Italo launches German challenge: 26 trains to compete with Deutsche Bahn

The aim is to break another monopoly. Italo, the private company that has revolutionised high-speed rail in Italia, is ready to invest EUR 3.6 billion to enter the German railways, competing with the Ice (high-speed) service of Deutsche Bahn (Db). The first trains should start in two years, in mid-2028. This was announced to Il Sole 24 Ore by Italo's CEO,

 Gianbattista La Rocca (in office since 2018). A resounding turnaround, which aims to replicate on the German market the business model that the company has successfully experimented in Italia, where the entrenchment of the private company has favoured both a doubling of demand, which now exceeds 60 million passengers a year, and a drop in fares (-40%), with both operators (FS and Italo) remaining profitable. The German long-distance rail market expresses a demand of 110-120 million passengers per year and could increase by at least 40% in the future.

Says La Rocca: 'Germany represents the first step towards the internationalisation of the company. We have already established the German company a year ago; we have the railway licence and have started the process to obtain the safety certificate. But above all we have already determined and agreed with the German manufacturer Siemens the contract for the purchase and maintenance of trains. It is absolutely necessary that, by May, the German railway infrastructure manager gives us a clear and certain picture of the train paths and station spaces we need to operate.

This is because,' continues La Rocca, 'we have to sign the contract with Siemens by next June and it is not possible to postpone this date, on pain of a heavy lengthening in the delivery times of the trains that would make the project no longer sustainable from an industrial point of view. The project envisages an investment of 1.2 billion for the purchase of 26 new trains produced in Germany with an option for a further 14, plus an investment of 2.4 billion for the maintenance of the trains for 30 years and for all the activities necessary for the development and management of the company such as staff training, station investments and the necessary IT services.

Italo would connect 18 cities on a network of 1,300 kilometres, with 50 daily services. The company has already identified two reference corridors: Munich-Cologne-Dortmund; Munich-Berlin-Hamburg. The routes coincide with Germany's busiest corridors because it is there that passengers need more capacity and more choice, as was the case in Italia where the result was an overall market growth of 120%.