First Italy, then Europe and finally the world. After having revolutionized the mobility and life of Italians by transporting 10 million people on its trains from one part of the country to another in 350 years, for some years the high-speed Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane is conquering Europe and it is also growing outside and beyond the Old Continent. Maybe we don't fully realize it but that's how it is.
The internationalization of the Italian railways is not an advertising slogan or a vague illusion but it is reality. From Spain to the United Kingdom, from Germany to France and the Netherlands, the tricolor runs along the tracks of Europe and exports the excellence of high-speed rail.
The qualitative leap made in recent years on the European railway market by FS and high-speed trains is impressive. Today's picture of the Italian railway presence in Europe tells of a growth that was not even imaginable up to 10 years ago.
Today FS Italiane is present in the UK both with Avanti West Coast, a franchise of Trenitalia (30%) and FirstGroup (70%) – which includes the services of the famous London-Edinburgh/Glasgow line thanks to a contract that runs from 2019 to 2031- and with Trenitalia c2c which manages passenger services from London to Shoeburyness (Essex). Also check in Germany both Netinera (passengers) and TX Logistix (freight), which mainly serves the markets of Northern Europe and is present in France with Thello (which guarantees Italy-France international connections), in Greece with TrainOSE and in Holland with Qbuzz, which operates in local public transport.
But the news comes mainly from Spain where from 2022 twenty-three Frecciarossa 1000 trains, entirely built in Italy, will whiz along the high-speed Spanish tracks. The construction of these trains (with an 800 million euro contract) will take place in Italy, with employment effects on the factories in Vado Ligure (Savona) for Bombardier and in Pistoia, Reggio Calabria and Naples for Hitachi. Once built, the trains will be managed by the ILSA consortium, made up of Trenitalia (which holds 45%) and Air Nostrum (55%) and selected by ADIF (the Spanish railway infrastructure manager) as the first private operator authorized to Iberian market for the Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Valencia/Alicante and Madrid-Malaga/Seville high-speed services on the basis of a ten-year contract.
The satisfaction of the managing director and general manager of the FS Italiane Group is understandable, Gianfranco Battisti, who comments: “We are proud to make available in Spain the know-how developed in 10 years of high speed with 350 million passengers transported in Italy, unique in Europe in a competitive market. Furthermore, the trains, built in Italy, will guarantee a strong economic and employment spin-off for the country's industrial sector".
With Trenitalia, Fs Italiane essentially intends to consolidate its leadership in rail transport in Europe, now considered as a reference domestic market, in view of the liberalization of the European market with the Fourth Railway Package, which will start in December 2020, exporting the excellence and leadership of Italian High Speed.
But the Group led by Battisti is now looking beyond Europe and aims to export on non-EU markets best practices in the fields of railway engineering and technology also through partnerships with private operators.
India, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa these are the non-EU markets in which FS Italiane is currently present. In India, with the subsidiary Italferr and in partnership with the Spanish Typs, FS Italiane was awarded the design and works supervision activities of the Kampur and Agra metro lines, two of the major industrial cities in the North of India, thanks to a five-year contract worth over 43 million euros which provides for the design of four corridors (for a total length of over 62 km) between Kampur and Agra which will include 57 stations and 4 depots.
In Colombia on the other hand, again with Italferr, FS Italiane was awarded the supervision of the works of Line 1 of the Bogotà metro in a consortium with other international companies for a value of over 50 million euro.
In Saudi Arabia the Italian railway group will manage the Operation & Maintenance services of the Riyadh metro for 12 years as well as the same services in Thailand for the high-speed line that will connect the three main airports in the country.
Finally in South Africa FS Italiane is a 35% partner of the consortium that was awarded the Tambo Springs project for the Operation & Maintenance of the country's intermodal centre.
A range of initiatives and projects which thus makes internationalization one of the distinguishing features of the new season of the Italian State Railways.
