Italy is still the only country in the world where a private open-access operator competes with the state-owned incumbent on its high-speed network. As Andrea Giuricin, CEO of TRA Consulting and strategic advisor to NTV explains, competition has given passengers more choice and high-quality services, even if it hasn’t been plain sailing for the newcomer.

A loan of €950m was granted by the European Investment Bank to the Italian minister of economy and finance on October 27 for Italian Rail Network (RFI) to upgrade operations on Italy’s network.

A new contract for the operation of regional services in the region around Rome was signed on October 28 by the president of the region of Lazio Mr Nicola Zingareti and Trenitalia CEO Mrs Barbara Morgante.

SAD Local Transport, which operates train services partly in cooperation with Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) in the Bolzano area, invites tenders by October 31 for seven tri-voltage EMUs.

ALSTOM presented the first of six ETR 526 Jazz EMUs for the Autonomous province of Trento to provincial president Mr Ugo Rossi, councillor for infrastructure and the environment Mr Mauro Gilmozzi, and representatives of Trenitalia on October 21.

CAF began testing the first Trenitalia class 402A locomotive for future push-pull 200km/h inter-city services at the Velim test circuit in the Czech Republic on October 1.

ITALIAN State Railways (FS) plans to invest €94bn to modernise the railway and to double its turnover during the next 10 years according to its 2017-2026 strategic business plan which was unveiled in Rome on September 28.

IRJ at InnoTrans 2016: ITALIAN steel producer Aferpi, Lucchini Rails and SMS Group have unveiled plans for a new rail production facility.

THE CEO of Italian State Railways (FS) has set out his future strategy for FS covering five key areas - mergers, the planned IPO, expansion abroad, door-to-door travel, and freight restructuring – which will form part of FS’ 10-year plan to be presented at the end of September.

THE president of Italian open-access operator NTV Mr Andrea Faragalli and Mr Michele Viale, managing director of Alstom Italy signed a contract in Rome on September 7 for the supply and maintenance of four additional Pendolino tilting trains.