Trenitalia arrives in Spain. The ILSA consortium, made up of Trenitalia and Air Nostrum, signed the Framework Agreement with ADIF, the Spanish Railway Infrastructure Manager.
After the award that took place last November 27, 2019 and the go-ahead from the Spanish Market and Competition Authority, the signature finally arrives to start up the HS connections in Spain, with duration of ten years.
The affected sections will be the main lines of the Spanish network, with 32 daily connections: 16 in each direction for Madrid-Barcelona, 8 for the route Madrid-Valencia and 7 will be the ones between Madrid-Malaga/Seville. Instead, the route Madrid-Alicante, will include 4 daily connections, probably increased in the summer seasons.
There will also be two other operators to face the Italian company: the Spanish one Renfe Travelers and the French Rielsfera (Snfc Group).
In reality, the signing was supposed to take place on April 13, but due to the doubts of theSpanish Antitrust (CNMC) on Renfe, the manager has decided to postpone the signing also for the other two railway companies, so as to close the framework contracts at the same time.
In the end, the Iberian company justified the investment of 1 billion euros in the operations, and the National Commission of Markets and Competition decided to grant the ten-year contract also to the Spanish company.
This agreement assumes great importance in the processes of opening up the railway market, with which ADIF strengthens its market commitment to a single European railway area: open to competition, transparent and non-discriminatory.
As regards the works, the pandemic has caused a certain delay, so much so that Spain and France will not start their services before the end of 2021, while for Trenitalia, commercial service is expected to start in 2022.
In this Spanish challenge, Trenitalia has decided to field the most modern train in its fleet: the Frecciarossa 1000, the fastest in Europe. First high-speed train to have obtained environmental impact certification (Epd), made with renewable and recyclable materials, with water and electricity consumption reduced by almost 100%.
With an acceleration from 0 to 300km/h in 4 minutes, acoustic soundproofing, where every single detail has been designed to reduce aerodynamic resistance, the Frecciarossa 1000 represents the spearhead of the Italian railways.
The FS Group is already present in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Greece. The arrival in Spain demonstrates, once again, the quality and excellence of Made in Italy.
