SNCF subsidiary to launch Open Access services in Italy

[YorkRailFan]

SNCF Voyageurs, the passenger operating business of French National Railways (SNCF), has announced its intention to enter the Italian domestic high-speed market.

From 2026 its subsidiary SNCF Voyageurs Italia is planning to operate nine return services a day from Turin to Naples, calling at Milan, Bologna, Florence and Rome. Four return services a day will operate from Turin to Venice, via Milan, Brescia, Verona and Padua.

SNCF Voyageurs Italia has applied to infrastructure manager Italian Rail Network (RFI) for access rights to operate these services for 15 years.

The new services will be operated with a fleet of 15 TGV M high-speed trains, the first of which are due to be delivered in the second half of 2025 to enter service on SNCF’s Paris - Milan route. SNCF has ordered a total of 115 TGV M trains from Alstom.

By 2030 the French national operator is hoping to capture 15% of the Italian high-speed market, currently amounting to 56 million passengers a year. It says that 80% of those travelling by other modes are interested in travelling by rail.

SNCF Voyageurs Italia will compete with incumbent Trenitalia and private open-access operator Italo-NTV.

Following a landslide on the French section of the route, the Paris - Turin - Milan service operated by SNCF Voyageurs Italia is down to one train in each direction a day, with part of the journey by bus. The cross-border route via the Fréjus tunnel is not expected to reopen before November.

SNCF to enter Italian high-speed market

French National Railways (SNCF) has announced that it will enter the Italian high-speed market in 2026 with Turin - Naples and Turin - Venice services.

www.railjournal.com

Italy is a great case study of success with Open Access operations with Italo and has almost killed domestic flights within Italy where a rail alternative is available. So it will be very interesting if this proposal is approved and if so, how successful it is.

 

[Austriantrain]

I always find it amusing reading that competition killed off air travel. What really killed it off were billions of tax Euros, by Italians and Europeans, to build those HSL (and I am all for it). Competition did indeed make the system even more efficient (mostly because Trenitalia was useless without the pressure of Italo), but would never have been enough on its own.

 

[signed]

The fact it will be using TGV-M makes no sense from the domestic French services side.

We are massively lacking units, why using them outside of France? Especially this early in the delivery process

 

[Gag Halfrunt]

They need 3,000 V DC capability to operate in Italy. SNCF probably decided that buying new TGV sets with 3,000 V was more cost-effective than modifying older units.

 

[DanNCL]

I always find it amusing reading that competition killed off air travel. What really killed it off were billions of tax Euros, by Italians and Europeans, to build those HSL (and I am all for it). Competition did indeed make the system even more efficient (mostly because Trenitalia was useless without the pressure of Italo), but would never have been enough on its own.

I agree. The UK is a prime example of that - three operators on the rail network between London and the North East and two (plus a slower one) between London and Edinburgh, yet there’s still a strong air travel market on those same corridors. The difference between those and Italy being the lack of HSL.

If anything with those UK examples I’d say the offering by the ‘main’ operator (LNER) has got worse not better despite the competition.

 

[Fragezeichnen]

The fact it will be using TGV-M makes no sense from the domestic French services side.

We are massively lacking units, why using them outside of France? Especially this early in the delivery process

Maybe I am just too cynical, but I wonder how much the decision to launch Open Access operations in Spain and Italy has to do with a desire for "revenge" against RENFE and Trenitalia for operating Open Access high speed services on SNCF's home turf.

It seemed to me to be minor but noteworthy that when they stopped selling tickets for trains outside of France they provided links to the websites of DB, SNCB, SBB and CFL as alternative vendors, but gave no help to anyone hoping to buy tickets in Italy and Spain.

 

[signed]

against RENFE

AFAIK Renfe wasn't wanting to open OA in France before OUIGO ES, when the partnership between the two fell apart nuclearly and now RENFE does OA. So SNCF seem to have started it (probably when they saw Iryo get in that market).

they provided links to the websites of DB, SNCB, SBB and CFL as alternative vendors,

All SNCF loong-time partners, so no wonder.

---

Italy seem to be a very dicey subject IMHO.

Launching that, this early, with stock that we direly need domestically, seems to exactly be revenge.

Trenitalia has been OA in France since 2011 with Thello, and the competition between FR and TGV on the crown jewel may have given some heat to that conflict.