The Frejus railway tunnel, closed since the end of August 2023 due to a landslide, should reopen between 15 and 30 March 2025, restarting high-speed train traffic between France and Italy. The market challenge
The Milan-Paris journey will restart with Trenitalia from April 2025. The Frejus railway tunnelclosed since the end of August 2023 due to a landslide on the French side, kept the Turin-Lyon line blocked for a year and a half. But between 15 and 30 March 2025 it should reopen, restarting high-speed train traffic between France and Italy. And therefore Trenitalia, which tested the Milan-Paris route from December 2021 until the closure of the tunnel (with an enviable average occupancy rate on French routes of 83% and one million passengers in the first year), is preparing to resume train services which currently stop at ten trips a day on the Paris-Lyon route (here is the reportage on board the train from Corriere della Sera) – 5 in one direction, 5 in another – and will continue in the season winter up to Chambery, a tourist destination. You will need the technical time to be assigned the tracks by the manager.
Railway liberalization
Wonders of railway liberalization. The era of total competition on high speed is approaching, considering that also the French SNCF have decided to enter the Italian market from 2027 having just signed a 15-year framework agreement with RFIthe infrastructure manager in Italy. And Paris-Milan was already operating, like Trenitalia. The former monopolists therefore resume their moves to protect their market share. Above all, actions to attack those abroad are resumed. The French Sncf have already made it clear that they want to strengthen the service from Paris (via Turin) to Milan: realistically from April 2025 it will go from the previous 2-3 trips a day to 5-6 a day, as soon as the tunnel reopens .
The nomination
The French, confirming their desire to push on the Italian market, have just appointed Caroline Chabrol at the helm of Sncf Voyages Italia, branch of the transalpine railway group. Its role will be to contribute to the development of the high-speed offer with the new latest generation TGV M trains. The top manager, as a first initiative, decided to launch a recruitment campaign aimed at all professional figures. In support of this initiative, the new company website has just been launched, through which it is looking for train drivers, train conductors, controllers, but also staff for the administrative offices (the headquarters are in Milan).
The new strategy
Italy represents a fundamental market, with over 56 million passengers transported by high speed every year. Sncf's objective is to reach a market share of 15% by 2030.. Serving Turin, Milan, Brescia, Verona, Padua, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples. With the possibility of expanding the offer by covering southern Italy, as soon as the infrastructure allows it. It is testimony to the quality of our high-speed competitive model.
The push for foreign expansion
It is the result of a technological revolution for operators, also for the acceptance tests on the networks which go in the direction of total interoperability pushed by the EU Commission. Competition here has been a reality for several years and has ended up exponentially increasing passenger demand. Trenitalia is already a European player. It already operates in England (also on the London-Edinburgh route), in Germany with the subsidiary Netinera in commuter transport, in Greece and in Spain from November 2022 with the Madrid-Zaragoza-Barcelona, Valencia and Cuenca routes.
December 23, 2024 (changed December 23, 2024 | 09:14)
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
