The 2024 Summer Experience organised by the Passenger Business Unit Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane – consisting of Trenitalia (lead company), Busitalia, Ferrovie del Sud Est and FS Treni Turistici Italiani – kicks off on 9 June and is enhanced with latest-generation trains also purchased with NRRP funds directly allocated to Trenitalia.
New connections to summer tourist destinations, art cities and Italian villages. More intermodal and digital services to benefit travellers, allowing them to get around more comfortably and sustainably, partly thanks to new combined solutions with train, bus, ship or plane.
“Trains play a key role in people’s lives, not only as a means of transport, but also as a place and space where a common culture of health, inclusion and sustainability can be consolidated and spread. Trenitalia’s Summer Experience allows us to offer a unique model of excellence thanks to thousands of trains and buses that transport millions of people every day”, said Stefano Cuzzilla, Chairman of Trenitalia.
Trenitalia connections and offers to reach over 700 destinations
Over 700 summer destinations can be reached every day. Specifically, the summer service includes more than 270 Frecce trains daily, with over 130,000 seats on offer. Intercity and Intercity Notte will travel to more than 230 cities (70 summer destinations).
The 6,000 Regionale trains per day will reach more than 1,700 destinations, 500 of which are tourist destinations.
FS Treni Turistici Italiani’s renewed summer offer will be enriched with the Espresso Versilia and the Espresso Riviera. Also confirmed is the summer route of the Espresso Cadore, which will travel between Rome and Cortina D’Ampezzo.
The range of services of the Passenger Business Unit is also complemented by the more than 9,700 daily Busitalia connections in the Veneto, Umbria and Campania regions and the approximately 1,000 train and bus services of Ferrovie del Sud Est in Apulia.
The range of intermodal services is also growing, with connections to 19 ports and 23 airports, plus 12 FRECCIALink routes connected with Frecce trains, and 159 links to tourist destinations connected with Regionale trains.
For connections abroad, thanks to Eurocity trains, operated in cooperation with the Swiss railways, Italian and international travellers can use connections from Milan or Venice to destinations such as Zurich, Lugano and Bellinzona. Thanks to the Euronight connections, operated in cooperation with the Austrian railways, Germany and Austria will be connected with La Spezia, Genoa and Milan.
Moreover, CEO Luigi Corradi has announced the reopening by the end of the year of the Frecciarossa connection between Milan and Paris, following its forced closure caused by a landslide in France.
Record numbers for the Passenger Business Unit
In the first four months of the year, 268 million people travelled on board the FS Group’s Passenger Business Unit vehicles (+5% compared to 2023), 191 million of them in Italy.
Over the same period, Trenitalia transported 150 million travellers who, by choosing to travel by train, saved €700 million in environmental and social costs and avoided the emission of 900,000 tonnes of CO2 into the air compared to using a car.
To compare the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of a train journey with the same journey by other means of transport, Trenitalia has recently integrated ‘Ecopassenger’ into its sales systems.
2023 was a record year for Trenitalia: over 500 million travellers, up 30 million from the previous year (+18%).
The very positive net result compared to 2022 was driven by an increase in traffic revenues, which affected all businesses, but particularly the High Speed segment.
EUR 1.8 billion invested, mainly in fleet renewal
Investment expenditure in 2023 exceeded EUR 1.8 billion, of which €1.1 billion was earmarked for fleet renewal. Increasingly modern and technologically advanced trains will run in the coming years.
The development of digital initiatives has also contributed to the increase in the number of passengers buying online: 47% of tickets are sold on the website and app.
In the coming weeks, the ‘Tap&Tap’ payment system, which allows regional tickets to be purchased using a contactless payment card directly at the validators in the station, will also be extended on the Venice-Bassano del Grappa; Turin-Caselle and Cagliari-Elmas airport routes, following the good results recorded on the Verona-Venice route.
Thanks to the implementation of artificial intelligence and blockchain in Frecciarossa’s customer care operations, the claim verification and validation process has been accelerated.
There is also a new development for those travelling abroad: through the app, thanks to the integration of other railway companies’ sales systems, it will be possible to purchase tickets for travel on foreign railway networks, SBB and Iryo, the Trenitalia subsidiary that brought Frecciarossa to Spain. In Europe, the Passenger Business Unit guarantees a total of around 2,700 train connections and more than 9,000 bus journeys every day.
FS Treni Turistici Italiani: all timetables for new routes
FS Treni Turistici Italiani will be enhanced with the Espresso Versilia and the Espresso Riviera.
The first will leave from Milan, passing through Cinque Terre, before continuing its journey to Pisa and the beaches of Versilia. The second, from Milan to Ventimiglia, will cross the beaches of the Riviera dei Fiori until it touches the Côte d’Azur.
Also confirmed for summer 2024 is the Espresso Cadore, already operating during the winter season, which will travel between Rome and Cortina.
Espresso Cadore
This route will return to operation on 25 June, and will continue until 31 August.
Outward journeys will be on Tuesdays, departing from Roma Termini at 8:58 p.m. and arriving in Cortina at 10:13 a.m., and on Fridays, also departing at 8:58 p.m. and arriving at 9:28 a.m.
Return journeys will be on Wednesdays, with departure from Cortina at 7 p.m. and arrival in Rome at 6:42 a.m., and on Saturdays, also departing at 7 p.m. and arriving at 8:38 a.m.
The only exception is Saturday, 6 July, where the arrival will be at 6:42 a.m.
The intermediate stops of the Espresso Cadore night train are at Ponte nelle Alpi-Polpet, Longarone-Zoldo and Calalzo-Pieve di Cadore-Cortina. From here, the journey continues by bus, stopping in Borca di Cadore and arriving at the former railway station of Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Espresso Versilia
The Espresso Versilia will travel on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6 August to 26 September, with departure from Milano Centrale at 10:35 a.m. and arrival at Livorno Centrale at 3:42 p.m. for the outward journey, while for the return journey, departure from Livorno is scheduled for 4:50 p.m. and arrival in Milan at 11:05 p.m.
Intermediate stops are planned in Pavia, Genoa Piazza Principe, Santa Margherita Ligure – Portofino, Monterosso, Corniglia, Riomaggiore, Massa Centro, Forte dei Marmi, Camaiore Lido – Capezzano, Viareggio, Torre del Lago – Puccini and Pisa.
Espresso Riviera
Finally, the Espresso Riviera will travel on Saturdays and Sundays, from 3 August to 29 September, departing from Milano Centrale and arriving in Ventimiglia.
The outward train will leave at 7:35 a.m. from Milan, arriving in Ventimiglia at 12:20 p.m. or, on some dates, at 11:35 a.m.
Specifically, early arrival is scheduled for Saturday 3 August and weekends from 14 to 29 September.
The return train will leave Ventimiglia at 18:55, arriving at Milano Centrale 23:40. Seven intermediate stages are planned: Pavia, Varazze, Savona, Albenga, Alassio, Sanremo and Bordighera.
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