New Italo train takes off!

The high-speed railways carrier Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV) and its ‘italo’ train service reported recently that since its launch in April 2012, it has carried 1.5 million passengers and that it expected to reach its goal to surpass two million by the end of the 2012.

On the 28th April 2012, NTV commenced operations of the ‘Italo’ train service. NTV is a new, privately owned, Italian high speed passenger rail company. Since the April launch NTV’s Italo has significantly expanded its operation on the high speed rail network. Italo now serves Turin, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples – with an hourly service on the busy Milan-Rome route. The Italo service also serves Padova and Venice on the conventional rail line.

NTV has leased a fleet of 25 Alstom AGV trains, each train set comprises 11 coaches with a capacity of 450 passengers. There are three travel classes (Club, Prima and Smart), a cinema carriage, free Wi-Fi access throughout the train, and luxury leather seats in all classes. With its dark red colour livery, the Italo product is customer-focused with a high-performance, luxury theme but it is positioned to be affordable and accessible to all consumers. Competing head on with state-owned Trenitalia services, the Italo service is targeting a 25% share of the travel market on the high-speed corridor between Turin and Naples.

Recently, the company’s CEO Giuseppe Sciarrone launched the new link between Turin and Milan. This new route became operational in early December and boasts a 45 minute journey time. Sciarrone said: “The number of people using a high-speed option has grown 10-15% and prices have dropped an average of 30% since we launched our service. NTV has invested over one billion euros without any kind of public subsidy and now employs over 2,000 young people”.

Experience to date is that Italo is having an impact. Even with the economy flat lining, rail demand on the high speed rail corridor has continued to increase and the expectation is that by end of December 2012, Italo will have carried about two million passengers – quite an impact for a start-up operation. Train performance is also meeting targets, with 95% of trains achieving punctuality targets.

Steer Davies Gleave has been lead technical advisor to the banking consortium supporting NTV since the project was conceived in 2007. It is another great success story for Steer Davies Gleave – supporting such an exciting project from the drawing board to real life operation.