THEHigh Speed in France it is always more Italian company. Yesterday Trenitalia, part of the Italian State Railways group, made the first high-speed connection in completely French territory with a Frecciarossa 1000 train that traveled between Paris and Lyon. After the debut of last December 18 with the Milan-Paris service – with which Trenitalia became the first Italian railway operator to enter the French high-speed market by virtue of the railway liberalization decided by the European Union – the connection between Paris and Lyon is another step forward for transalpine and continental transport and naturally for the Italian Railways.
The debut of the Frecciarossa in exclusively French territory
The Frecciarossa 1000 departed yesterday at 17.11 from the Lyon Perrache station and, after the stop at Lyon Part Dieu, reached Paris Gare de Lyon.
Now the leaders of the Fs need Trenitalia (which has entrusted the launch of the HS in France to the subsidiary Trenitalia France) hope to repeat the success of the Milan-Paris service, which was the first stop for exporting the experience and know-how of Made in Italy across the Alps. In the three and a half months since its debut on December 18, around 150 travelers boarded the Frecciarossa between the Lombard capital and the French capital and vice versa, with an average seat occupancy rate of 87 percent.
To cheer up passengers using the Italian high-speed train on French territory, the railways have distributed the free magazine La Freccia Sans Frontieres, the bilingual edition of the Freccia.
