New railway to Malpensa opens: easier to reach the airport by train

Three years after the start of work, a major project has come to an end: the new railway link between Terminal 2 of Milan Malpensa Airport (at the old air terminal) and the Gallarate (Varese) junction, along the Simplon railway line. The work, which was promoted and coordinated by Ferrovienord, a company of the Fnm group, required an investment of 264 million euros and was also financed with European Union funds. From Friday 23 January 2026, all Trenord's Malpensa Express trains departing from Milano Centrale will arrive in Gallarate, where it will be possible to reach the airport in 8 minutes; today the journey takes half an hour. The train ticket from Gallarate to Malpensa costs 7 euros. Between Malpensa Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 (new air terminal), the train connection has been in operation since 2016.

The new T2-Gallarate link will allow the railway ring around Malpensa to be closed and will expand the airport's catchment area, which can also be reached more easily from Ticino (Switzerland). All in time for the opening of the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina, scheduled for Friday 6 February 2026. T2-Gallarate makes Malpensa airport a fundamental interchange hub, a gateway to Europe and the world.

The double-track railway connection between Malpensa Airport Terminal 2 and the Rfi Simplon line has a length of 4.6 kilometres of new track towards Gallarate. A 1.1-kilometre siding towards Casorate Sempione will be built in a second phase. From Gallarate, departures will be every half hour at minutes 24 and 54, from the first run at 5.24 a.m. until the last at 11.24 p.m. In the opposite direction, from Malpensa to Gallarate, the first run is scheduled at the airport at 5.58 a.m., arriving in Gallarate at 6.06 a.m., again with trains every half hour for the rest of the day. Timetables and details of the new service are published on Trenord's communication channels (trenord.it website and app).

The intervention represents the completion of rail accessibility from the north to Malpensa and is part of the so-called Global Project Malpensa T1 (new air terminal)-Malpensa T2 (old air terminal)-Simplon line, of which the rail link between terminals T1 and T2 has been active since 2016. The realisation of this work will therefore allow routes to the Milan area to be strengthened, making them more efficient, quicker and more sustainable. The airport will thus be able to become an interchange hub for short- and medium-haul, high-speed and cross-border rail services.

Attilio Fontana, president of the Lombardy Region, says: "As a region we have strongly believed in this project, on the one hand by allocating significant resources (98 million euro, ed.) and on the other by implementing a political-institutional work that has allowed us to obtain funding and support from the European Union as well. The EU has allocated EUR 63.4 million for this project, within the framework of the 'Cef - Connecting Europe Facility - 2019 Cef Transport Map call' programme.