New competition needed in the high-speed market

Experiences of the development of competition in the HS market in mature contexts, under way in other European countries, clearly show that the greatest benefits for users, in terms of lower ticket prices and diversification of the offer, are also obtained thanks to the possibility of developing business models based on high-capacity trains, such as those used by OUIGO and Avlo in Spain and those ordered by Velvet and Kevin Speed in France.

At the Italian level, it is SNCF Voyages Italia (SVI) that intends to propose this strategy from 2027 onwards, joining Trenitalia and Italo's HS services on the main routes between Turin and Naples, with 9 connections a day, and between Turin and Venice with 4 connections.

The difficulties that SVI is encountering in planning the long-awaited development of the HS market, which from 2019 to date has practically failed to increase either supply (+1% between 2019 and 2024) or demand (+4%), and which the Transport and Competition Regulatory Authorities have started investigations into, can only be overcome by adopting an innovative approach that takes environmental and social externalities into account. In fact, the most critical issue stems from the saturation of the two main railway stations (Milan Central and Rome Termini) and of some sections of the line between Florence and Rome, which prevents the inclusion of train paths of interest to SVI and passengers. The solution requires overcoming the coordination problems between the infrastructure manager (RFI), the railway companies, the Ministry of Infrastructures and Transport and the Tuscany, Umbria and Latium Regions, enhancing the proactive role of the Transport Authority which, in accordance with its statute, is responsible for guaranteeing, by means of methods that encourage competition, the productive efficiency of management and the containment of costs for users, companies and consumers, fair and non-discriminatory conditions of access to the railway infrastructures.

The first step towards a solution requires the revision of the service contracts with the Ministry and the Regions for medium-distance services affecting the capacity of the direttissima line between Florence and Rome. The presence of InterCity and Regionali Veloci services, in fact, implies a high opportunity cost of not optimally utilising the limited train paths, also in consideration of the number of passengers involved: an AV train of SVI, in fact, will have about 600 seats occupied, compared to less than 200 on average on IC and RV trains.

The second step to optimise line capacity will be to reduce the percentage of maximum train path quotas per applicant on the one hand and, on the other hand, to clearly introduce the criterion of assessing the socio-economic and environmental effects, including the ability to respond to different demand needs arising from seasonality and to divert passengers from air transport, which is much less environmentally sustainable than HS services.