FOLLOWING a preview run on September 26, the first of Trenitalia’s next-generation ETR1000 Frecciarossa high-speed trains entered revenue service on September 28. Italian State Railway (FS) CEO, Stefano Antonio Donnarumma, and Trenitalia CEO, Gianpiero Strisciuglio, were present during a preview trip between Rome and Naples.
A total of 36 ETR1000 trains, representing an investment of €1.3bn, are on order from Hitachi Rail, with the main batch of 30 ordered in November 2023. An option allows Trenitalia to order up to 10 more trains. The operator says it expects to receive 10 trains a year between now and 2029.
The first train was displayed at InnoTrans 2024 last September and has since been undertaking test runs across the Italian high-speed network. The new fleet, which has a design speed of 360km/h, but operates at up to 300km/h in commercial service, is the first built solely by Hitachi. Developed by a joint venture of Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) and AnsaldoBreda (now Hitachi), a total of 58 ETR1000s were delivered to Trenitalia from 2013, first entering service in 2015.
The new 200m-long trains are being manufactured in Italy at Hitachi’s plants in Naples and Pistoia, and although they will be predominantly deployed on the Italian high-speed network, they are being equipped with multiple traction and signalling systems and are certified to operate in France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Earlier this year Trenitalia signed a cooperation agreement with German Rail (DB) and Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), to introduce high-speed services from Rome and Milan to Munich, Germany, with the timetable change in December 2026.
Technological innovation
The next-generation ETR1000 is equipped with a new traction system and a 100Mbps full ethernet command and control network, as well as an energy measurement system (EMS) that enables the transmission of certified data, which can then be used to determine the amount of electricity consumed for billing.
According to Trenitailia, the Wi-Fi connection capacity for passenger devices and onboard multimedia content has been increased tenfold. A 10Gbps network backbone has been installed, providing a 5G Wi-Fi connection and compatible with four different telecoms networks.
More sustainable
The next-generation ETR1000 has a recyclability rate of 97.1%, up 2.7 percentage points compared with the previous fleet, and a material recovery rate of 98.2%, up 2.4 percentage points. It also features air-conditioning systems that minimise the impact on the atmosphere, reducing global warming potential (GWP) by 56%.
Trenitalia says that the ETR1000 is the first high-speed train in the world to have obtained environmental impact certification (EPD) based on a lifecycle assessment (LCA).
Improved design
The train interior has been restyled by Giugiaro Design and the Executive class area expanded and fitted with redesigned seats. A new galley area has been added and standard class coaches have been equipped with eight additional luggage racks, maintaining the same number of seats (300), and larger overhead lockers have been installed to increase luggage capacity.
"We've worked to improve every detail: more welcoming interiors, more luggage space, and advanced onboard technological services,” Strisciuglio says. “The goal is to meet the needs of changing mobility, in Italy and soon in Europe."
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