THE CEO and general manager of Italian State Railways (FS), Stefano Antonio Donnarumma, has announced that FS will spend €20bn over the next 10 years under its technology investment plan, with a major focus on rolling out ERTMS on both infrastructure managed by Italian Rail Network (RFI) and rolling stock operated by fellow FS subsidiaries Trenitalia and FS Logistix.
Digitalisation is one of the fundamental pillars of the FS strategy to transform public transport through innovation, Donnarumma says. One of the principal innovation objectives of the FS strategic plan is to install ERTMS on 100% of those RFI lines forming part of the Core Extended Network of the European Union’s (EU) Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T).
In the next few years, ERTMS will be installed on 382 trains operated by Trenitalia and on 60 locomotives from the FS Logistix fleet. Over the longer term, the “ambitious” objective is to equip all 2000 trains in the Trenitalia fleet with ERTMS by 2030, with onboard equipment fitted to the entire FS Logistix fleet of 700 locomotives by 2033.
Improving reliability while significantly reducing infrastructure operating and maintenance costs, ERTMS will enable “a significant improvement in service quality," according to Donnarunna.
“In Italy, approximately 10,000 trains run every day, carrying over 2 million passengers,” Donnarumma says.
“With these volumes, digitalisation is the tool that enables effective and efficient management,” he says. “Without artificial intelligence, algorithms, and advanced systems, it would not be possible to manage infrastructure of this size today."
