The mere fact that Treviglio (the small city i was born in) lies in such a strategic position for railways that it is even featured in a youtube video about italian railways xD
@@fb55255 Various Italian groups have tried many times in the past to set up business operations in the US, but the locals and officials did not like it. 🙃
@@StarryNightGazing the original code is ETR400. Commercially it was always called Frecciarossa 1000 and it seems now Trenitalia has labelled the trains as ETR1000. To be honest I always found confusing the 400 choice when the previous Freccia generation was the 500.
Additional info: - Napoli-Salerno is 54 Km long, not 29 - A new high-speed railway station is being constructed in Florence. It will be an underground station, just like the Bologna one, and train won't have to stop and change direction of travel like they have to do now in Firenze S.M.N. - A new high-speed station is being planned to serve Arezzo, Siena and Perugia. The most logical location is rigutino, but unfortunately cortonese people are delaying the project with unreasonable requests.
@@giogio6974 it passes through the province of Arezzo. An HSR station there is meant to serve those three provinces. Rigutino is connected by rail with Perugia while Creti is a little bit closer to Perugia but only connected by road. Hence, Rigutino could be reached by rail and road, which is a key factor if we want sustainable transport. Unfortunately Perugia keeps pushing for Creti (pure nonsense).
When the Turin-Lyon line is completed, it will be possible to travel between Milan and Paris faster than by plane! If you consider the dead times at the airport plus the distance between them and the city, the train easily wins! Furthermore, in terms of comfort and space, train is the best!
@@andrealeonti2967 yes, I know this route well, I've done Paris-Turin several times with the French TGV and also with the Frecciarossa. However, it takes way longer to travel from Turin to Lyon (300 km) than from Milan to Turin and Lyon to Paris combined (550 km).
As an Italian, I almost can’t believe we have such a good functioning railway system. The service has really improved with respect to a few years ago and is now great. How it all happened is yet an inexplicable mistery!
I just come back from Italy and I agree with you. I also travel a lot to Japan, I must say Japan HSR system has the upper hand, It's faster, cleaner, more punctual, quieter, and more comfortable. However, it is way more expensive than the Italian HSR. The Italian is easily half the price for the same distance travelled. One thing I do not understand is why there are so many loopholes to cheat the ticketing system. If Trenitalia imposes a stricter ticket checking system, there would have been much more revenue available for further improvement of the train network.
@@fire950114 Happy to hear that! Yes, on the slow trains the tickets are not even checked that frequently, with lots of people travelling for free. This got even worse after Covid as for some reason, the train managers stopped checking the tickets, no reason why(at least on many routes). High speed instead there is no way to avoid getting a ticket, fortunately
The answer to the question is simple. There was leadership that decided to invest in it, coupled with great technology and work from Italian companies. While many deprecate Berlusconi for his policy, it was during his government that this system was put in place, often against environmentalists. While not all of Berlusconi's policies were agreeable, we should give credit to good ideas. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Italy
I loved taking the trains in Italy. Fast, efficient and fantastic service. We took the frecciarossa from Paris to Rome with a change in Milan. Best way to travel in Italy!
And remember also how almost all of Italy is an high risk archeological terrain. Excavation for the HSR required a lot of work from archeologists and lead to many interesting findings. This impacted on the speed of the works, but the works still were and are pretty fast nonetheless
If you travel by car on the A4 highway (which connects milan to venice and goes on towards Trieste), you can actually see the High Speed line being built just beside it (especially near Verona). They recently closed an highway entrance in order to build a railway underpass
As an Italian I really loved this video. I like your channel, you always teach me something new! I think here in Italy there is still a lot to do in terms of HSR network. Not so much people use high-speed trains for travelling, most of italians still uses their own car. Greetings from Italy!
As an Italian I’ve never thought once to use a car to go to cities like Rome Milan Venice or Naples, the train is just too comfortable and with the same final price, including gas, car usage, toll and parking fees.
People will eventualy change their filthy habits. The Dutch abandoned their private cars years ago as an irresistable high speed network of trains was built. They typically don't even buy private cars these days.
@@ap-hv9uh i think that what he's trying to say is that if you add more trains and more high speed traits, people will likely use the train instead of their car and we would see an increment in passengers transported per year by train. It's would be like when you add some lanes to a road. It just creates more traffic
When we went on our honeymoon in December 2001 - in other words, before most of the high-speed lines mentioned in this video were finished - we took the train from Rome to Florence, Florence to Venice, Venice to Milan, and Milan to Rome. With the exception of the Venice to Milan stretch, these were all ETR500 trains that ran punctually. The stretch from Venice to Milan was in a classic locomotive-hauled train, and we had our own compartment for most of the trip. And even though the train left some 10 minutes late, and we chatted with a couple from Singapore in the ETR500, it's this particular trip that I remember most fondly. I spent time between taking photos of the Italian landscape, and of my new wife. Italian railways and high-speed rail are criminally under-reported. Everybody is always gawking about the Shinkansen, and to a lesser extent the TGV and ICE, but the Italians were building high-speed EMUs before anybody else did. Yes, their conventional railways are invariably covered in graffiti, but they're trailblazing when it comes to HSR competition, both inside and outside Italy. As for the high-speed freight, it's a cool idea, but most of these innovative rail freight schemes tend to fail. The French ran mail TGVs for decades, but stopped doing that. With freight, regardless of the mode of transport, it's more important that the goods arrive on time - in other words, when they are expected to arrive - than that they arrive quickly.
@@francescofilippi2824 Hey, I've never said that I was against it. I even have a Piko (German) model train covered in graffiti, and I've been on the lookout for one of Vitrains (Italian). The problem is not so much graffiti in and of itself, but more graffiti on trains in particular. It usually looks like crap, and it adds to a negative perception, of decay and unsafety. So putting graffiti on some gray and ugly concrete, great. Putting it on a train that I travel in, not so much. Does the above make sense when I collect model trains with graffiti on them? Probably not, but on the other hand, the point of a model is to emulate reality.
@@SeverityOne in the last 5 years Italy has completely renewed its regional fleet with more than 1000 new trains, now it has the most modern regional and high-speed railway system in the world
@@attenzioneallontanarsidall7940 It's been WAY too long since I last went to Italy. We had made plans for Easter 3020, but, you know what happened. Anyway, thanks for the update. I was drawing conclusions based on TH-cam videos I watched.
Went to Italy last month, tried their Italo service, such high quality rolling stock, clean, on time, fast, stable, modern and high quality passengers. Love their locks in the luggage area. Will try their FRECCIAROSSA in the future
Small correction: the Milano-Torino line actually supports up to 350km/h trains. This was tested and almost put into commercial use through the new Frecciarossa 1000 trains before it was eventually shut down by the government, limiting the speed of all trains to 300 km/h.
Both Italo and Trenitalia are very good. Mostly on time, the competition between the two means low prices for early travelers. They are never more than 10 euros apart. I will, again, travel Roma-Napoli next month in about 70 minutes for 19 euros. Can't beat that. Comfort is about the same on both, and Italo is no second violin- they get prime track in the stations. BTW. Napoli to Salerno is about 59km, not 29km.
@@thedeepseadiver6945 well, considering that if you are lucky and early you can find a Frecciarossa ticket from Rome to Venice for 50€, 19€ for Rome-Napoli is likely
@@carlofe8207 actually I travel frequently with Frecciarossa between Rome and Verona (about 500 km) and the lowest price I could pay is about 18€ (when 30% discount code is used on Speciale Frecce fare)!
Dear RE, as a genuine railways fan since I was a child, let me tell you I am loving this video and not only 'cos you're praising my country's trains. It is very well structured and rich in historical informatiom, notwithstanding its short duration. The fact is, we often tend not to see what's under our own nose, neither to assess it adequately. So thank you for your work and... keep up with it! (May I ask you where are you from?) KR Stefano, Milano
As an italian i'm very happy about this video, good job! The difficulty in building this kind of infrastructure in italy is often dismissed, most of central italy is either mountains or hills and usualy building even a simple railway may not be cost effective. If you are interested in economics a whole video could be made about the monopoly that trenitalia had in the market. They were also pretty nasty about it too! They tried in so many ways to damage italo (since the most of the tracks if not all of them are owned by trenitalia, stations included).
As an Italian I'm glad to be reading all these positive comments on our Rail Network, as I reckon it has been subject to much criticism on part of our population. Italy is a wonderful place, and achieving performing and well functioning infrastructure surely should be a top priority for our country. However, it saddens me that everytime some big project is announced, it often takes years, if not decades for actual work to happen. The crazy thing is that most projects are funded and approved in due schedule, it just takes an enourmous amount of red tape and paperwork to get things started once projects get approved. Then, construction times on big, strategic projects have been nothing short of biblical (i.e. look at the MOSE project in Venice, for instance) and plagued by numerous cases of mismanagement, corruption and stupid delays.
I think that's the problem if having a gigantic capital. Italy really has no "main city" and has to spread its railways by necessity, while in the UK there's a lot of centralization around London
@@antoniousai1989 I disagree. Rome and London can be compared. Rome obviously smaller, but still with loads of train stations which are integrated in the urban transport network. Then this system is interconnected with the North-South high speed backbone. London simply does not have that. the only active high speed link is 109 km and connects the capital with the channel. That's about it. Try to take a train to Nottingham, Leeds, Derby etc. and you'll see what I mean.. the rolling stock is from the 70's. I was astonished to find out you need to stick your arm out of the window to reach the handle to open the door. Insane. I bet Zimbabwe (with all due respect) has a better train system then us
@@marilson84 Rome is not even the biggest city in Italy, so no, it can't be compared. I get it, and I've used the train system in the UK (which is terrible, apart from the trains going to the airports). But the demographics of Italy are totally different from England's demographics, it's clear that governments did not gave a fuck about the countryside and even the secundary cities in favor of infrastracture for the City. You should see this way, the Zone1 of London has more Km of metro than the entire metro lines in Italy. Also, there's the point that investing in railways (which, btw, are decent only in northern Italy and Central Italy), since we're physically connected to mainland Europe.
I appreciate the effort for say correctly the names of the cities. As an Italian I am used to hearing complaints about Italian infrastructure. Sadly these are often the target of corruption and good way for the mafias to clean money. But I am happy that although the difficulties the infrastructures are actually working and there is admiration given from the high operational difficulties
Going from Turin to Rome in just under 4 hours of high speed train, while comfortably playing Zelda on my Nintendo Switch was something I surely didn't know I needed or even expected from my country. It just works.
The speed increase to 350 km/h was also rejected for a reason not mentioned in the video: the Florence - Rome section is pretty old, has a traditional signaling system and would still be limited to 250 km/h. I believe, but I'm not sure, that work is underway to upgrade the signaling system to reach 300 km/h on that section. Great video by the way, as an Italian I'm very proud of the high speed network we have, and i use it a lot.
@@cerveraoliver ti giuro! Fotografai apposta il monitor; Facevo la spola un giorno a settimana e l'ho fatta per 8 mesi; Mai capitato,allora fotografai. Mi capitò solo quella volta..
Thanks for the vid. It sounds like Italy's high speed rail system got off to a bit of a slow start but really picked up in the 2000s. It will be good to see how it develops further. Keep up the good work👍
I’m from the UK and completely blown away by how cheap it is to build high speed rail in Italy. HS2 in the UK is under so much criticism for its enormous cost.
there's no high speen rail or transport system at all in italy, italy is the last country in every european ranking, transports included. Spain has the best transport system in the world for example.
@@sgru9558 spain is the world leader in many things, including transports, and is the country ahead of italy IN EVERY FIELD. The most awesome and beautiful country in the world, where everybody goes on vacation and to live, especially italians go to spain to live a wonderful life unlike in ridiculous italy. The country that DOMINATED THE WORLD, where the modern civilization began, the country that discovered america and everything, in fact spanish is the most spoken language in the world, in every continent, while italy and italian don't exist at all. No one in the world knows anything about italy, italy is the most ridiculous country in the world.
Travelling to Italy soon and can't wait to discover the Frecciarossa! Even media in France have reported very positively about Trenitalia's operations connecting Italy and France, cheaper than SNCF but just as comfortable and maybe better.
Italian high speed railways are the best in Europe but local people doesn't understand it. If you travel in other countries you can see how a bad service is in terms of amount of seats, timetables and speed or low capacity as well. The only bad things is that the rush hours has a really expensive ticket, the same seat would cost 9€ in the morning of a working days and 80/100€ in an holiday and that is a bit disappointing because market react in the same way of the airlines. By the way the trains are fast, modern and well connected.
The problem for the bad reputation trains have in Italy is mostly thanks to the local-regional trains, that are often late and badly kept, but even them are getting better year by year.
Never had a problem with high speed trains. The problem is that local trains aren't nearly up to that standard. Dirty, broken, no heating in winter, often late. Our best trains may be the best in Europe, but our local trains are very likely the worst, or close to it.
I'm italian, well our train rail is good. Is used it just few times from Reggio-Emilia to Naples and from Modena to Milan. It's possible to travel for work or plasure through a big part of italy pretty easily, which is not obvious for other countries! It's been, and still is, a good investment for several reasons and it has its own benefits.
I travel a lot, once a week or more, for work. High speed trains has changed my life. When I began to work, we used to fly a lot more, and move by car. Now I only have to take a flight if I want to go from Rome to Sicily, but otherwise I always take the train. Few months ago I was in California and wanted to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco: I was shocked that it was virtually impossible to go by train (in reasonable time). Italy is behind the rest of the world in many things, but fortunately we have great high speed trains. Unfortunately the South of Italy still need better train and a high speed system, there are parts of the country where you still have no alternatives to cars.
Japan trains are not faster but they have a better average speed, in Italy you need a lot of time to reach the peak speed while in Japan it really took seconds.
@@ascaro1885 , in base alla mia esperienza, i treni qui in Italia sono puntuali, ma ci sono alcune cose che probabilmente vengono fatte meglio in Giappone. Per esempio, la pulizia e la manutenzione delle stazioni ferroviarie potrebbero essere migliorate.
The Italian rail system puts the UK to shame. Our geography (England at least) isn't half as difficult as Italy's and yet we struggle to deliver new rail projects on time or on budget *cough*HS2*cough* - it's very depressing
Don't worry. HST in italy is one of the very few successful story in Italy. In everything else, it's easier to find things the UK does better then us italian lol (except brexit. That was the most idiotic decision ever)
They didn't learn from the past TGV La Poste service. The idea was exactly the same but in France it was first reduced then closed due to high costs and road competition.
the HSR in italy is way bigger, there is the FRECCIAROSSA straight from LECCE to MILAN, going through the whole eastern coast. Different speeds, but still high speed (from bari to lecce the train is 200 km/h fast)
You are right. The adriatica is a such of important infrastructure as well. Also between San Benedetto del Tronto and Pesaro are allowed speeds up to 200 km/h.
Great video! One note; Brescia isn't as high as in your map, so no need to build a tunnel under Lake Garda. :) Lets hope a bridge to Siciliy brings HSR all the way from Napoli to Catania.
Thank you for another great video. If I might suggest two topics for videos. One is TEN-T expansion in regards of introducing HSR in eastern Europe. And the second one is about differences between rail lines designed for speeds up to 160,200,250,300,350 kph
You should correct the position of "Brescia" on your map. It looks like the tracks to Verona will be built straight through the Lago di Garda but the city is on one level with the most southern end of the lake haha :D
Great video. We have a great HSR Network and it's growing and become well served, even with the ETR700 ex-Fyra. Netherlands, learn from it 😘 love from Ansaldo-Breda
Hitachi has corrected the problems of Ansaldo Breda's etr 700.. low quality material, construction defects etc. plus delivery delays. Luckily Ansaldo Breda no longer exists.
@@fabiofabio203 It's not like you write out, 'cause Hitachi Rail Italia is the old Ansaldo Breda and the Netherlands requested wrong parameters for the train. So ...
@@fabiofabio203 hitachi has built a shit train with the Etr-521 (nicknamed Rock). It's like they made the cheapest thing they could ever imagine, only plus is the space
Great video once again. Hopefully with the link to France, as well as finishing of other sections, it can lead to the rise of real competitors of low-cost airlines. Imagine trains between London and Venice with a reasonable duration, or even faster night trains, enabling travelling 1500-2000 km whilst having a dinner and sleeping afterwards😁
Putting all together: Venezia-Milano is expected to be 70' Milano-Torino 50' Torino-Lyon is expected to be 1h50 Lyon to Paris 2h and Paris to London 2h20 A little bit optimistic considering congestion in Milan and I suppose you need to move from different station in Paris
There's an old project to connect all HS line of different countries to create a huge european HS line. But things are moving a bit slow due to the problems of each nation. Not to mention that every country has a different voltage and security system! But we are trying hard!
Great video as usual! I just wanted to point out that there is a bit of controversy in Italy because HST are super efficient but the regional trains in the countryside are really lacking, So the connection between big cities in Italy is great, but a lacking of local trains is the prince i guess…
in italy is being developed il terzo valico which will reduce the time from genova to milano in half... and genova torino, it's still under construction but maybe in five years it will be open to the public
Beautiful video but uncomplete, because either Freccia Rossa or Italo don't just reach Venice, but the exstreme North/East of Italy till UDINE and TRIESTE!!! Just to be precise and correct
I would definitely love to hear more about the economics aspect of it and the competition between private companies like Italo vs government run ones like TrenItalia. From what I understand all the actual tracks are owned and maintained by government right? And then Italo just rents the usage of the tracks. Also would be interesting to know how exactly Italo is even able to make a profit now (and can that be applied to other systems for example Brightline in USA). Ive taken both TrenItalia and Italo and both were very good. I remember one time Italo was even couple of Euros less than TrenItalia and I was very surprised how a private company was cheaper than subsidized tickets from a gov run company.
Tracks are owned by RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana) whose stock is 100% owned by the ministry of finance. Whoever wants to use their tracks has to pay a toll that for high-speed lines amounts to about 7 euro/km. Although Trenitalia is also 100% owned by the ministry of finance, they do not receive any subsidy for their high-speed operations and are in fair competition against Italo (or whoever else will enter the market in the future). In fact they make a profit out of it. It's very close to airlines having to pay for airport slots. Instead, for local/commuter services (regionale and regionale veloce) there are subsidies in the form of service contracts between regional governments and rail companies (among them lots of Trenitalia) which determine how many trains each region will have on each line in their territory. The same applies to conventional long-distance trains (most intercity and sleeper trains, except those run for profit by e.g. OeBB and DB) but the service contract is signed with the national government instead. Some regions own parts of their regional networks, in that case toll takings go to them instead of RFI.
The state split into two separate company, Ferrovie italiane built operate the railway and mantenace the railway and Trenitalia operate the train, well Trenitalia and italo are makeing profit thats to the milions of tourists that choose a practical hst insted of the airplane, before between Milan and Roma there was a flight each 15 min for less 150 passanger, now on the same root on train there is a departure each 15 min and the train have 700 people on board...
@@Lorre982 I will be visiting Italy very soon (keeping fingers nothing goes wrong), being able to take the train from Rome to Venezia/Milan/Firenze just make things so much easier while travelling across the country. And far more relaxing than a flight where you have to go to the airport, queue up to check in and fly in crowded spaces :)
@Hatsross12 I think Germany also compared to other European countries are big car producers and „consumers“, so more money has been invested in roads, motorways (which are free of charge) rather than railways. But now the Green Party is in charge and things might change. They want to reduce prices and improve the system. Lets see, Italy has improved so much. In the 90‘s trains used to be very unrealiable. They might still not be the most punctual, although as a season ticket holder I can’t remember big delays and it is great to get to Milan from Rome in less than 3 hours.
Sorry for the comment in Italian, I do it for two reasons: the first is I want to "talk" to my compatriots, the second is that my English is too bad and I would have difficulty expressing the concept I want to say (also you wouldn't understand because it's something concerning a peculiar attitude by many Italians). Naturalmente, come succede per ogni video in cui a qualsiasi titolo uno straniero scrive riguardo qualcosa in Italia che è ben fatto, funziona bene etc, arrivano (alcuni) italiani con le loro precisazioni tutte tese a sminuire e confutare le tesi e/o gli oggetti in questione (non sia mai, viene scritto qualcosa di positivo? Per carità ...). -Il Frecciarossa è apprezzato dalla larghissima maggioranza degli stranieri? "Si però tu non sai che ..." -FCO ha raggiunto uno standard qualitativo paragonabile ai migliori aeroporti del mondo? "Vero, ma vuoi mettere ..." Ho fatto questi due esempi perché sono gli ultimi in ordine di tempo che mi vengono in mente ma leggo ovunque questo genere di cose, sotto video dove si apprezzano monumenti, ristoranti, musei, città e/o luoghi in generale etc (aggiungete una cosa a caso, vi assicuro che ci troverete qualche italiano che prova a sminuire, precisare, rettificare, smontare etc). Ovviamente poi se provi a controbattere o dire qualcosa al riguardo (esattamente come sto facendo con questo commento), gli stessi ti iniziano ad elencare tutto ciò che in Italia non funziona e quanto in realtà questo paese faccia schifo (come se uno non ci vivesse e non ne conoscesse le problematiche). Grandi ... "meglio fare il lavapiatti a Londra che lavorare in Italia ...". No, non è mia, sto citando un ragazzo che così ha risposto ad alcune mie osservazioni sotto uno di questi video (ho sostituito la città da lui scritta con Italia perché pur non essendo parole mie, non mi va di offendere nessuno). Fine del poema, ora sotto con le critiche e gli insulti (mi raccomando eh, ricordatevi di citarmi tutto quello che non va, fate come se io pensassi di vivere non in Italia ma in un paese Scandinavo a caso).
Now we should aim to lower the price, because in long trips take a plane remains cheaper and faster, despite being much more problematic with the emissions of CO2. Another good think are the regional trains that were bought in 2016. They are fast (they can reach 130kmph as a Regional!) and well designed
Sure, my late father returned to Sicily in 1979 because he wanted to find a job in the construction that the news claimed was about to start. There is more business around planning its construction that effectively building it.
@@santopino756 true and sad story! Every right-wing government proposes the bridge over the Strait of Messina every time, only to cancel it after the cousins have made millions with projects and feasibility studies! @2023 we are currently with five projects and five studies that said "it's useless" with a total of 1 billion of € burned!
There is some confusion with the power standards used, and most importantly the lines drawn in Sicily are plain and simply wrong: There's no high speed between Palermo and Messina, in fact it is still single track in some sections. You are right about the doubling between Palermo and Catania being in progress, but it's only partial and it WON'T be high speed, with travel times near 3h if you don't make any stop along the old route. And it will cost several billions... And finally, no mention of the doubling between Catania and Messina, no mention of the HSR Salerno-Reggio Calabria, and no mention of the one thing that has become non negotiable for 5 million people: the damn bridge.
7:37 I don’t know if you were trying to show the Amalfi Coast but in that image you put the Cinque Terre which is in Liguria 😅, and also there isn’t high-speed in Sicilia just Intercity service
I wasn't aware there were plans to build a high speed railway between Napoli and Bari via Foggia, the actual railway between Napoli and Foggia is one of the most backwater ones, with its worse consisting on a single track route between Benevento and Foggia.
unfortunately, the italian train-manufacturing companies desappered - Fiat Ferroviaria sold plants and design to the French Alstom - Ansaldo Breda first sold to the Canadian Bombardier and next to Hitachi
Great video. I used to think Italian railways were bad, but in recent years I've been very impressed by what they've been doing (same as Spain). Interesting that they tried high speed freight. I'm not surprised it failed though. Mostly, people want to ship things cheaply and in bulk, not quickly. Perhaps they could experiment with adding a single parcel carriage to passenger HSR trains for express parcels/mail, because I'm sure there's a small level of demand for speed (at higher cost).
@@intersezioni Well mainly because when I visited Italy, the first time (going from Florence to Venice), the trains were all on strike and I had to take a long distance bus. On another visit they worked ok but there was a lot of graffiti around (Rome to Fiumicino line).
About the freight service, I'm not surprised either. France used to run TGV La Poste trains with an iconic yellow livery. The service was shut down due to lack of market, I'm surprised mercitalia didn't learn from this past story. Perhaps as you say a small compartment in a passenger carriage for fast mail coul work better.
When completed (2030 approximately lol) i expect you to talk about the Basque Y, the basque section of the Spanish system. It is 180kms long, and 60% are in tunnels (more than 100kms!) and only on ground less than 30%. Great video Edit: it is said that it will be completed by 2027, but not fully, because it won't enter into Bilbao,since the station won't be prepared yet
Grazie x questo video ....finalmente qualcuno competente con le spiegazioni....lItalia e un territorio molto fragile e complicato da gestire ...l'alta velocità e stata una scommessa vinta .....anche se non sono i più veloci ....ma ha poca importanza in poche ore siamo da nord a sud !!!!!😜
As an Italian, I am both happy and pissed off because: -) yes, the high-speed line on the Tyrrhenian side is very advanced and very important for the whole country.... -) ... but at the same time, the railway line on the Adriatic side, not so important but still logistically relevant (Ancona/Pescara/Foggia/Bari/Taranto/Lecce are only the main cities on this side), is practically abandoned to itself from Ancona south to Lecce (almost 400 km, or more), moreover if we consider that on this line still there’s a SINGLE BINARY section of 32 km where many passenger trains have to run per day... we are in 2023, simply ridiculous and not acceptable -) the ETR Frecciarossa and Italo trains may be beautiful/comfortable/technological/etc, ok... but all the other 'normal' trains in the rest of Italy are always delayed/degraded/dirty/etc...
We have an old New York Central advertising poster in our lobby. New York to Chicago in 16 hours (steam days). America is trying to get back to the rail system we had in 1950. 🥵
Considering Torino-Napoli it’s a 870km journey and it takes 5h30 with the high speed line, with italian HSR it would take around 7-8hours for NY-Chicago
For the Italian HSR to connect with ÖBB DB SFS Innsbruck Rosenheim ETR1000 needs ETCS PZB LZB as an equipment to run on 15kv 16.7hz SFS Deutsche Bahn and Austrian Federal Railways. Only Italian HSR train to have those is ETR610 for Frankfurt am Main Hbf Milano Centrale via Luzern & Bern in switzerland PZB LZB ETCS Level 1 & 2 ZUB
Not to criticize, but at 7:13 you say that it was designed for 250 km/h, but the video shows 300 km/h. Also at 4:58 you say that it uses 25 kV AC while on the screen it is displayed as 25 kV DC. I would recommend paying attentions to these minor issues, as it might be confusing for those that don't know much about railways. I hope my input has been useful. ;)
And now they're building a connection from Napoli to Bari (reducing travel time to about 2 hours) and they're electrifying part of the Jonica in september
A Straits of Messina bridge has been in the works for years with a lot of talking, a lot money being thrown at it and design & engineering work done. However, every time it has been cancelled for a variety of reasons though money is the main issue. NIMBYism has also been a big problem. The project has been resurrected yet again and is using the design and engineering work which was already completed. It remains to be seen whether or not this attempt will be successful.
@@zyoninkiro not to mention the huge engineering feat it will be. The conditions are far from ideal for any solid connection. NIMBYism is a big problem in Italy, whenever new infrastrutture is proposed or started years are spent fighting with the locals with unreasonable concerns (see TAP, TAV, MOSE, A2, Beleolico, Piombino regasifier and many more ).
If constructed it would be huge. By making a comparison with the longest suspended bridge already in service, the Akashi bridge in Japan: span from 1991 to 3300m (50 % longer) pylons from 282m to 399m. The Akashi bride has "only" an highway, the Messina bridge will have both a double track railway and highway...
Italy has alway had best engineers in every field. starting from cars to aerospace. the only problem in some huge companie which went default was the fact that they used to steal money. big brands like alfa romeo, alitalia, olivetti, fiat. they were all the pioneers in their sectors. for example many first bmw models were inferior to alfa romeos. what happened next? the firms where the management was corrupted wen bankrupt, making foreign firms bigger and more powerful, when at the beginning the italian ones were the best. still we have many examples today of very good firms in italy. Freccia Rossa is a wonderful example of best engineering and good management, thus the best high speed train in Europe. Good job trenitalia
Frecciarossa beats the pants off of flying in Ryanair's sardine tin cans in the sky w/dung service to match. I have travelled all 20 Regions in Italia, and whenever possible I always choose the train over flying. Less hassle, very comfortable and you end a journey in the DT of a city instead of km's out in some cowpasture with Ryanair. There is a stretch from Bologna to Firenze where the Frecciarossa Mille hit 323 km/h! Had a phone app that could track speed. Viva L'Italia e i suoi treni.
Just a correction, that I think the people that are going to see this video should know: in sicily there is NOT an high speed railway, and when at 2:20 u see the rail track from Palermo to Messina and from Catania to Messina, is just an ERROR of the person that created that map. In Sicily, we have one of the worst rail tracks of all the country, and I think that people should know that.
If you take the frecciarossa train from Italy to Paris. It feels like a jet. It's very smooth. I hope the Italians make their trains more pointy like the Japanese ones. It will look really cool. Italy should also try investing in maglev in the future.
Wonderful pronunciation of the Italian City name!! Complimenti! Note: Turin written in this way has to be pronounced as English [or French] Because The Italian Name is *Torino*
Not many things are working the way they should in Italy... High speed Rail is one of those few things. Some years down the road Italy will be better connected to Switzerland and Austria/ Germany via Rail which should benefit economy
@@markusz4447 as in all countries of the world, but never a people like the Italian one loves to denigrate and humiliate themselves by feeling an immense pleasure in doing so! Now tell me what was your pointlessly pessimistic comment about Italy in this video made up of positive things and compliments? was it essential? it brought something new as well as unnecessarily increasing stereotypes about our country!
Go to strms.net/expressvpn_railwaysexplained to get your first 3 months free! #ad
The mere fact that Treviglio (the small city i was born in) lies in such a strategic position for railways that it is even featured in a youtube video about italian railways xD
@@andrews.5212 Anche io vivo lì, è stupendo come nel video l'abbiano chiamata Treviglo.
@@andrews.5212 Trovi l'errore attorno al minuto 7:00
This video is a catchall answer to all those who say California has complicated geography and their project couldn't be better.
Italy is also a sismic zone not at level of California but between 2 majority tecntonic plate and other minor plat the zone is pritty active
Well Japan which have worst terrain and seismic situation can do it.
@@silluete well... they did censured their own HSL for being expensive, just like CAHSR did by their own. HSR constructions can be very bloated.
we'll send some italian engineers in California to help design and build it ;)
@@fb55255 Various Italian groups have tried many times in the past to set up business operations in the US, but the locals and officials did not like it. 🙃
Japanese trains are pretty, but Frecciarossa ETR500/400 are the most beautiful trains in the world, hands down.
no ETR1000?
For us, the ETR 1000 is one of the most beautiful train. It is like Railway Ferrari F8 Tributo 😅
@@StarryNightGazing the original code is ETR400. Commercially it was always called Frecciarossa 1000 and it seems now Trenitalia has labelled the trains as ETR1000. To be honest I always found confusing the 400 choice when the previous Freccia generation was the 500.
Trenitalia chose 400 because this was the designing speed. Commercially is known as Frecciarossa 1000
Agreed. Italian station design is also more artful and fun
Additional info:
- Napoli-Salerno is 54 Km long, not 29
- A new high-speed railway station is being constructed in Florence. It will be an underground station, just like the Bologna one, and train won't have to stop and change direction of travel like they have to do now in Firenze S.M.N.
- A new high-speed station is being planned to serve Arezzo, Siena and Perugia. The most logical location is rigutino, but unfortunately cortonese people are delaying the project with unreasonable requests.
How would they plan a HSR station in Perugia, Siena and Arezzo if high speed lines do not pass through these regions?
@@giogio6974 it passes through the province of Arezzo. An HSR station there is meant to serve those three provinces.
Rigutino is connected by rail with Perugia while Creti is a little bit closer to Perugia but only connected by road. Hence, Rigutino could be reached by rail and road, which is a key factor if we want sustainable transport. Unfortunately Perugia keeps pushing for Creti (pure nonsense).
Also wrong location of Salerno on the map
When will the project be complete?
@@LucaFanciullini if there is one thing about Italy, it is the bureaucracy.
When the Turin-Lyon line is completed, it will be possible to travel between Milan and Paris faster than by plane! If you consider the dead times at the airport plus the distance between them and the city, the train easily wins! Furthermore, in terms of comfort and space, train is the best!
The average person could do this trip a few times in a life then they can go on with the usual average speed of 40km/h for all their other trips.
There’s already a line Milano-Torino-Paris Gare De Lyon, and it takes around 6-7 hours for more less 1000km
@@andrealeonti2967 yes, I know this route well, I've done Paris-Turin several times with the French TGV and also with the Frecciarossa. However, it takes way longer to travel from Turin to Lyon (300 km) than from Milan to Turin and Lyon to Paris combined (550 km).
As an Italian, I almost can’t believe we have such a good functioning railway system. The service has really improved with respect to a few years ago and is now great. How it all happened is yet an inexplicable mistery!
I just come back from Italy and I agree with you. I also travel a lot to Japan, I must say Japan HSR system has the upper hand, It's faster, cleaner, more punctual, quieter, and more comfortable. However, it is way more expensive than the Italian HSR. The Italian is easily half the price for the same distance travelled.
One thing I do not understand is why there are so many loopholes to cheat the ticketing system. If Trenitalia imposes a stricter ticket checking system, there would have been much more revenue available for further improvement of the train network.
@@fire950114 Happy to hear that! Yes, on the slow trains the tickets are not even checked that frequently, with lots of people travelling for free. This got even worse after Covid as for some reason, the train managers stopped checking the tickets, no reason why(at least on many routes). High speed instead there is no way to avoid getting a ticket, fortunately
why you canot believe
@@georgesamy4923because it’s rare to see stuff work properly in Italy, especially when you are talking about big infrastructure, services etc.
The answer to the question is simple. There was leadership that decided to invest in it, coupled with great technology and work from Italian companies. While many deprecate Berlusconi for his policy, it was during his government that this system was put in place, often against environmentalists. While not all of Berlusconi's policies were agreeable, we should give credit to good ideas. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_Italy
living in verona i can say there are a lot of groundworks here for the arrival of the HSR, finally. Fuck NOTAV we want that rail
I loved taking the trains in Italy. Fast, efficient and fantastic service. We took the frecciarossa from Paris to Rome with a change in Milan. Best way to travel in Italy!
And remember also how almost all of Italy is an high risk archeological terrain. Excavation for the HSR required a lot of work from archeologists and lead to many interesting findings. This impacted on the speed of the works, but the works still were and are pretty fast nonetheless
If you travel by car on the A4 highway (which connects milan to venice and goes on towards Trieste), you can actually see the High Speed line being built just beside it (especially near Verona). They recently closed an highway entrance in order to build a railway underpass
Italy my favorite place. Can’t wait to ride the trains again
As an Italian I really loved this video. I like your channel, you always teach me something new! I think here in Italy there is still a lot to do in terms of HSR network. Not so much people use high-speed trains for travelling, most of italians still uses their own car. Greetings from Italy!
Thank you very much!
As an Italian I’ve never thought once to use a car to go to cities like Rome Milan Venice or Naples, the train is just too comfortable and with the same final price, including gas, car usage, toll and parking fees.
People will eventualy change their filthy habits. The Dutch abandoned their private cars years ago as an irresistable high speed network of trains was built. They typically don't even buy private cars these days.
Not true. Whenever I visited Italy and used a train, there were always a lot of people using it.
@@ap-hv9uh i think that what he's trying to say is that if you add more trains and more high speed traits, people will likely use the train instead of their car and we would see an increment in passengers transported per year by train. It's would be like when you add some lanes to a road. It just creates more traffic
When we went on our honeymoon in December 2001 - in other words, before most of the high-speed lines mentioned in this video were finished - we took the train from Rome to Florence, Florence to Venice, Venice to Milan, and Milan to Rome. With the exception of the Venice to Milan stretch, these were all ETR500 trains that ran punctually.
The stretch from Venice to Milan was in a classic locomotive-hauled train, and we had our own compartment for most of the trip. And even though the train left some 10 minutes late, and we chatted with a couple from Singapore in the ETR500, it's this particular trip that I remember most fondly. I spent time between taking photos of the Italian landscape, and of my new wife.
Italian railways and high-speed rail are criminally under-reported. Everybody is always gawking about the Shinkansen, and to a lesser extent the TGV and ICE, but the Italians were building high-speed EMUs before anybody else did. Yes, their conventional railways are invariably covered in graffiti, but they're trailblazing when it comes to HSR competition, both inside and outside Italy.
As for the high-speed freight, it's a cool idea, but most of these innovative rail freight schemes tend to fail. The French ran mail TGVs for decades, but stopped doing that. With freight, regardless of the mode of transport, it's more important that the goods arrive on time - in other words, when they are expected to arrive - than that they arrive quickly.
Graffiti are a creative way to express social protest or discomfort. Why being against it?
@@francescofilippi2824 Hey, I've never said that I was against it. I even have a Piko (German) model train covered in graffiti, and I've been on the lookout for one of Vitrains (Italian).
The problem is not so much graffiti in and of itself, but more graffiti on trains in particular. It usually looks like crap, and it adds to a negative perception, of decay and unsafety.
So putting graffiti on some gray and ugly concrete, great. Putting it on a train that I travel in, not so much.
Does the above make sense when I collect model trains with graffiti on them? Probably not, but on the other hand, the point of a model is to emulate reality.
@@SeverityOne in the last 5 years Italy has completely renewed its regional fleet with more than 1000 new trains, now it has the most modern regional and high-speed railway system in the world
@@attenzioneallontanarsidall7940 It's been WAY too long since I last went to Italy. We had made plans for Easter 3020, but, you know what happened. Anyway, thanks for the update. I was drawing conclusions based on TH-cam videos I watched.
Your beautiful and interesting comment made me feel proud of my Nation :,) greetings from Italy!
Went to Italy last month, tried their Italo service, such high quality rolling stock, clean, on time, fast, stable, modern and high quality passengers. Love their locks in the luggage area.
Will try their FRECCIAROSSA in the future
Small correction: the Milano-Torino line actually supports up to 350km/h trains. This was tested and almost put into commercial use through the new Frecciarossa 1000 trains before it was eventually shut down by the government, limiting the speed of all trains to 300 km/h.
I'm not an expert but I have to admit their trains look the coolest for now
We call the high-speed system "La metropolitana d'Italia " the metro of Italy
Never heard of this and I'm a 32 years old Italian
Both Italo and Trenitalia are very good. Mostly on time, the competition between the two means low prices for early travelers. They are never more than 10 euros apart. I will, again, travel Roma-Napoli next month in about 70 minutes for 19 euros. Can't beat that. Comfort is about the same on both, and Italo is no second violin- they get prime track in the stations. BTW. Napoli to Salerno is about 59km, not 29km.
19 euros? the price of a cappuccino here in California... (almost)
19 euros??? it can't be a freccia, then.
@@thedeepseadiver6945 well, considering that if you are lucky and early you can find a Frecciarossa ticket from Rome to Venice for 50€, 19€ for Rome-Napoli is likely
@@thedeepseadiver6945 , when there is a sale, it actually can be that inexpensive. You have to buy it well in advance, though.
@@carlofe8207 actually I travel frequently with Frecciarossa between Rome and Verona (about 500 km) and the lowest price I could pay is about 18€ (when 30% discount code is used on Speciale Frecce fare)!
One note, Brescia is southern than in your map. And as of December 2023 they are building Brescia-Verona High speed railway.
Oh yes. And there is no (very big) bridge on Garda Lake.
The waiting ended, the video I've been waiting for has arrived
Dear RE, as a genuine railways fan since I was a child, let me tell you I am loving this video and not only 'cos you're praising my country's trains.
It is very well structured and rich in historical informatiom, notwithstanding its short duration.
The fact is, we often tend not to see what's under our own nose, neither to assess it adequately.
So thank you for your work and... keep up with it!
(May I ask you where are you from?)
KR
Stefano, Milano
Thank you Stefano, glad you like it. 🙂
We're from Serbia.
As an italian i'm very happy about this video, good job! The difficulty in building this kind of infrastructure in italy is often dismissed, most of central italy is either mountains or hills and usualy building even a simple railway may not be cost effective. If you are interested in economics a whole video could be made about the monopoly that trenitalia had in the market. They were also pretty nasty about it too! They tried in so many ways to damage italo (since the most of the tracks if not all of them are owned by trenitalia, stations included).
Currently on the Freece to Turin. We've taken HSR all over Italy because it's hands down fantastic. Such a contrast with the Deutsche Bahn.
Those italo Trains are beautiful!
They are!
As an Italian I'm glad to be reading all these positive comments on our Rail Network, as I reckon it has been subject to much criticism on part of our population.
Italy is a wonderful place, and achieving performing and well functioning infrastructure surely should be a top priority for our country.
However, it saddens me that everytime some big project is announced, it often takes years, if not decades for actual work to happen.
The crazy thing is that most projects are funded and approved in due schedule, it just takes an enourmous amount of red tape and paperwork to get things started once projects get approved.
Then, construction times on big, strategic projects have been nothing short of biblical (i.e. look at the MOSE project in Venice, for instance) and plagued by numerous cases of mismanagement, corruption and stupid delays.
meanwhile, in England we still have single track railways with diesel engines and the "high speed" train is like a standard intercity train in Italy
I think that's the problem if having a gigantic capital. Italy really has no "main city" and has to spread its railways by necessity, while in the UK there's a lot of centralization around London
@@antoniousai1989 I disagree. Rome and London can be compared. Rome obviously smaller, but still with loads of train stations which are integrated in the urban transport network. Then this system is interconnected with the North-South high speed backbone. London simply does not have that. the only active high speed link is 109 km and connects the capital with the channel. That's about it. Try to take a train to Nottingham, Leeds, Derby etc. and you'll see what I mean.. the rolling stock is from the 70's. I was astonished to find out you need to stick your arm out of the window to reach the handle to open the door. Insane. I bet Zimbabwe (with all due respect) has a better train system then us
@@marilson84 Rome is not even the biggest city in Italy, so no, it can't be compared. I get it, and I've used the train system in the UK (which is terrible, apart from the trains going to the airports). But the demographics of Italy are totally different from England's demographics, it's clear that governments did not gave a fuck about the countryside and even the secundary cities in favor of infrastracture for the City. You should see this way, the Zone1 of London has more Km of metro than the entire metro lines in Italy. Also, there's the point that investing in railways (which, btw, are decent only in northern Italy and Central Italy), since we're physically connected to mainland Europe.
@@antoniousai1989 Rome is the biggest city in Italy by size and by population what are you talking about?
@@marcobelli6856 Milan's metropolitan area is way bigger than Rome's. Italy is more decentralized than the UK.
I appreciate the effort for say correctly the names of the cities. As an Italian I am used to hearing complaints about Italian infrastructure. Sadly these are often the target of corruption and good way for the mafias to clean money. But I am happy that although the difficulties the infrastructures are actually working and there is admiration given from the high operational difficulties
omg you are sad!
i love how he said the city names so good
Mercitalia Fast is already history as the 2 locomotives are now kept as reserve for the passenger fleet and the coaches are awaiting demolition.
Yeah. The E404 of the ETR500 Mercitalia will replace the E404 of the ETR500 n.6, which derailed in 2022
Going from Turin to Rome in just under 4 hours of high speed train, while comfortably playing Zelda on my Nintendo Switch was something I surely didn't know I needed or even expected from my country.
It just works.
The speed increase to 350 km/h was also rejected for a reason not mentioned in the video: the Florence - Rome section is pretty old, has a traditional signaling system and would still be limited to 250 km/h.
I believe, but I'm not sure, that work is underway to upgrade the signaling system to reach 300 km/h on that section.
Great video by the way, as an Italian I'm very proud of the high speed network we have, and i use it a lot.
Nel 2014,in tratta santa Maria novella- Roma termini ,abbiamo toccato i 357 km/h ;
Ho ancora la foto!
@@frankvanga310 come è possibile?
@@cerveraoliver ti giuro! Fotografai apposta il monitor;
Facevo la spola un giorno a settimana e l'ho fatta per 8 mesi;
Mai capitato,allora fotografai.
Mi capitò solo quella volta..
Thanks for the vid. It sounds like Italy's high speed rail system got off to a bit of a slow start but really picked up in the 2000s. It will be good to see how it develops further. Keep up the good work👍
I’m from the UK and completely blown away by how cheap it is to build high speed rail in Italy. HS2 in the UK is under so much criticism for its enormous cost.
Because the UK doesn't have enough experience in building HSR and HS2 has a lot of tunnels.
there's no high speen rail or transport system at all in italy, italy is the last country in every european ranking, transports included. Spain has the best transport system in the world for example.
@@echipuosaperlo what is spain?
@@sgru9558 spain is the world leader in many things, including transports, and is the country ahead of italy IN EVERY FIELD. The most awesome and beautiful country in the world, where everybody goes on vacation and to live, especially italians go to spain to live a wonderful life unlike in ridiculous italy. The country that DOMINATED THE WORLD, where the modern civilization began, the country that discovered america and everything, in fact spanish is the most spoken language in the world, in every continent, while italy and italian don't exist at all. No one in the world knows anything about italy, italy is the most ridiculous country in the world.
@@echipuosaperlo Sorry, I still don't understand. Can you speak louder?
Travelling to Italy soon and can't wait to discover the Frecciarossa! Even media in France have reported very positively about Trenitalia's operations connecting Italy and France, cheaper than SNCF but just as comfortable and maybe better.
We are also replaceing all old commuter train from medium and long distance.
Italian high speed railways are the best in Europe but local people doesn't understand it. If you travel in other countries you can see how a bad service is in terms of amount of seats, timetables and speed or low capacity as well. The only bad things is that the rush hours has a really expensive ticket, the same seat would cost 9€ in the morning of a working days and 80/100€ in an holiday and that is a bit disappointing because market react in the same way of the airlines. By the way the trains are fast, modern and well connected.
The problem for the bad reputation trains have in Italy is mostly thanks to the local-regional trains, that are often late and badly kept, but even them are getting better year by year.
Never had a problem with high speed trains. The problem is that local trains aren't nearly up to that standard. Dirty, broken, no heating in winter, often late.
Our best trains may be the best in Europe, but our local trains are very likely the worst, or close to it.
I'm italian, well our train rail is good.
Is used it just few times from Reggio-Emilia to Naples and from Modena to Milan.
It's possible to travel for work or plasure through a big part of italy pretty easily, which is not obvious for other countries!
It's been, and still is, a good investment for several reasons and it has its own benefits.
I travel a lot, once a week or more, for work. High speed trains has changed my life. When I began to work, we used to fly a lot more, and move by car. Now I only have to take a flight if I want to go from Rome to Sicily, but otherwise I always take the train. Few months ago I was in California and wanted to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco: I was shocked that it was virtually impossible to go by train (in reasonable time). Italy is behind the rest of the world in many things, but fortunately we have great high speed trains. Unfortunately the South of Italy still need better train and a high speed system, there are parts of the country where you still have no alternatives to cars.
As an Italian-asian, I say this is a very impressive fact and I never knew this; always thought Japan had a better train railway😅
They arguably do lol
@@leonardofilippini direi più che altro l'aspetto organizzativo e logistico, non quello tecnico.
Japan trains are not faster but they have a better average speed, in Italy you need a lot of time to reach the peak speed while in Japan it really took seconds.
@@ascaro1885 , in base alla mia esperienza, i treni qui in Italia sono puntuali, ma ci sono alcune cose che probabilmente vengono fatte meglio in Giappone. Per esempio, la pulizia e la manutenzione delle stazioni ferroviarie potrebbero essere migliorate.
I work in Hitachi, I deal with the installation of the scmt and ertms system for rock, blues and etr1000 trains
The Italian rail system puts the UK to shame. Our geography (England at least) isn't half as difficult as Italy's and yet we struggle to deliver new rail projects on time or on budget *cough*HS2*cough* - it's very depressing
Don't worry. HST in italy is one of the very few successful story in Italy.
In everything else, it's easier to find things the UK does better then us italian lol (except brexit. That was the most idiotic decision ever)
The HS line between Rome and Naples is in 25 kV AC, and not DC as displayed in the video
Proof that Italians CAN have reliable functional services.
Mercitalia fast was an incredible idea, but I think that it wasn’t so profitable
They didn't learn from the past TGV La Poste service. The idea was exactly the same but in France it was first reduced then closed due to high costs and road competition.
the HSR in italy is way bigger, there is the FRECCIAROSSA straight from LECCE to MILAN, going through the whole eastern coast. Different speeds, but still high speed (from bari to lecce the train is 200 km/h fast)
You are right. The adriatica is a such of important infrastructure as well. Also between San Benedetto del Tronto and Pesaro are allowed speeds up to 200 km/h.
Great video!
One note; Brescia isn't as high as in your map, so no need to build a tunnel under Lake Garda. :)
Lets hope a bridge to Siciliy brings HSR all the way from Napoli to Catania.
Thank you for another great video. If I might suggest two topics for videos. One is TEN-T expansion in regards of introducing HSR in eastern Europe. And the second one is about differences between rail lines designed for speeds up to 160,200,250,300,350 kph
Great suggestion!
Thanks for this great and interesting video! Keep on the good work folks!
Our pleasure!
You should correct the position of "Brescia" on your map. It looks like the tracks to Verona will be built straight through the Lago di Garda but the city is on one level with the most southern end of the lake haha :D
Great video. We have a great HSR Network and it's growing and become well served, even with the ETR700 ex-Fyra. Netherlands, learn from it 😘 love from Ansaldo-Breda
Hitachi has corrected the problems of Ansaldo Breda's etr 700.. low quality material, construction defects etc. plus delivery delays. Luckily Ansaldo Breda no longer exists.
@@fabiofabio203 It's not like you write out, 'cause Hitachi Rail Italia is the old Ansaldo Breda and the Netherlands requested wrong parameters for the train. So ...
@@fabiofabio203 Also it very rarely snows in HSR parts of Italy....
@@fabiofabio203 hitachi has built a shit train with the Etr-521 (nicknamed Rock). It's like they made the cheapest thing they could ever imagine, only plus is the space
i study in turin and often visit my family in rome. didnt know so much engineering went through what i so easily enjoy
Great video once again.
Hopefully with the link to France, as well as finishing of other sections, it can lead to the rise of real competitors of low-cost airlines. Imagine trains between London and Venice with a reasonable duration, or even faster night trains, enabling travelling 1500-2000 km whilst having a dinner and sleeping afterwards😁
Putting all together: Venezia-Milano is expected to be 70'
Milano-Torino 50'
Torino-Lyon is expected to be 1h50
Lyon to Paris 2h and Paris to London 2h20
A little bit optimistic considering congestion in Milan and I suppose you need to move from different station in Paris
It would be amazing in my opinion.
In that way people can also enjoying the cities between them, superb 🙂
There's an old project to connect all HS line of different countries to create a huge european HS line. But things are moving a bit slow due to the problems of each nation. Not to mention that every country has a different voltage and security system! But we are trying hard!
Like the old slogans on t shirts used to say " Italians do it better"
Great video as usual!
I just wanted to point out that there is a bit of controversy in Italy because HST are super efficient but the regional trains in the countryside are really lacking,
So the connection between big cities in Italy is great, but a lacking of local trains is the prince i guess…
in italy is being developed il terzo valico which will reduce the time from genova to milano in half... and genova torino, it's still under construction but maybe in five years it will be open to the public
Beautiful video but uncomplete, because either Freccia Rossa or Italo don't just reach Venice, but the exstreme North/East of Italy till UDINE and TRIESTE!!! Just to be precise and correct
I would definitely love to hear more about the economics aspect of it and the competition between private companies like Italo vs government run ones like TrenItalia. From what I understand all the actual tracks are owned and maintained by government right? And then Italo just rents the usage of the tracks. Also would be interesting to know how exactly Italo is even able to make a profit now (and can that be applied to other systems for example Brightline in USA).
Ive taken both TrenItalia and Italo and both were very good. I remember one time Italo was even couple of Euros less than TrenItalia and I was very surprised how a private company was cheaper than subsidized tickets from a gov run company.
Tracks are owned by RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana) whose stock is 100% owned by the ministry of finance. Whoever wants to use their tracks has to pay a toll that for high-speed lines amounts to about 7 euro/km. Although Trenitalia is also 100% owned by the ministry of finance, they do not receive any subsidy for their high-speed operations and are in fair competition against Italo (or whoever else will enter the market in the future). In fact they make a profit out of it. It's very close to airlines having to pay for airport slots.
Instead, for local/commuter services (regionale and regionale veloce) there are subsidies in the form of service contracts between regional governments and rail companies (among them lots of Trenitalia) which determine how many trains each region will have on each line in their territory. The same applies to conventional long-distance trains (most intercity and sleeper trains, except those run for profit by e.g. OeBB and DB) but the service contract is signed with the national government instead.
Some regions own parts of their regional networks, in that case toll takings go to them instead of RFI.
The state split into two separate company, Ferrovie italiane built operate the railway and mantenace the railway and Trenitalia operate the train, well Trenitalia and italo are makeing profit thats to the milions of tourists that choose a practical hst insted of the airplane, before between Milan and Roma there was a flight each 15 min for less 150 passanger, now on the same root on train there is a departure each 15 min and the train have 700 people on board...
@@Lorre982 I will be visiting Italy very soon (keeping fingers nothing goes wrong), being able to take the train from Rome to Venezia/Milan/Firenze just make things so much easier while travelling across the country. And far more relaxing than a flight where you have to go to the airport, queue up to check in and fly in crowded spaces :)
As a german, I'm very fascinated and sad.
I wish the connection between Milan and Germany would be better.
@Hatsross12 I think Germany also compared to other European countries are big car producers and „consumers“, so more money has been invested in roads, motorways (which are free of charge) rather than railways. But now the Green Party is in charge and things might change. They want to reduce prices and improve the system. Lets see, Italy has improved so much. In the 90‘s trains used to be very unrealiable. They might still not be the most punctual, although as a season ticket holder I can’t remember big delays and it is great to get to Milan from Rome in less than 3 hours.
Sorry for the comment in Italian, I do it for two reasons: the first is I want to "talk" to my compatriots, the second is that my English is too bad and I would have difficulty expressing the concept I want to say (also you wouldn't understand because it's something concerning a peculiar attitude by many Italians).
Naturalmente, come succede per ogni video in cui a qualsiasi titolo uno straniero scrive riguardo qualcosa in Italia che è ben fatto, funziona bene etc, arrivano (alcuni) italiani con le loro precisazioni tutte tese a sminuire e confutare le tesi e/o gli oggetti in questione (non sia mai, viene scritto qualcosa di positivo? Per carità ...).
-Il Frecciarossa è apprezzato dalla larghissima maggioranza degli stranieri? "Si però tu non sai che ..."
-FCO ha raggiunto uno standard qualitativo paragonabile ai migliori aeroporti del mondo? "Vero, ma vuoi mettere ..."
Ho fatto questi due esempi perché sono gli ultimi in ordine di tempo che mi vengono in mente ma leggo ovunque questo genere di cose, sotto video dove si apprezzano monumenti, ristoranti, musei, città e/o luoghi in generale etc (aggiungete una cosa a caso, vi assicuro che ci troverete qualche italiano che prova a sminuire, precisare, rettificare, smontare etc).
Ovviamente poi se provi a controbattere o dire qualcosa al riguardo (esattamente come sto facendo con questo commento), gli stessi ti iniziano ad elencare tutto ciò che in Italia non funziona e quanto in realtà questo paese faccia schifo (come se uno non ci vivesse e non ne conoscesse le problematiche).
Grandi ... "meglio fare il lavapiatti a Londra che lavorare in Italia ...".
No, non è mia, sto citando un ragazzo che così ha risposto ad alcune mie osservazioni sotto uno di questi video (ho sostituito la città da lui scritta con Italia perché pur non essendo parole mie, non mi va di offendere nessuno).
Fine del poema, ora sotto con le critiche e gli insulti (mi raccomando eh, ricordatevi di citarmi tutto quello che non va, fate come se io pensassi di vivere non in Italia ma in un paese Scandinavo a caso).
Fun fact: Corisca is actually part of Italy. It's just temporarily occupied by France.
On my bucket list to try the Freccia Rossa Milan to Naples or the reverse
Thanks, Rail Explained, for a great virtual trip across Italy.
Thanks. Another great presentation. Have a nice Easter.
Thanks, you too!
Now we should aim to lower the price, because in long trips take a plane remains cheaper and faster, despite being much more problematic with the emissions of CO2.
Another good think are the regional trains that were bought in 2016. They are fast (they can reach 130kmph as a Regional!) and well designed
its also about to expand all the way to palermo, The capital of sicily, thru the messina straight bridge!
Sure, my late father returned to Sicily in 1979 because he wanted to find a job in the construction that the news claimed was about to start.
There is more business around planning its construction that effectively building it.
@@santopino756 true and sad story! Every right-wing government proposes the bridge over the Strait of Messina every time, only to cancel it after the cousins have made millions with projects and feasibility studies! @2023 we are currently with five projects and five studies that said "it's useless" with a total of 1 billion of € burned!
@@santopino756its already in construction
There is some confusion with the power standards used, and most importantly the lines drawn in Sicily are plain and simply wrong:
There's no high speed between Palermo and Messina, in fact it is still single track in some sections.
You are right about the doubling between Palermo and Catania being in progress, but it's only partial and it WON'T be high speed, with travel times near 3h if you don't make any stop along the old route. And it will cost several billions...
And finally, no mention of the doubling between Catania and Messina, no mention of the HSR Salerno-Reggio Calabria, and no mention of the one thing that has become non negotiable for 5 million people: the damn bridge.
It's great for travelling to nearby cities for more sight seeing!
Waiting for them to extend the lines to Lecce...
as an italian i feel very proud
ma va la ...
Great video!
At 5:01 it is not DC but AC!
My bad
25kV DC would be... interesting. I am imagining a lot of molten copper and steel.
7:37 I don’t know if you were trying to show the Amalfi Coast but in that image you put the Cinque Terre which is in Liguria 😅, and also there isn’t high-speed in Sicilia just Intercity service
Stanno investendo mi pare.
When railways improved, i almost stopped flying or using my car for long distances. I use it only when I have to drive with more passengers
@Railways Explained
Is not Treviglo.... Is TREVIGLIO, i lived there.
Fascinating video, very informative
I wasn't aware there were plans to build a high speed railway between Napoli and Bari via Foggia, the actual railway between Napoli and Foggia is one of the most backwater ones, with its worse consisting on a single track route between Benevento and Foggia.
unfortunately, the italian train-manufacturing companies desappered
- Fiat Ferroviaria sold plants and design to the French Alstom
- Ansaldo Breda first sold to the Canadian Bombardier and next to Hitachi
Great video. I used to think Italian railways were bad, but in recent years I've been very impressed by what they've been doing (same as Spain). Interesting that they tried high speed freight. I'm not surprised it failed though. Mostly, people want to ship things cheaply and in bulk, not quickly. Perhaps they could experiment with adding a single parcel carriage to passenger HSR trains for express parcels/mail, because I'm sure there's a small level of demand for speed (at higher cost).
Why did you think they were a mess? W the stereotypes!
@@intersezioni Well mainly because when I visited Italy, the first time (going from Florence to Venice), the trains were all on strike and I had to take a long distance bus. On another visit they worked ok but there was a lot of graffiti around (Rome to Fiumicino line).
@@mdhazeldineAh, graffiti, the Italian guys are very talented budding artists, and sometimes it is a shame to erase their artwork......😂😂😂
About the freight service, I'm not surprised either. France used to run TGV La Poste trains with an iconic yellow livery. The service was shut down due to lack of market, I'm surprised mercitalia didn't learn from this past story. Perhaps as you say a small compartment in a passenger carriage for fast mail coul work better.
@@mdhazeldine Strikes and graffiti can exist beside great projects. Am I wrong?
When completed (2030 approximately lol) i expect you to talk about the Basque Y, the basque section of the Spanish system. It is 180kms long, and 60% are in tunnels (more than 100kms!) and only on ground less than 30%.
Great video
Edit: it is said that it will be completed by 2027, but not fully, because it won't enter into Bilbao,since the station won't be prepared yet
Grazie x questo video ....finalmente qualcuno competente con le spiegazioni....lItalia e un territorio molto fragile e complicato da gestire ...l'alta velocità e stata una scommessa vinta .....anche se non sono i più veloci ....ma ha poca importanza in poche ore siamo da nord a sud !!!!!😜
As an Italian, I am both happy and pissed off because:
-) yes, the high-speed line on the Tyrrhenian side is very advanced and very important for the whole country....
-) ... but at the same time, the railway line on the Adriatic side, not so important but still logistically relevant (Ancona/Pescara/Foggia/Bari/Taranto/Lecce are only the main cities on this side), is practically abandoned to itself from Ancona south to Lecce (almost 400 km, or more), moreover if we consider that on this line still there’s a SINGLE BINARY section of 32 km where many passenger trains have to run per day... we are in 2023, simply ridiculous and not acceptable
-) the ETR Frecciarossa and Italo trains may be beautiful/comfortable/technological/etc, ok... but all the other 'normal' trains in the rest of Italy are always delayed/degraded/dirty/etc...
We have an old New York Central advertising poster in our lobby. New York to Chicago in 16 hours (steam days). America is trying to get back to the rail system we had in 1950. 🥵
Considering Torino-Napoli it’s a 870km journey and it takes 5h30 with the high speed line, with italian HSR it would take around 7-8hours for NY-Chicago
@@andrealeonti2967 American railroading. Struggling every day to get back to 1950! ;-)
GREETINGS FROM AN ITALIAN TRAIN ENTHUSIAST, THE VIDEO IS VERY WELL DONE! GOOD JOB👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you!
For the Italian HSR to connect with ÖBB DB SFS Innsbruck Rosenheim ETR1000 needs ETCS PZB LZB as an equipment to run on 15kv 16.7hz SFS Deutsche Bahn and Austrian Federal Railways. Only Italian HSR train to have those is ETR610 for Frankfurt am Main Hbf Milano Centrale via Luzern & Bern in switzerland PZB LZB ETCS Level 1 & 2 ZUB
The Freccia Rossa can also reach speeds of 300km/h
you forgot the "Reggio Emilia AV Mediopadana" station between Bologna and Milan
I think you should go into more details about high-speed in Sicily, because you could have got some fake informations
Not only Italy has been first when it comes to high-speed Freight but the fact that they've canceled it last year was disappointing.
Not to criticize, but at 7:13 you say that it was designed for 250 km/h, but the video shows 300 km/h. Also at 4:58 you say that it uses 25 kV AC while on the screen it is displayed as 25 kV DC. I would recommend paying attentions to these minor issues, as it might be confusing for those that don't know much about railways. I hope my input has been useful. ;)
And now they're building a connection from Napoli to Bari (reducing travel time to about 2 hours) and they're electrifying part of the Jonica in september
Much love from an Italian abroad watcher! :)
At 9:48 , it shows 214 km but says 78 km. Which one is correct?
It's a mistake. Correct is 78 km.
If only the have a bridge or tunnel over messina strait to connect mainland and sicily, it will be great
A Straits of Messina bridge has been in the works for years with a lot of talking, a lot money being thrown at it and design & engineering work done. However, every time it has been cancelled for a variety of reasons though money is the main issue. NIMBYism has also been a big problem. The project has been resurrected yet again and is using the design and engineering work which was already completed. It remains to be seen whether or not this attempt will be successful.
@@zyoninkiro not to mention the huge engineering feat it will be. The conditions are far from ideal for any solid connection.
NIMBYism is a big problem in Italy, whenever new infrastrutture is proposed or started years are spent fighting with the locals with unreasonable concerns (see TAP, TAV, MOSE, A2, Beleolico, Piombino regasifier and many more ).
It's currently being worked on. Optimistic predictions put beginning of construction to mid 2024.
Why will it be great?
If constructed it would be huge. By making a comparison with the longest suspended bridge already in service, the Akashi bridge in Japan: span from 1991 to 3300m (50 % longer) pylons from 282m to 399m. The Akashi bride has "only" an highway, the Messina bridge will have both a double track railway and highway...
I will be riding Trenitalia and Italo trains next week so watching uyour video really helps a lot. Thanks for sharing.😀✌
Italy has alway had best engineers in every field. starting from cars to aerospace. the only problem in some huge companie which went default was the fact that they used to steal money. big brands like alfa romeo, alitalia, olivetti, fiat. they were all the pioneers in their sectors. for example many first bmw models were inferior to alfa romeos. what happened next? the firms where the management was corrupted wen bankrupt, making foreign firms bigger and more powerful, when at the beginning the italian ones were the best. still we have many examples today of very good firms in italy. Freccia Rossa is a wonderful example of best engineering and good management, thus the best high speed train in Europe. Good job trenitalia
Sooner or later the japanese will copy the conference room of the frecciarosssa on their shinkansen
Frecciarossa beats the pants off of flying in Ryanair's sardine tin cans in the sky w/dung service to match. I have travelled all 20 Regions in Italia, and whenever possible I always choose the train over flying. Less hassle, very comfortable and you end a journey in the DT of a city instead of km's out in some cowpasture with Ryanair. There is a stretch from Bologna to Firenze where the Frecciarossa Mille hit 323 km/h! Had a phone app that could track speed. Viva L'Italia e i suoi treni.
Just a correction, that I think the people that are going to see this video should know: in sicily there is NOT an high speed railway, and when at 2:20 u see the rail track from Palermo to Messina and from Catania to Messina, is just an ERROR of the person that created that map. In Sicily, we have one of the worst rail tracks of all the country, and I think that people should know that.
I love trains 😍
If you take the frecciarossa train from Italy to Paris. It feels like a jet. It's very smooth. I hope the Italians make their trains more pointy like the Japanese ones. It will look really cool. Italy should also try investing in maglev in the future.
Wonderful pronunciation of the Italian City name!! Complimenti!
Note: Turin written in this way has to be pronounced as English [or French] Because The Italian Name is *Torino*
Not many things are working the way they should in Italy... High speed Rail is one of those few things.
Some years down the road Italy will be better connected to Switzerland and Austria/ Germany via Rail which should benefit economy
if so many things didn't work as you say, Italy wouldn't be in the G8!
@@intersezioni I am italean. We are certainly no third world country but there is a LOT to improve!
@@markusz4447 as in all countries of the world, but never a people like the Italian one loves to denigrate and humiliate themselves by feeling an immense pleasure in doing so!
Now tell me what was your pointlessly pessimistic comment about Italy in this video made up of positive things and compliments? was it essential? it brought something new as well as unnecessarily increasing stereotypes about our country!
You seem to feel personally attacked by me pointing out that my country which can improve a lotat least gets HSR right^^
@@markusz4447 non hai capito un cazzo!
could someone explain the graph on 17:54 ?
I get the "demand increased" aspect. But what is Yield and why did it decrease?
I think more people and cheaper prices. Also, when did italo come in? Also v Competitive v Freccia.