Europe's Rising Railway Star | Italian High Speed Rail Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 เม.ย. 2023
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A special thanks for Marco Chitti ( / chittimarco ) for sharing his wisdom on Italy's railways for this video!
Italy might've been the first country to ever build a dedicated high speed rail line, and the country has led high speed rail innovation again and again. In today's video we look at its excellent high speed rail system and what we can learn from it.
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
Fitting that this gets posted while I’m on a frecciarosa train
I’m jealous!
Awesome trains. And I’ve traveled with a lot of them
Micky?
Great timing!
Ive actually also travelet with Frecciorosa
Did you had one of the Cookies?
Couple of notes from an Italian:
- The Frecciargento and Frecciabianca services are basically getting axed. Trenitalia wants to focus investing on the main brand alone, Frecciarossa (to also expand it in Europe) and thus the "sub-brands" are getting scrapped. Makes sense: the Frecciabianca was always a dumb service, basically it was a fancier InterCity which had the same travel times and costed more for no reason. The Frecciargento had a point, it being they would have short stints on the high speed mainlines and then branch off to secondary cities. But again, investing on the Frecciarossa brand probably is the smarter business strategy. So the ETR 600 and 700 which were previously Frecciargento have been ported over to Frecciarossa, while the older Pendolino trainsets will probably be retired in the near future.
- The ETR 700 is not too bad honestly: quiet enough, pretty comfortable and in general OK. It's getting used on "secondary" Frecciarossa services, like Turin to Venice or Milan to Trieste, where just a short portion it's truly high speed . Generally, it's in the same class as the NTV Italo New Pendolino. The only big flaw of the ETR700 IMHO is that for how many people it carries, there's way too few toilets. It made sense for short trips it was designed to for the Netherlands, on 4-5 hours journeys here not so much. Still, Trenitalia got a killer deal on those trains and buying them was a good choice. You can just see tough that they were manufacturer for foreign and not domestic use because compared to the ETR500 or ETR1000 they are very ugly.
The main difference between Frecciabianca and Intercity is more formal than substantial: the former are operated under free market rules, while the latter receive public funding and are tendered as a franchise by the Ministry of Transport, that has a say about the relations served, frequencies, capacity, fares and standards. Basically they work like the regional train franchises, but at a national level.
I don't know how Trenitalia will re-brand the only two relations served by ETR 460, and I'm interested, as I sometimes use the Ravenna-Rome train and it would be really bad if they cut it. It's not that simple to re-brand the Frecciabianca as Intercity for the reason above: that's why so far Frecciabianca and Frecciargento services have all become Frecciarossa.
I travelled from Milan to venice on an etr 700 few months ago and, having travelled the same route on an etr675 and an etr1000, i found it way louder....there was a constant noise in the background which was quite disturbing
Yeah it was obvious ever since I went on vacation along the Milan-Rimini axis that Frecciarossa was taking over the Frecciargento service, that line is like half normal speed and they still ran ETR 500 trains on it. After all, why wouldn't you? You get to go faster when you actually get to the high speed line and it's not like you're missing out on anything when you travel on the prehistoric lines elswhere. Sure, tilting trains can in theory go faster there, but 1. they actually don't most of the time and 2. I had the displeasure of traveling on one in Switzerland and it is not pleasant at all.
@Blaze6108 Also, the ETR500 is not that old, its locomotives having been swapped to the current high-speed ones not so long ago. So with the mainline high-speed service having been took over by ETR1000s it makes sense to use them on secondary routes. They're getting new liveries as well.
@@Blaze6108 When the services were run as Frecciargento they used ETR 700 trains that don't tilt anyway! (They may have used ETR 485 for a short period of time two years ago, but I'm not sure).
The line between Milano, Rimini and the Adriatic coast hasn't many curves, so using tilting trains on it is kind of a waste of technology. They were designed for lines such as the original Bologna-Florence-Rome or the Ancona-Rome, that have to cross the Apennines or make their way among the hills.
For many years, trains running between Milan and the Adriatic coast were branded as Frecciabianca and used DC only E414 or E402 engines and conventional coaches. They then rebranded them as Frecciargento and Frecciarossa, but since then they started using the high-speed line between Modena and Milan, saving some time and skipping a few cities.
Don't forget the Red paint that makes their trains faster :)
Pendolino made me reach my girlfriend in Milan superfast from Rome every week in 1994-96, and now the same is happening to my daughter with her boyfriend almost 30 years later, with the even faster Frecciarossa 1000. It's an amazing Italian story, yet so normal to us, that we take it for granted, while in so many other countries railways aren't developed very much. Italians do it better... literally! ❤❤
oh, to live in a country where punching KILOMETRES through MOUNTAIN RANGES and UNDER WHOLE CITIES is doable for HSR.
Red makes vehicles faster.
ofc italy has amazing high speed trains!
Yep, it gives quite a speed boost 😂
That's why ICE trains have a red stripe 😉
@@jan-lukas ... and DB regional trains are that same red with a few white highlights ... wait.
Just for completeness, the DB red is RAL 3020 'traffic red', and the "white" background is actually RAL 7035 'light grey'.
Fun fact: the association between red and going fast was born in italy as it was the color assigned to the italian race teams by the FIA (the international car federation), by the way France got blue, England green, Germany white; called Rossso Corsa (racing red) many Italina teams won lots of competition boasting that color or its variation (Alfa Romeo and Maserati used some darker shades)
The Frecciaargento ETR 700 trains are absolutely fine. I travelled on one from Milan to Venice last summer and there was no problems.
It looks like the Italians have ironed out all the problems since the trains Dutch days.
I can say I happily enjoyed a few Proseccos on that train.
I think the dutch railway shouldn’t have ditched them so quickly. Even after all these years there are still exactly 0 domestic high speed trains operational…
@@SpartanChiefNL And that's likely one of the reasons they had been axed so quickly. High speed trains change the economic balance.
@@SpartanChiefNL I honestly think they did the right thing. Here in Denmark we tried keeping and fixing the IC4 trains which Ansaldo Breda also built, however that turned out to be a disaster! And thats on top of the italian government stealing one of the units and donating it to the Libyan dictator Gaddafi as his own luxury train. That set is still in Libya btw. The IC4 trains in Denmark are gonna be retired as soon as replacement trains are ready, which will likely be in 2026. The IC4 trains have been one of, if not the biggest public scandal in Danish history!!! So the dutch did the right thing for sure.
@@drdewott9154 OP's talking about the ETR 700, nice mental gymastics to end up smearing Italy, demonstrating once more how much countries from your neighborhood are open minded... Oh and since I feel like stooping at your level for a second, thanks for helping the US blow up the nordstream, guess Denmark didn't spend a single euro building it though.
many of the Dutch problems where related to the Dutch climate, the Etr 700 did verry poorly in the high wind lot of rain that we have here. The incredibly complex highspeed network design also didn't help. The frya albatros as they were known here had to switch between, with Etcs level 1 and 2, atb -eg/ng and the mess that is Belgian signalling and also between 1500 volt dc, 3000 volt dc and 25 kv ac overhead electrification. In the netherlands alone there are like 10 places where you have to change voltages, to do so the high power systems need to be manually shut down and restarted for the different voltage. Many of these voltage change points are located on inclines going up in the standard direction of trave,l this means that you have no power for the motors while going op a often wet incline Wich means that the train clime on using its momentum further using its own momentum, but because of a bug in atb the maximum speed to pass true the last atb signal is 40 km/h witch means that the trains won't have as much momentus, making it verry easy to get stranded.
I've been on high speed trains in Italy, Germany and France. Before going abroad and using those services as an Italian I thought the others got that better. I was wrong. The Italian service is on par or better than those other two.
No way! Currently watching this on a Frecciarossa train to Bologna! Perfect timing. Having been on several Italian trains this week thanks to my Interrail pass, I can confirm they're very comfortable, though the constant tunnel sections means internet connection is rare, I have to download things to watch/listen to in advance like a flight
Yeah the Firenze-Bologna HSR line is basically one giant tunnel passing through the Apennines.
It's roughly 86 km long (53,4 miles), of which 80,5 km (50 miles) are underground.
That's 93%+ of the length, not to mention all the parallel escape tunnels, and service tunnels etc...
Surprised they don’t put service in the tunnels!
@@RMTransit Theoretically there should be on-board Wifi on all Frecciarossa services, but it's rather slow, and I think streaming sites like TH-cam are blocked. It's good to check your e-mails or to work, but not more than that.
@@RMTransit Actually, after a bit of googling, there should be service in the tunnels, the Firenze-Bologna route is completely covered by 4G connection since 2022 (I believe it was already covered, just not by 4G, so it was an upgrade).
They have been upgrading and fixing (where needed) mobile data coverage on many routes in the last few years.
Ferrovie dello Stato (FS Group) has been cooperating with all the major commuication companies present on our market such as Tim, WindTre, Vodafone, Iliad exactly to provide better service.
@@andrex02scout My phone is set to connect to any cell network with a strong enough signal because Italy is on my international plan, but my phone unfortunately routinely couldn't connect to any of those networks in the tunnels, and I witnessed plenty of other passengers with the same issue
13:53 man, you did not need to roast Ferrari like that, the Tifosi are already suffering enough lol
*me feeling an excruciating pain in my chest*
They should definitely be proud of their network. Imagine if the uk had made such good decisions in the past. We'd have london, bristol, birmingham, manchester, leeds, newcastle, endinburgh/glasgow connected in a hsr network. It's insane to think about. And by 2030 they will have connected their equivalent of aberdeen and inverness, which is bari and regio calabria. Not to mention that what they are building from palermo to catania, would be an extra dublin to belfast hsr on top. It's amazing. The uk seems at least 30 years behind. The only part of their network that i know of that should bring shame, is the ventimiglia to genoa stretch, no cross border service, extremely limited times to only during the day, old fleet. There will be a case at some point during the 2030's to have hsr from nice to genoa.
The Genova-Ventimiglia line has been mostly rebuilt with double track, lots of tunnels and new stations: the last stretch opened in 2016. Then new line has cut travel times, however the new stations are quite far from the towns they're meant to serve, and I've heard that they're failing to attract passengers. The lack of services depends on the choices of the Liguria regional government (as far as regional trains go), as well as Trenitalia for free-market services, like Thello from Milan to Nice and Marseille, that was sadly discontinued. Perhaps there weren't enough passengers, and the Italian and French government aren't interested in subsidizing such a service.
I hear ya. I've been saying the UK needs to do this for like 20 years, and I already felt kinda late to the sentiment back then
Although there are significant differences - 1, the UK has a lot more intermediate towns and cities that HSR wouldn't be able to call at. 2, relatively few people live in the extremities of the UK - most people live within a core of about 450 miles. 3, our conventional network is largely 200km/h already. Putting these points together means that journey time savings with HSR in the UK are relatively modest. The reason we need HS2 is for capacity, the speed is a bonus.
another shamefully served corridor in italy is the jonica line from taranto to reggio calabria: its almost entirely single tracked and unelectrified, the intercity trains running on it have a maximum speed lower than 140km/h, they're too short and since the italian diesel locomotives are very old they often cant provide electricity for the carriages, which means no a/c... add to that countless delays and a travel time of around 6 hours at best...
I'd also add that there are still major issues with basic operational practice on the conventional network. A train from Rome to Catania arrived nearly 6 hours late due to a combination of mechanical failure, apathy and incompetence.
It's amazing to see you get sponsored! Hope you continue to grow.
Thanks Tobias, and thanks for watching!
Going on a bit of a tangent here, but if you ever get the chance to visit Milano Centrale station I very highly recommend it. The most beautiful railway station I've ever been to.
Northern Italy being richer than the southern part makes perfect sense history wise. Overseas trade (brought in to the ports of Genoa and Venice, and formerly Pisa when it had a port) plus with its neighbors, spurred by the Crusades, led to the growth of large city-states and rise of the merchant class who'd dominate said city-states in northern Italy. The region also had many sizable towns. Thus, northern Italy was urban while the rest of Europe was still mostly rural. Florence in particular became the center of the financial industry as the gold florin became the main currency of international trade. This region was the perfect place to begin the Renaissance which of course spread to the rest of Europe. Northern Italy today is still the center of industry, thanks to it being so close to other major cities as well as its rail connections to said cities.
You know Trenitalia's doing something right when the HSR network was literally cited as a reason the defunct flag carrier Alitalia failed. What I really like about the Italian railways is not just the high-speed trains, but rather how cheap and reliable regional railways are. The difference between France and Italy is absurd and very visible once you cross the border.
"Southern Italy" is simply not Italy, but a colony of the Italian State since 1860....Since Italy invaded the Kingdom of Naples with an undeclared war as Russia has now done with Ukraine by annexing the the current South of the Italian State....Why this? Because the South was the third richest state in Europe after England and France (Paris expo of 1856) and it gave "annoyance" to England and the Savoys of Piedmont which was a state full of debt...The industries Neapolitans were dismantled and brought to Italy, as were the gold reserves of Naples which today constitute 80% of the Italian State's gold. To conclude.....History is written by the winners, and the South unfortunately lost the war against Italy.
@@campanianrepublic82 stai raccontando favole uno straniero può crederci ma te hai mai studiato la storia del tuo paese ? E la scuola non c'entra nulla
@@campanianrepublic82il terzo paese più ricco ? Ma seriamente e poi l'80% della ricchezza dello stato viene dal Sud ? Ma in che mondo vivi
@@campanianrepublic82 E dovresti ovviamente sapere che la maggior parte di quelle ricchezze era in mano ai nobili e che in media gli abitanti del sud erano un 10% meno ricchi di quelli del nord e che il sud era una zona completamente agricola e che usavano tecniche medioevali nonostante le scoperte tecnologiche. Senza contare che i nobili del sud quando andavano dal re le loro richieste facevano in modo che il sud rimanesse arretrato perché era nel loro interesse. Le uniche industrie nel meridione erano quelle strategiche per la sopravvivenza del regno e nient'altro.
@@campanianrepublic82 basta con questa leggenda che prima dell’unificazione eravate una potenza mondiale ricca e prospera, ci sono tanti studi universitari che smentiscono queste folli tesi, te lo dico da amante e grande tifoso del sud
Ah, Zaha Hadid. Mesopotamian society and Zaha Hadid are Iraq's greatest exports. Pretty cool she designed Napoli Afragola just before her death in 2016 (sadly the station opened in 2017 so she didn't get to see it completed). I know Olympic Stadiums are meant to be the centerpieces of each Games, but the aquatics centre she designed for the 2012 Summer Olympics blew the stadium that year out of the water. Truly a work of art. Though my favorite work of hers is the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, both the exterior and the interior of its auditorium are magnificent. Although she passed in 2016, her firm is continuing her legacy beautifully.
Cool Santiago Calatrava played a role in Italian HSR too. Sure he gets a lot of slack for the WTC Hub, but if you give the hub a chance, it's beautiful...the marble floors of the concourse, staring up at the view of the sky between bone-white ribs....its grandeur and aspiration is something to appreciate. Lower Manhattan deserves an optimistic gathering place and the Oculus is that.
Nice video of an underappreciated system and country. There are still too many bad or overly romantic stereotypes out there about Italy. But your video shows that when Italians want to, they are innovative, modern and efficient. I've taken the Frecciarossa lots of times, and it's a pleasure to zip smoothly through the country, enjoying the scenery and sometimes a snack or drink. It's a world ahead of driving or flying. Just one niggle: Get those Italian city pronunciations right.
Yes, you are right!
To be fair the pronunciation of the cities was good compared to many other English speaking channels.
He was even able to say "Brescia" correctly!
As an Italian, glad to hear that
Ottima pronuncia, actually!
@@simo007_d7 Meh, actually the usual appreciations with a dust of stereotipes thrown in as well . What does "when Italians want to they are innovative, modern and efficient"? Made in Italy is already famous in the world long before these trains. We have the most fast and luxury brands in cars and yacht, one of the best fashion design in every field, we have an aerospatial agency, we are a G8 country. Italians have already made it clear to the world that they want and are able to do stuff.
Paris-Turin trains are great. I love doing breakfast in London, lunch in Paris and Dinner in Turin, which is possible and have done a few times. The Frecciarosse are so much better then the TGVs - and cheaper. And the fact that the highspeed track in the middle section is not finished is not a problem because the scenery is so good.
Indeed, most are happy to take the scenic route!
Yes. SNCF is losing business to Trenitalia because the latter's trains are superior. However SNCF says it will better compete when TGV-M (next generation TGV) enters service.
The fact is Trenitalia has shocking discounts on the network contribution (-30% the first 5 Years on Paris Lyon HSL) offered by SNCF RÉSEAU (Network part of the company not the same SNCF which operates the TGV. This was to be compliant with the European Union rules to open the network. But this has created huge tension inside the SNCF corporate, saying that this was an unfair competition as the costs are not the same. We will see after the first 5 years which are basically a subside to Trenitalia offered by the French gouvernement. I don’t think Freccariosse will be cheaper and the TGV M with its double dec so more capacity, more services like 5G connection allowing high speed internet … I agree the current offer by Trenitalia is better on Paris Lyon or Paris Milan but I don’t think it will last. SNCF is the inventor of the high speed trains in Europe and wants to remain leader.
This is some dejavu to Railways Explained a few hours ago 😝
I see that 😂
Found Italian trains lot more luxurious than the Swiss and Spanish.. Europe must stay as is to prove the world peace and prosperity can be achieved with mutual respect and dignity without any guns and bullying
Having just returned from italy, I cannot say enough good about Trenitalia. Buying tickets online, modifying the ticket on your phone, validating (checking in)... it is all incredibly simple. And the Frecciarossa is so beautiful!
When I left Rome, I noticed that there were frequent departures between the capitol and Milan. In two weeks, I took TGV, ICE's, and Frecciarossa, and the last is definiitely my favourite. What a beauty!
Italy was always a pionear in high speed, here in Portugal the first fast train was the Foguete, a 3 car dmi by Fiat Ferroviaria. The Spanish TER was also a similar train by the same company. Still nowadays the Portuguese Alfa Pendular is the flagship of CP and uses a Fiat pendolino emu.
The AGV is such a great piece of kit. It's unfathomable that almost nobody bought it, i really can't comprehend this
🇮🇹 & 🇯🇵 are more similar than people think especially regarding Public Transport...
Lol
until you mention the local trains 😕😕
@@tobiaepifani8701 For local trains it really depends on which region you're considering. In Emilia-Romagna I find them really good: there have been huge improvements in the last few years. In Lazio I've never had much to complain about either. Veneto and Trentino-Sudtirol also seem really good. Other regions have far worse situations, and the more south you go, the worse it gets.
Absolutely not! For high speed railways, yes, but that's it. Local trains here in Italy are a disgrace compared to other countries (unreliable, infrequent, 3 coach DMUs on important corridors e.g. Campobasso to Rome that should have 6-7 coach trains at least)
@@gabrielstravels Campobasso? Well we're talking of the most underdeveloped parts of Italy. But besides that, it's not too bad in Italy, particularly in center-north.
Great video!
We think there is a huge potential for some future cooperation 😀
Best regards from RE team!
Oh my. YES, please!
In fact I came to this video after watching yours on the same subject :)
i love you for posting this subtle warning to that canadian
Yearly total ridership:
Renfe: 520 000 000
Trenitalia:900 000 000
SNCF > 2000 000 000
I have visited Italy multiple times, travelling around the country by train, and I am impressed by its railway system. Well done Italy!
But it didn't used to be so good. Italy's trains were famed for not running on time... remember Mussolini and how he restored punctuality !
@@alexmcwhirter6611 we understand that you hate Italy.
@@attenzioneallontanarsidall7940 Why do you think this. ? I am only stating a fact. I hardly know Spain but I have made many visits to Italy. My first visits were in the early 1980s when Italy's trains were not known for their punctually (similar with AZ and aviation which, at that time, suffered industrial unrest).
@@alexmcwhirter6611 you continue to insinuate with more messages, maliciously, false things about the Italian railways. You look jealous.
@@attenzioneallontanarsidall7940 What a strange thing to say !
I lot of foreign train youtubers seem to love our trains ❤
I hope we keep investing in it.
excellent video as an Italian who lives in Florence I often take high speed trains and I am proud of it. excellent pronunciations in Italian
11:04 You mentioned the Frecciarossa services go to Lyon, but they go all the way to Paris. Yes, you need to get up early to get the 7.25 am service, but you can take a nap in the train and arrive to Milan in time for a late lunch!
I'd ask if Italy's F1 team you mentioned was Ferrari or Afla Tauri but it applies to both equally.
Unfortunately yes. At least we're doing really well in MotoGP: there are at least two riders born really close to my hometown, I can choose to support the one from my neighbourhood (Bezzecchi).
@@LucaPasini As a Canadian, fan of Aston Martin and fan of Alonso (all independently it just happened to come together to work out) to that I say *blows horn and lights dark green smokebomb at Canadian Grand Prix*
Mattia Binnoto and Ferrari strategy has to say somethink abouth that
Haha
Fyra flashbacks
As a 29 year old Italian who grew up with it, my personal feeling is that we have the best fares compared to other railway systems. I everything we do and build we have to be mindful of how this aspect changes everything. Many times in Spain, for example, I have avoided trains due to their cost and favored either renting a car, taking a bus, carpooling, a plane... whatever was cheapest in that moment. And I find trains to be the most comfortable means of transportation by far
I love travel by train. Pass Monday I went from Rome Termini to Milan by Italo NTV. Great experience in first class. There are other parts of Italy that will need high speed urgently, for example Milan to Ventimiglia (which is an efficient but slow line, 4 hours by InterCity) and Rome to Sicily (which will need a bridge over Messina's strait, actually under study, again). That will really connect the whole country reducing unncecessary polluting flights that in logistic times are very time consuming and uncomfortable. Great analysis!
I went to Sicily last summer and took a train to Palermo. The service was surprisingly solid once I figured out how to buy a ticket.
I live in verona, and I find the railway infrastructure here to be fascinating. Verona is one of those cities that really goes many places by rail. You can head to milan, venice, bologna and even austria if you choose to
The base tunnels connecting Italy and the other countries in the alp to the rest of Europe are absolutely nuts
I’m glad you mentioned them
even between florence and bologna there are many tunnels tens of kilometers long, in no way inferior in length to those at the border.
That dig at Ferrari was not needed Reece 😭😭😭
ETR700 in reality didn’t have any big issues, they just didn’t want it, there was a lawsuit and ansaldo Breda won because the train didn’t have any concerning problems
The city of Milan is Italy NYC and 2nd largest city because of its high-rise skyscrapers and its financial heart. Anyway, that country has good high-speed rail between its cities. Milan is the city I will go to because it reminds me of Toronto in Canada 🇨🇦.
If you are from Toronto, prepare to escape the city during August. Summers are unbearable in the North of Italy, with 35C 95% humidity being common place
@@felicepompa938 You have been to Toronto then. 30°C summer days are common in these recent heatwave years, 35°C days have become increasingly common as well. Outside of the coastal areas, summers in Canada are very similar to those in Italy barring Southern Italy/ Sicily and the parts of the Italian peninsula bordering it.
I just recently saw a Italian High Speed Train in Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. I don’t know what it did there, as far as I know Italian HSR does not go into Germany. But it was there at Platform 1A
That's ECE151. It's an FS-SBB service so Swiss-Italian. They're both ETR610 which is the ETR600 modified to also run on the German-speaking electric system of 15kv 16,7Hz AC.
The service runs Milan to Frankfurt but it does take a very long time because of the slow build out of HSR infrastructure between Basel and Karlsruhe and the generally very slow speeds trains travel at in Switzerland (mostly 120kph).
Might have been for test runs. Trenitalia and Hitachi have been very keen on getting the ETR 1000 certified in basically all corners of Europe. Trenitalia likely also has plans of expanding operations into other countries on a commercial basis, like with Iryo in Spain, and in France were they iirc now compete directly against SNCF on the Paris to Lyon corridor.
@@drdewott9154 Very exciting because it’s a great train!
Nice re-upload/remake
Definitely a remake, everything was rewritten from the ground up
Italo is really the Ferrari of trains! 🇮🇹🔝
Love that Italy has just quietly been building away! I think in the U.K. our main issue is that our conventional lines are just about good enough… long stretches of 200 kph on the Great Western, East Coast and West coast mainlines mean there isn’t as much low hanging fruit in terms of journey time improvements to be had, add in rampant nimbyism, high land costs etc and it’s not hard to see how we’ve got left behind.
I did ride on the etr 700 an it wasn’t bad, not as smooth as the freccia rossa 1000 but I definitely would recommend taking it if you have the chance
It's nice to hear a good video about Italian HSR, but not being able to enjoy it because you are a second class citizen living at the edge of the country...
Where is our bridge in the Mediterranean?
My town in Poland was supposed to get pendalinos... Probably not going to happen any time soon, despite currently replacing the rail bridge for them. Last stop on the line, I guess.
Why? Delay of the order?
Actually the Freccia Bianca and the Freccia Argento services are not anymore available. Freccia Bianca is absorbed by Intercity services and Freccia Argento by Freccia Rossa services.
At the moment both still exist: there are Frecciabianca services operated by ETR 460 from Rome to Ravenna and Genoa/Milan, and Frecciargento services operated with ETR 485 from Rome to Reggio Calabria and Bari/Lecce. It's highly probable that they'll soon retire both brands together with the older rolling stock that operates them.
@@LucaPasini ETR 460 and ETR 485 will be probably sold to Greece.
@@antoniocirino8444 These are the rumors, but nothing is for sure at the moment: for the next few months all services are confirmed as Frecciabianca and Frecciargento respectively.
I mostly mentioned for historical prudence
I actually took a ride with the ETR700 between Milan and Parma. It was not bad at all! The trains were in good shape although the passenger cabin design looked a bit dated. Service from Trenitalia was great though.
This is why I think Trenitalia's making a mistake scraping the 3 classes system and putting all of them into the Frecciarossa. There are clearly trains that are older or are simply subpar compared to the goddamn ETR1000 or ETR500. I don't know how good it'll do to the Frecciarossa reputation to be represented by ETR700 as well. We'll see, in the meanwhile we're quite excited over here as this new course of things also means long awaited new regional trains and local connections. It took the HSR and competition for Trenitalia to get back on its tracks
Pendolino train translated in eng means: Little pendulum train
So adorable 🥺
Really enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing. I have a small amount of footage of the Spanish HSR that I would be happy to share with you.
Another hit Reece! Thanks. I rode from Turin to Paris a few years ago and, while the train wasn't high speed, it was comfortable and very efficient. Also, the Metro system in Turin, although small, was very convenient and efficient. Great stuff and I will continue to look forward to future productions. Thanks.
I need to do a video on the Turin Metro! Nothing quite like riding high speed rail between so many great cities!
Finally it's back!
To think that a decade ago people in Italy were very critical about the railway system, things changed A LOT
Wow never expected a dig on Ferrari in an RMTransit video.... 😢
But in any case great video as always!
Thank you!
It is great to see how well the video turned out!
For me too, congratulations and it has been a pleasure to help out with footage and info!
(I don't want to flex too much, but Railways Explained released a similar video about the Italian high-speed system today and it has way more incorrect or obsolete information than this one!)
Thank you for your help guys :)
11:03 And to Geneva, Switzerland. Some service of SBb are driving all the way to Frankfurt.
Note: there are a Frecciarossa and an Italo serving Reggio Calabria since 2020. Before that you had to change in Naples, taking an Intercity or a Frecciabianca because the line after Salerno was and still is so old and curvy and challenging that there's a strict speed limit. You still can take those trains but nowadays most people just choose Italo or Frecciarossa because most of them going to Calabria are people who live in the North or Center (like me) with family there. Only difference is the number of stops: the Frecciarossa does only 4 stops after Salerno (those being Paola, Lamezia Terme, Rosarno and Villa san Giovanni) while the Italo also stops in Battipaglia, Agropoli, Vallo della Lucania, Sapri, Maratea, Scalea, also Amantea I believe and Vibo Valentia-Pizzo (stations usually served by the Intercity or Frecciabianca. Now the line after Salerno is slowly being reconfigured to suit high speed trains more and I heard there's also debates of making a new line that goes through Cosenza and with lots of base tunnels (which the current line already has, especially between Vallo della Lucania and Sapri) but we don't know for sure and for now they've resulted to improving the current line. Also who knows, maybe if they DO build the bridge to Messina it will be possible to directly take a Frecciarossa from Turin to Palermo, instead of the night train
Watching this on an Iryo (which is a Frecciarossa) from Valencia to Madrid!
Ayyy I'm half Italian, so thanks for a video about HSR in my country 😀
P.s. my family lives in a village about 20 km away from the Rome-Naples HSR line
Some notes from switzerland: the train shown at ~ 09:55 is not an ETR 610 and has nothing to do with the livery of the frecciargento.
This is an EC250 or SMILE from Stadler Rail, owned and branded by the swiss federal railway in white, red and black
The quality of the interiors, and the smoother ride is a noticeable difference in the smile, that make it such a more comfortable experience.
La Frecciarossa, amore il mio 😍😍
00:09:55 some smart-assing: this is actually an RABe501 'Giruno' built by Stadler and not an ERT610😉
yep, and it's IMHO the only high speed train that I know of which is PRM compliant
Was about to comment the same. The Giruno is such a beautiful train.
Earlier today the third episode in a row by Railways Explained about Italy came out, and then this video...
I Learned a few things, thanks for the amazing content! 🚄🇪🇺 🇮🇹
Great video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video!
Sensational video.
Glad you think so!
"This year I'm making videos about high speed rail systems all around the world"
*cries in Australian*
I would be very glad if you do the explainer on Newcastle metro. It’s relatively small compared to the systems you are usually talking about, but the area itself is not that big. However, Tyne and Wear metro is a cool metro system, that connects the whole agglomeration and have a lot of interesting decisions like pretzel shape services. And despite having just 2 lines, it has 60 stations, more than a half of the Oslo despite not being a capital and even a well known city across the world
There's also the fact that the trains have front seats which let you view ahead of you, as if it was fully automated! That's part of the reason I'm off to Newcastle in June!
Hey @RMTransit, love the videos. Would you be able to make one on the EuroCity network?
Greetings from RailwaysExplained 😊 you did the same video topic at the same day 😅. Coincidence?
a coincidance!
Yeah! I’m not sure about them but I plan my videos pretty far in advance, plus I also was simply remaking an earlier video with improved graphics and the like!
Very good video. I’m quite well informed about this topic and while watching it I had, at times,a feeling like “…if only they just also said …” this and that, only to see after a few minutes that indeed they were going to 😂 (like Trenitalia’s “shopping abroad” or the new HSL projects). Well done
the Naples Afragola station looks like a gigantic PS5
What a system. That is amazing re connections to Berlin and Paris. That is rearranging geography in Europe! Cheers, thanks
All railways lead to Rome
@@blushdog hah love it!
i rode on the pendolino trains in poland from krakow to warsaw and their pretty fire
The main problem of the Milano-Venezia HSR is in Brescia: in the west area of the city,freight trains from/to the new Brescia rail yard will share the same tracks of HST. Indeed, the section Brescia-Carezzato (length 10-15 km) will be capable of speeds between 100-160 km/h (slower than the old line).
The initial project consisted in a HSR between Milan and Verona (The HSR would have bypassed Brescia) and a "German-like" HSR between Verona and Venezia. The initial project between Milano and Verona was revisited; the sections Milan-Brescia and Brescia Verona were slightly modified while the bypass of Brescia was eliminated. Many people don't like the new project (including me).
The railway exiting Brescia on the east side will be doubled to four tracks around 2028, giving high speed service an indipendent set of tracks connecting to the Brescia - Verona directly. Brescia is a rich city with 200.000 inhabitants (almost double counting its hinterland) and the second city of Lombardy, so the choice to pass through it and stop instead of around it was fully motivated in my opinion.
@@andreagoglio I totally agree, but the future configuration of the Brescia rail yard will limit the capacity of the new HSR; in my opinion a flying junction near the Brescia rail yard could fix this problem.
@@alepasi02 I agree on that, it's probably a cost cutting measure, however I don't have any data on the entity of the speed reduction caused by the coexistence of the services in that particular segment.
Please make more videos about systems in South America explained! São Paulo, Buenos Aires etc.
Hey, nice Video, really enjoyed it as well as I enjoyed the ride on a etr1000 between Milan and Rome and back again just a few weeks ago.
Just a little side note; the train that you displayed as an etr 610 is actually a SBB RABe 501 (which is actually the first series of the Stadler SMILE family) and it’s wearing the livery of the Swiss federal railway. But as you correctly stated it’s used for the Zurich-Milan route. The Etr 610 is used for the service between Geneva and Milan, also operated by SBB. As the Simplon route is much curvier as the newly opened Gotthard and cenery base Tunnel route the use of the pendolino makes a lot sense there.
Is there any possibility you will make such video about polish train system? There isn't any high speed line to my knowledge but there is a lot of room for improvement
I travelled Bologna to Florence and the train went 300KMH . It was said that the long tunnels kept the speed limit , but it goes to 360 in more open sections on they way down to Roma & Napoli. I personally felt slightly scared at that speed
Is it coordinated or just a coincidence that Railways Explained just made a video with the same topic?
Idk,maybe they can cooperate,but if i was editing this video it would be abouth a week of work,so i think its cpincidence
Not coordinated 😅 TH-camrs tend to plan videos sometime in advance!
Hi Reece,
I want to thank you for this video about the Italian high speed railway network.
I am happy to see the benefits of the network in my country and also of the innovation as well as of multiple operators on the network. That’s a really good job. I would like a opinion exchange about some backsides of this infrastructure and service.
I apologize that the post is going to be long, bur there are many technical aspect that I would like to discuss about and know your opinion and eventually suggestion to improve the service with the existing infrastructure.
First of all, the Italian high speed network is great, reliable and has high capacity too, but on the other hand it miss a couple of targets considering the territory.
Italian geography consists of lot of small towns, villages, some middle dimension city (200.000-700.000 inhabitants) and the main Region Capitals being around a million inhabitants, plus Rome, Milan which are larger. The idea of a French-model high speed networks serves only a small portion of the territory and population, leaving out a large amount of citizens located in middle large cities, which are connected only through intercity or fast services (Frecciabianca, up to a few years ago) using the legacy line shared with regional and local services.
In some points some interconnections has been built, but never used in regular services and only for deviations, as well as the few stations built along the line are as far from the city center as an airport. And connected only by a local train every 30 minutes. The market division of Trenitalia (Frecciarossa) and Italo provide shuttle bus from the station to the center.
An idea I have been discussing with, also in the regional offices alongside with experts, commuters and other transportation related associations, was the implementation of a HighSpeedRegional train using the high speed line but through interconnections serve middle large cities (where intercity stops, not all stops of regional trains) between Turin and Milan, calling at Vercelli and Novara, as well as Rho Fiera, using the legacy line between Santhià and Novara, where there is no suburban service. This could apply on many other Italian Regions.
The reasons for declining the project were the competences and the costs, as a public service cannot be in competition with a market service.
Apart from this aspects, which I think could be solved, maybe by suggesting the market division of Trenitalia such connections and which is not excluded to be done in the future, in the last 10-15 years Trenitalia removed a lot of Nord-South connections in Italy along the Thirrenian and Adriatic sea to move more passengers on the high speed line, where in many cases the other solution was shorter and cheaper than going through Milan.
The last of the issue with the Italian high speed railway regards the environmental impact of its construction, with the destruction of water sources, landscape as well as costs being 3-4 times more than expected. Due to this reason there is also a movement against the high speed railway link between Turin and Lyon, where many costs/benefits relations gave a negative result.
What I wish for the future, is that Italy invests a lot on local and national public services also outside the high speed railways, creating urban hubs, organic and scheduled suburban services, proper connections between lines as well as reopen the railways have been closed in the last 20 years and implements a high quality service, in order to make it possible to move and visit the territory also without a car.
Thanks for your contribution to transit implementation.
I don't necessarily think through routing onto high speed lines will generally be practical, but good connections should be! Thanks for the comment!
Thanks for the answer. I am not completely sure, in some cases could help increasing capacity and reducing traveling time. In Germany for instance (I also just saw the last video) many intercity and somewhere also regional trains use part of the high speed railways.
Of course this services shouldn't interfere with pure hst
I've only ever been on shinkosan and Italian ETR, I found cornering on the Italian high speed rail was noticeable compared with the Japanese train
Italian highspeed rail is not underrated. It is well known for having competitors and for helping knock down Alitalia !
HSR that is underrated, and not talked about is Taiwan high speed rail. Crossing the country north to south in 1h45m is remarkable .. even more that 92% (!) of population live in proximity of the hs line !
Yes, the high speed trains deserve a high rating. Years ago, my Alitalia connector flight from Rome to Perugia was a bus. It created a real headache for the people meeting me at the airport. Many others have had such experiences.
Video coming soon 😮
What a great and informative video do you plan to do Austrian HSR
I want to know if we're likely to get a budapest-vienna-graz-trieste-venice hsr anytime soon :)
Austria will come eventually!
OH GOD FINALLY YOU RE-UPLOADED THIS VIDEO, I MISSED IT SO MUCH ❤
Great video, but just one thing, Milan has been an important city for some time now, not just in recent years. It was founded as the capital of the Western Roman empire and is the second largest city in Italy after Rome.
Please make a video about the metro system, and the train stations in Rome
A little update on the Napoli Bari HSR as I live near the area of the upcoming infrastructure. They are going to start digging a 27 km long gallery in the heart of Appennini which will be the core of this infrastructure. Once fully operative, the galleria Hirpinia will be an impressive tunnel which will equal in length the Galleria di Valico, another tunnel they are boring between Genova and Milano. The Napoli - Bari HSR will allow to travel between the two cities in 2 hours instead of the actual 4 and between Bari and Rome in just 3 hours, storming through my country’s backbone and serving also Benevento, my beautiful city.
Does the Bari HSR serve the airport effectively? The short distance from Bari to cities on the other side of the Adriatic is very promising for electric aviation (which cant be said for most other parts of the world). Check out Regent seagliders
@@fehzorz it does not serve the airport directly as the Napoli- Bari HSR is part of a bigger route which goes beyond Bari to Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto. It’s still possible to reach Bari’s Airport from Bari Central Station via surface metro lines.
@@Arilander Sei nella mia zona più o meno! (Io sono in provincia di Caserta, mentre mi sembra che tu sia in provincia di Benevento)
@@fehzorz It doesn't serve Naples Airport, that will be Metro Line 1
Pendolinos are also used in Portugal, with maximum speeds of 220 km/h. When the first HS lines open, they'll be included in the HS service.
9:54 (wrong picture ;) ) actually the EC between Switzerland and Italy are operated by booth SBB and Trenitalia ETR 610. The SBB ones have the SBB livery not the Freccia Argento livery.
Yes, it's an EC250 from Stadler in the picture.
Not quite. SBB have started introducing Stadler Giruno (RABe501 in Switzerland, EC250 in Italy) sets on the service between Zurich and Milan.
Yeah! I had it noted to remove that during my second round of editing but somehow it slipped past 😅
At 9:53 you're not showing an ETR 610, that is a Stadler Smile/Giruno. The ETR 610 is at 10:53.
there is Gallarate for passing Freccia Rossa and Freccia Rossa 1000
i live in Gallarate and i love getting on the train
Really nice lofi in the background in this video btw, maybe it's been in others but the chilled-out flute and sax really stood out to me in this one! (The piece with more piano is nice too, but definitely more "typical")
Thanks to the implementation of the HSR I managed to travel extensively and relatively inexpensively in my own country. I hate driving and parking and getting stuck into endless motorways traffic jams, eventually I can leave the car behind, which is also good for the environment.
Well, there are two videos about the same topic realeased almost at the same time.
Coincidence!
Was just curious; is the Zurich to Milan route via Gotthard Base Tunnel full high-speed rail now or plans to be full high-speed rail at some point? I would imagine this is a critical cross Alps route (was not shown in the network map) along with the current construction of the Lyon to Turin high-speed route and Munich/Innsbruck to Verona route via Brenner Base Tunnel. Another awesome video by the way too!
There is not a HS service between Zurich and Milan.
Gothard base tunnel is designed to reach 250 km/h speed, but as far as I know trains do not run faster than 200 km/h
Anyway the rest of the lines in Switzerland are not exactly HS.
Though there is not a direct connection to Italy HS infrastructure (as well as German one on the Northern part of Switzerland). The 50 kms or so to reach Milan from Switzerland border are even a problem in term of capacity, as the two track main line now used for international connection shares long distance and local services.
Two more tracks are forecast, but due to the density of Northern Milan built up area, there is not enough space on the same alignment nor a new 'corridor' to tun across. Therefore they're thinking to build a rail tunnel, which increases the costs.
Moreover, as far as I know, to build this new connection is not a priority, as Italian main rail route to Northern Europe will be through Brenner pass, where they're currently building a new infrustructure through the mountains with a very long base tunnel
@@urbanfile3861 Thank you for the thorough information. Good to know!
On the Swiss side of the border, the Gottardo Base Tunnel and Monte Ceneri base tunnel are separated by 30km of standard rail line shared by regional trafic, freight and intercity/euro city which creates a real bottle neck problem around the city of Bellinzona. There is the plan to build two 10km tunnels to avoid this situation and allow freight and express liaison through while liberating slots for the regional services on the historic lines. Though completion isn’t fixed before 2050, both Base Tunnel portals have been built according to this idea and the land is already reserved in the national planification.
There is a similar plan around Lugano to push freight transit away from the city Center.
Between Lugano and the border with Italy in Chiasso, however, the situation is much more complicated as the territory is narrow between the lake and the mountains.
The main obstacle to a higher capacity / higher speed lake is the crossing of the lake of Lugano, where the highway, the rail line, and the road are cramped on a pier. Look up Ponte Diga Melano to find out.
so this is the video that not just bikes referenced in his vide about italian HSR?
It’s V2.0 of it!
I think you missed a route between Venice and Udine, where the freccia rossa trains service but don’t go for high speeds. There are freccia rossa trains and also Italo trains that service Udine which is where they terminate from Rome/Naples and also Milan from memory. These services leave only once a day I believe and I’m guessing there are more trains between Venice, Milan and Rome etc. but it was an amazing video explaining all the different types of trains in Italy!
I am stil astounded as to why the SNCF is sticking with loco hauled high speed trains when the AGV is utterly brilliant. Looks great, especially in the red Italo livery
Because they don't need EMU's and because they only buy double decker trains now given the massive demand on the French network (the new Avelia Horizon will carry 1480 passengers in double consists).
And high-speed EMU double deckers are a nightmare, only Japan effectively tried it, with some limitations, high cost and discontinued or is in the process of retiring them (I don't remember).
Alstom is currently researching to build an EMU double decker at acceptable cost, weight and without loosing floor space, we'll see how it goes.
Just remember one thing : Jacob's bogies & double decker + EMU = problematic for now, there's always a tradeoff somewhere currently.
SNCF is perfectly satisfied with their current and upcoming fleet.
Why should they absolutely change for EMU's ?
To be precise, TGV's are not "loco hauled", they are power cars + motorized bogies, almost hybrid, and that's the best solution for SNCF right now.
EMU's also have their disadvantages and they are prohibitive for SNCF while their advantages are of no use to SNCF.
To add on top of Kyril's reply, the use of locomotives and power cars work best for a low stopping distance and constant speed (and small gradients but that's besides the point). One reason why multiple units were adopted pretty early on for rapid transits and tramways is because these have a high stopping density (+ car traffic for trams) which favour high acceleration and EMUs provide the best solution for that whereas locomive hauled trains are still in use today for intercity services when they were largely replaced in favour of EMUs for regional trains for quite a while.
Loco-hauled trains provide passengers with a quieter ride compared to distributed power. Rail fans prefer Eurostar's original Alstom sets (a few of which remain in service).
If you want to know more about anything in Taiwan there’s a channel called Asianometry who makes amazing, informative content. He might be able to provide you footage and information abt Taiwan’s HSR.
The tilting Pendolino train technologies were indeed developed at great expense, but it was the expense of the British not the Italians. Italy snapped up the technology that was the centrepiece of the failed APT project in the 80s. The best coverage of it is done of course by Mustard!
Italy train is best in Europe