Il Group Fs think big: Italian arrows whizzing between the main ones European cities. To offer an in-depth look at the international ambitions of the Group led by the managing director Luigi Ferraris, the Financial Times. In its online edition, it offers excerpts from a long conversation with the Chief International Officer of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Charles Palasciano in which projects and objectives of the Group are explored, which intends to offer more and more high-speed connections between large European cities such as Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and even Berlin, taking advantage of the liberalization of the European railway system which started in 2019.
Ferraris (ad Fs): "200 billion investments in Italy are a priority"
A vision that emerged in the ten-year Industrial Plan of the FS Group and repeatedly reaffirmed also by the CEO Ferraris, who underlined the Group's objective "to triple its international turnover, going from approximately 1,8 billion current euro at over 5”. All of this placing Italy and the renewal of its infrastructures at the centre. “Our Business Plan, which reaches 2032, has among its main objectives the grounding of 200 billion in investments180 of which to upgrade and modernize the country's railway and road infrastructures”, explained Ferraris, commenting on the British newspaper's interest in the international strategies of FS.
Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin: the new routes being studied by FS
In the international field, Ferrovie dello Stato certainly does not start from scratch. “Our Frecciarossa in Europe – remarked Ferraris – is traveling with very high occupancy rates, and in a few years it will also be able to quickly connect Milan with Monaco, in collaboration with the Germans of DB, but other routes are also conceivable as of today. This commitment and positive impetus of the FS Group in Europe are also demonstrated by the results achieved in recent weeks, with the winning of new local transport concessions in Germany, in the land of Leipzig, with our Netinera or in the Netherlands, on road, with Qbuzz buses”.
Among new routes there could also be there Brussels-Amsterdam. Currently the route is offered by only one company, Eurostar. “It could be interesting, Palasciano confirmed to the Ft. The goal is always the same: to make the train a more attractive option for passengers also for connecting the major European capitals, thus developing a mobility sectors increasingly planet.