Donnarumma: 'We evaluate entry into the German high-speed market'

'We are thinking of expanding our business in Germany to the profitable high-speed train sector', says the CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato, Stefano Donnarumma, in an interview with the German newspaper 'Handelsblatt'.

Fs, which is already active in 14 Lander in Germany through its subsidiaries Netinera and TX Logistik, is reportedly ready to enter the network with 50 trains, according to Handelsblatt. According to Donnarumma, the project is currently in the exploratory phase. 'We have contacted the infrastructure managers and the authorities, as is only right,' the CEO emphasised.

Abroad, the company is also active in Spain and France in the same sector. 'We already connect northern Italy with Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France. It is an ideal base for our European expansion,' says CEO Donnarumma. In Spain, the newspaper article recalls, FS is present through the 'iryo' consortium, with 20 Frecciarossa 1000 trains that make 65 daily connections between eleven cities. Since the service's launch in November 2022, iryo has transported more than 17.5 million passengers, reaching a market share of 25%.

In France, FS has been operating as Trenitalia France, competing with the state-owned company Sncf since December 2021 (after a one-and-a-half year suspension) on the Milan-Paris line and more recently also on the Paris-Marseille line. In the first three years, around three million passengers used its services. In the UK, on the other hand, FS is leaving the market due to the renationalisation of the railway system, and on Thursday it also lost a tender that would have allowed it to compete with Eurostar in the Channel Tunnel on the London-Paris route. Now the company will look for alternatives to bring the Frecciarossa 1000 to the island by 2029.