid.
Turin to Trieste Corridor
The Turin to Novara segment of the Turin to Trieste corridor runs for 85 km and opened in February 2006. The Novara to Milan segment opened on 12 December 2009, allowing a 59-minute journey between Milan Centrale and Turin Porta Nuova. The two segments combine for a total of 125 km, 80% of which are in the region of Piemonte and 20% in the region of Lombardy. To minimize its impact on the area, the Turin to Milan segment runs inside the existing infrastructure corridor, next to the A4 Turin-Milan motorway.The Milan to Venice segment includes stretches from Padova to Mestre and Milan to Brescia now in service. Priority sections of track are under construction.
Ports and Trans European Connections
A new line connecting Milan to the port of Genoa is now in development and further expansion of the trans-Alpine lines will integrate the Italian network into the European networks planned by the EU and the large intermodal pan-European transport corridors.The objective of the new Alpine rail links is to increase rail transport, aimed mainly at supporting the forecast development of freight transport on international lines, complete interoperability between European High Speed networks, the shift from road to rail of a large percentage of freight for modal rebalancing, higher safety levels in tunnels as specified in the new European technology and construction standards.
Planned engineering works include the construction of new international lines and the upgrading of existing Italian track on the following lines:
- Frejus
- Gotthard
- Simplon
- Brenner
- Tarvisio - Semmering
- Eastern Pass Valico Orientale
Future lines
- Milan-Venice: the remaining portion from Brescia to Padova is under construction at a cost of €2.5 billion, while the rest of the line is already in operation. High speed trains currently use the conventional line between Brescia and Padova. Construction should finish in 2026, including a 7.7 kilometer tunnel between Lonato del Garda and Desenzano del Garda.
- Milan-Genoa: the project was approved in 2006 at €6.2 billion; construction work started in 2011. Work between Genoa and Tortona was temporarily halted due to funding problems, but restarted in 2019 and now is expected to be completed by 2023.
- Turin-Lyon: the Turin-Lyon line should connect Turin, Lyon and Chambéry, and join the Italian and the French high speed rail networks. It would take over the role of the current Fréjus railway. The project costs €26 billion, with the 57.5 kilometer trans-alpine tunnel between Italy and France costing €18.3 billion. Although the plan was highly controversial, the Italian senate approved funding in mid-2019, with the project tentatively due to be completed in 2029.
- Milan-Chiasso: a route connecting the Italian high-speed rail network to Switzerland and Germany is conceived through a Swiss project NRLA, which includes the Gotthard Base Tunnel and the Lötschberg Base Tunnel.
- Brenner Base Tunnel: the Brenner Base Tunnel will link Verona, Innsbruck, and Munich, and thus connect the Italian, Austrian and German railways. The Brenner tunnel is the most important link in a series of projects that will create a single connection from Berlin in Germany to Palermo in Sicily as part of the Trans-European Transport Networks. In December 2008, Antonio Tajani, the European commissioner for transport, approved funds totalling €1.7 billion to finance 11 railway projects that together should establish two major north-south routes across the European continent. As of 2020, the half the tunnel's length has been excavated and is due for freight and passenger use by 2028.
- Trieste-Ljubljana: a connection with Ljubljana would encourage rail development into Eastern Europe and link the Slovenian Pendolino and Italian TAV networks. Currently the circuitous route takes 2:42 hours compared to 1:10 by car; two passenger trains are scheduled each way daily.
- Naples-Bari: the construction began in 2015 and the route will cut Rome-Bari journeys from 3h59m to 3h00m. Totaling €6.2 billion for the whole project, the final €2.1 billion needed to complete the project was approved in 2019, and completion of the line is projected for 2022.