With Paris stronger, FS returns to charge on Frecciarossa in the Channel

The year-end alliance between the State Railways and Certares projects Trenitalia towards France in 2026. But behind the agreement between the state-owned company and the American investment fund, with Paris at its heart, is a strategy that also looks across the Channel: to bring the Frecciarossa under Europe's busiest (and richest) tunnel between London and Paris. That has long been the project of Stefano Donnarumma, the number one of FS. Stuck on the English side, in favour of the compatriots of Virgin Trains, now the Italians could still enter the coveted route.

Trenitalia first entered the UK in force back in 2019 when it won, against British billionaire Richard Branson and his Virgin Trains, the tender for the London-Manchester-Glasgow route: it debuted at the end of that year with West Coast trains. The route had a double strategic value: in addition to entering the country, the move also meant putting a foot in the future High Speed Rail between London and the north of the country, with the state-run HS2 project of which Avanti was the 'shadow operator' pending the construction of the tracks, which will be ready around 2030.

Last year, the new government dropped a windfall on all 26 railway companies, which had been completely privatised in the UK: it renationalised the railways, throwing out (as the various concessions expired) all the companies operating in the country. As a countermove, Trenitalia UK has attempted to enter the London-Paris TAV, the only fast route currently existing in the country: the Eurostar company, monopolist of the route for 25 years, must open its train depots to competition. The British transport authority has, however, granted the space, which is indispensable to operate on the route, to the revived Virgin Trains, preferring it to Trenitalia UK.

The exclusion of the English railway depots seemed, in the immediate future, to have cut off the FS from the route which, after Covid, recorded an increase in passengers and today Eurostar trains always run full. But here comes France to the rescue: the route has two terminuses and if London has been excluded, there is nothing to stop Trenitalia from running its Frecciarossa trains from Paris, where Trenitalia already has space at the Gare du Lyon and operates the Milan-Paris route.

The agreement with the American investor, who specialises in infrastructure, will provide the necessary capital to finally bring the Frecciarossa under the Channel and from 2029 compete with the decades-old Eurostar (which has promised new double-decker trains on the route) and the new entrant Virgin Trains.