Trenitalia bypasses the French high-speed. After the opening of the market in December 2020, Trenitalia (Italian State Railways group) is the first foreign operator that dares to challenge the French monopolist SNcf, on the domestic market, and its TGV (train a grande vitesse), the fastest train of the French company that has been setting standards for at least 40 years. A historic stage in the evolution of the European railway market which sanctions Italy's debut in the high-speed era, with the spearhead of the FS fleet: the Frecciarossa 1000, built by Hitachi and Bombardier Transportation.
Thanks to the new link Central Milan-Lyon-Paris Gare de Lyon, you can travel beyond the Alps starting from 29 euros. There are 2 Frecciarossa 1000s per day, round-trip, between Milan Central Station and Paris Gare de Lyon with stops in Turin and Lyon Part Dieu from Milan: departure is at 6:25, arriving in Paris at 13:22 pm, and at 15:53 arriving in Paris at 22:25. From Paris the departure is at 7:26, with arrival in Milan at 14:07, and at 15:18 with arrival in Milan at 22:07. The challenge with the TGV is measured in a handful of minutes: just under 7 hours for the Frecciarossa, a little more (from five to 15 minutes difference with the Italian train) for the TGV.
A good success for the Italian company which will subsequently add another 3 Frecciarossa trains a day, round trip, between Paris and Lyon to the offer. In all, Trenitalia will make 10 journeys for almost 5 seats a day between the two French cities.
The Frecciarossa arriving in France offers four levels of service: Executive Comfort Class, Business Comfort Class, Standard Comfort Class, Meeting Roomto work in peace.
Furthermore, the Business and Standard service levels have carriages for different types of travellers: the Silenzio area, for noise-free travel, and the Allegro area for those who want to take advantage of the journey to freely chat with colleagues, friends or family.
Available on board the Wireless fast to navigate for free, the “FRECCE” entertainment portal from which you can access newspapers, magazines, books, games, music and entertainment.
“Next goal to continue with this strategy – he said Louis Corradi, CEO of Trenitalia -. See you less than a year from now, around the end of 2022 and we will unite Madrid and Barcelona." After the debut in France, this is the next goal that Trenitalia has set itself, with the victory in 2019 for the management of some sections in Iberian territory. “Let's say that for us it is not important to have broken a monopoly or not but to have created a train that is truly a European train, in fact we start in France but then in the future we will go to Austria, Germany, we will see”, concluded Corradi.