Greenrail, Italy, is in the early stages of developing a new sustainable railway sleeper. The company's research is also opening up the possibility to deliver further sustainable benefits from track infrastructure, as Marco Chiandoni explains.

Buoyed by a strong balance sheet, Italian State Railways (FS) is currently embarking on an ambitious programme of restructuring, infrastructure investments and service improvements. A year since his appointment as CEO, Michele Elia speaks exclusively to Kevin Smith about how the railway is progressing with these plans.

TRENITALIA has revolutionised the passenger rail service between Palermo and Catania, the two largest cities on the island of Sicily, in response to the collapse of a bridge on the parallel A19 highway.

THE mayor of Florence Mr Dario Nardella visited the district of Novoli on April 30 to view progress on the construction of the city's second light rail line and mark the laying of the first 100m of track.

MILAN celebrated the opening of five stations on the 7.4km east-west extension of Line 5 on April 29, just two days before the inauguration of Expo 2015.

TRENITALIA exercised an option worth €170m with Alstom on April 23 for 25 additional five-car Jazz EMUs, which will be used on regional services in Tuscany and Lazio.

TRENITALIA launched its new flagship high-speed train on April 25, when Italy's president Mr Sergio Mattarella, newly-appointed minister of transport and infrastructure Mr Graziano Delrio and tourism and culture minister Mr Dario Franceschini joined senior managers from Italian State Railways (FS), AnsaldoBreda, and Bombardier for the inaugural Milan - Rome trip on the Frecciarossa 1000.

OPEN-ACCESS high-speed operator NTV reached an agreement with Italy's rail unions on April 17 which aims to avert redundancy for 250 staff, around a quarter of the company's workforce.

EMILIA Romagna Railways (FER) has shortlisted two bidders for a 15-year contract to operate passenger rail and bus services in the Italian region.

THELLO, the open-access joint venture between Trenitalia and Transdev, increased the number of direct trains between Nice and Milan from one to three train pairs from April12.