Rail transport in Italy


The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of Italy, with a total length of of which active lines are. The network has recently grown with the construction of the new high-speed rail network. Italy is a member of the International Union of Railways. The UIC Country Code for Italy is 83. In 2024, the Italian national rail service Trenitalia was recognized as the best rail passenger operator in Europe.

The network

RFI, a state owned Railway [infrastructure manager|infrastructure manager] which administers most of the Italian rail infrastructure. The Italian railway system has a length of, of which standard gauge. The active lines are, of which are double tracks. Italy has 2,507 people and 12.46 km2 per kilometre of rail track, giving Italy the world's 13th-largest rail network.
Lines are divided into 3 categories:
  • fundamental lines, which have high traffic and good infrastructure quality, comprise all the main lines between major cities throughout the country. Fundamental lines are long;
  • complementary lines, which have less traffic and are responsible for connecting medium or small regional centres. Most of these lines are single track and some are not electrified;
  • node lines, which link complementary and fundamental lines near metropolitan areas for a total.
Most of the Italian network is electrified. The electric system is 3 kV DC on conventional lines and 25 kV AC on high-speed lines.
A major part of the Italian rail network is managed and operated by RFI. Other regional agencies, mostly owned by public entities such as regional governments, operate on the Italian network.
Travellers who often make use of the railway during their stay in Italy might use rail passes, such as the European Interrail / Eurail passes or Italy's national and regional passes. These rail passes allow travellers the freedom to use regional trains during the validity period, but all high-speed and intercity trains require up to a 15-euro reservation fee. Regional passes, such as "Io viaggio ovunque Lombardia", offer one-day, multiple-day and monthly periods of validity. There are also saver passes for adults, who travel as a group, with savings up to 20%. Foreign travellers should purchase these passes in advance so that the passes can be delivered by post prior to the trip. When using the rail passes, the date of travel needs to be filled in before boarding the trains.
Companies certified to run railways in Italy are:
;From 2000
;From 2001
;From 2002
;From 2003
;From 2004
;From 2005
;From 2006

History

The first line to be built on the peninsula was the Naples–Portici line, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which was long and was inaugurated on 3 October 1839, nine years after the world's first "modern" inter-city railway, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The following year the firm Holzhammer of Bolzano was granted the "Imperial-Royal privilege" to build the Milano–Monza line, the second railway built in Italy, in the then Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a part of the Austrian Empire.
After the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, a project was started to build a network from the Alps to Sicily, in order to connect the country. After unification, construction of new lines was boosted: in 1875, with the completion of the section Orte-Orvieto, the direct Florence–Rome line was completed, reducing the travel time of the former route passing through Foligno-Terontola. Private companies were definitively bought back by the Italian state on 1 July 1905, with the creation of the Ferrovie dello Stato, or FFSS, with a total of of lines, of which it already owned. The move was completed the following year with the acquisition of the remaining SFM network: by then FFSS possessed of lines, of which with double tracks.
The period from 1922 to 1939 was heavy with important construction and modernisation programmes for the Italian railways, which also incorporated from the Ferrovie Reali Sarde of Sardinia. The most important programme was that of the Rome–Naples and Bologna–Florence direttissimas : the first reduced the travel time from the two cities by an hour and a half; the second, announced proudly as "constructing Fascism", included the second longest tunnel in the world at the time, under the Apennines. Electrification on 3,000 V direct current was introduced, which later supplanted the existing three-phase system. Other improvements included automatic blocks, light signals, construction of numerous main stations and other technical modernisations. The first high-speed train was the Italian ETR 200, which in July 1939 went from Milan to Florence at, with a top speed of. With this service, the railway was able to compete with the upcoming aeroplanes. The Second World War stopped these services.
After World War II, Italy started to repair the damaged railways and built nearly of new tracks. Entire lines were out of action and much of the rolling stock was destroyed. Thanks to the Marshall Plan, in the following years they could be rebuilt, although the possibility of reorganizing the network was missed due to short-sighted policies. The main Battipaglia-Reggio Calabria line was doubled, while a program of updating of infrastructures, superstructures, services, colour-light signalling and cars was updated or extended. The three-phase lines were gradually turned into standard 3,000 V dc lines.
Increasing numbers of steam locomotives were replaced by electric or diesel ones; in the 1960s also the first unified passenger cars appeared and the first attempts of interoperability with foreign companies were started, culminating in the creation of Trans Europe Express services. Nowadays the rail tracks and infrastructure are managed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, while the train and the passenger section is managed mostly by Trenitalia. Both are Ferrovie dello Stato subsidiaries, once the only train operator in Italy.

High-speed rail

The Italian high-speed service began in 1938 with an electric-multiple-unit ETR 200, designed for, between Bologna and Naples. It too reached in commercial service, and achieved a world mean speed record of between Florence and Milan in 1938.
High-speed trains were developed during the 1960s. E444 locomotives were the first standard locomotives capable of top speed of, while an ALe 601 electrical multiple unit reached a speed of during a test. Other EMUs, such as the ETR 220, ETR 250 and ETR 300, were also updated for speeds up to. The braking systems of cars were updated to match the increased travelling speeds.
On 25 June 1970, work was started on the Rome–Florence Direttissima, the first high-speed line in Italy and in Europe. It included the bridge on the Paglia river, then the longest in Europe. Works were completed in the early 1990s.
In 1975, a program for a widespread updating of the rolling stock was launched. However, as it was decided to put more emphasis on local traffic, this caused a shifting of resources from the ongoing high-speed projects, with their subsequent slowing or, in some cases, total abandonment. Therefore, 160 E.656 electric and 35 D.345 locomotives for short-medium range traffic were acquired, together with 80 EMUs of the ALe 801/940 class, 120 ALn 668 diesel railcars. Some 1,000 much-needed passenger and 7,000 freight cars were also ordered.
In the 1990s, work started on the Treno Alta Velocità project, which involved building a new high-speed network on the routes Milan – – Salerno, Turin – – Trieste and Milan–Genoa. Most of the planned lines have already been opened, while international links with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia are underway.
Most of the Rome–Naples line opened in December 2005, the Turin–Milan line partially opened in February 2006 and the Milan–Bologna line opened in December 2008. The remaining sections of the Rome–Naples and the Turin–Milan lines and the Bologna–Florence line were completed in December 2009. All these lines are designed for speeds up to. Since then, it is possible to travel from Turin to Salerno in less than 5 hours. More than 100 trains per day are operated.
Other proposed high-speed lines are Salerno-Reggio Calabria, Palermo-Catania and Naples–Bari.
The main public operator of high-speed trains is Trenitalia, part of FSI. Trains are divided into three categories : Frecciarossa trains operate at a maximum of on dedicated high-speed tracks; Frecciargento trains operate at a maximum of on both high-speed and mainline tracks; Frecciabianca trains operate at a maximum of on mainline tracks only.
Since 2012, a new and Italy's first private train operator, NTV, run high-speed services in competition with Trenitalia. Even nowadays, Italy is the only country in Europe with a private high-speed train operator.
Construction of the Milan-Venice high-speed line began in 2013 and in December 2016 the Milan-Treviglio-Brescia section has been opened to passenger traffic; the Milan-Genoa high-speed line is also under construction.
Today it is possible to travel from Rome to Milan in less than 3 hours with the Frecciarossa 1000, the new high-speed train. As of June 2024, there are 46 Trenitalia and 33 Italo round-trip high-speed trains every weekday that cover this route,

Night trains

The Nightjet of the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) serves different major cities in Italy like Rome, Venice, Florence and Milano. The trains can be used for rides inside Italy as well as for journeys abroad.
Nightjet trains offer beds in sleeper carriages, couchette carriages, and seated carriages. On certain connections, cars can also be transported on the train. Bikes can be transported in a bike transport bag, or on some connections also in special bike racks.
Trenitalia operates many night trains within Italy, under the brand Intercity Notte. Routes include connections between the Northern Italian cities of Turin, Milan, and Trieste, to Rome and further to Southern Italian cities such as Lecce or Palermo and Syracuse in Sicily. The trains offer standard seats as well as modern couchettes and sleeping compartments.

Intercity trains

With the introduction of high-speed trains, intercity trains are limited to a few services per day on mainline and regional tracks.
The daytime services, while not frequent and limited to one or two trains per route, are essential in providing access to cities and towns off the railway's mainline network. The main routes are Trieste to Rome, Milan to Rome, Bologna to Lecce and Rome to Reggio di Calabria. In addition, the Intercity trains provide a more economical means of long-distance rail travel within Italy.
The night trains have sleeper compartments and washrooms, but no showers on board. The main routes are Rome to Bolzano/Bozen, Milan to Lecce, Turin to Lecce and Reggio di Calabria to Turin. Most portions of these ICN services run during the night; since most services take 10 to 15 hours to complete a one-way journey, their daytime portion provides extra train connections to complement the Intercity services.

Regional trains

Trenitalia operates regional services throughout Italy.
File:Trenord ETR 204 010 Palazzolo sull Oglio 20230410.jpg|thumb|A Trenord Donizetti TN 204 arrives at Palazzolo sull'Oglio railway station
Regional train agencies exist: their train schedules are largely connected to and shown on Trenitalia, and tickets for such train services can be purchased through Trenitalia's national network. Other regional agencies have separate ticket systems which are not mutually exchangeable with that of Trenitalia. These "regional" tickets could be purchased at local newsagents or tobacco stores instead.
In addition to these agencies, there is a great deal of other little operators, such as AMT Genova for the Genova-Casella railway.

Stations

Italy's top ten railway stations by annual passengers are:
RankRailway StationAnnual entries/exits Number of platformsCityRegion
1Roma Termini15032RomeLazio
2Milano Centrale14524MilanLombardy
3Torino Porta Nuova7020TurinPiedmont
4Firenze Santa Maria Novella5919FlorenceTuscany
5Bologna Centrale5828BolognaEmilia-Romagna
6Roma Tiburtina5120RomeLazio
7Napoli Centrale5025NaplesCampania
8Milano Cadorna33.110MilanLombardy
9Venezia Mestre3113VeniceVeneto
10Venezia Santa Lucia3016VeniceVeneto

Rapid transit

Metro

is the largest rapid transit system in Italy in terms of length, number of stations and ridership; and the fifth longest in the European Union and the eighth in the Europe. Seven cities have metro systems:
CityNameLinesLength StationsOpening
BresciaBrescia Metro113.7172013
CataniaCatania Metro18.8101999
GenoaGenoa Metro17.181990
MilanMilan Metro5102.51191964
NaplesNaples Metro336.4311993
RomeRome Metro360751955
TurinTurin Metro115.1232006

Commuter rail

15 cities have commuter rail systems; cities without wikilink are those listed just above for their metro rail system.

Airport shuttles

Airport shuttle buses are highly developed and convenient for rail travellers. Most airports in Italy are not connected to the railway network, except for Rome Fiumicino Airport, Milan Malpensa Airport and Turin Caselle Airport. In Bologna, there is the monorail Marconi Express, connecting Bologna Airport to the main railway station. Linate Airport in Milan has been connected to line 4 of the Milan metro since 2022.

Tram

11 cities have tram system:

Tram-train

2 cities have tram-train system, Rome and Sassari. The Rome–Giardinetti railway connects Laziali with Giardinetti to the east just past the Grande Raccordo Anulare, Rome's orbital motorway. It is run by ATAC, the company responsible for public transportation in the city, which also operates the Rome Metro. The present railway is the only part of the old and longer Rome–Fiuggi–Alatri–Frosinone railway to be in service. The latest shortening of the line occurred in 2008 with the closing of the Giardinetti–Pantano section, which has now become part of the Metro Line C. The line had been due to be dismantled in 2016 to be replaced with a bus lane along Via Casilina, but in March 2015 it was announced that the line would instead be retained and modernised.
Metrosassari, also called Sassari tramway, Sassari tram-train or Sassari metro-tramway is the commercial name of a tram-train line in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy, operated by the regional public transport company ARST. Despite having been built in the early 2000s, in the urban section the line was built with single track and narrow gauge, to connect with the same gauge used in the secondary railway lines in Sardinia. The tramway part of the line opened in October 2006, linking the railway station with the city centre via the hospital district. On 27 September 2009 the line was extended into the peripheral district of Santa Maria di Pisa, running on the electrified portion of the Sassari–Sorso railway. The main part of the network was in 2013 in the advanced development phase. It is under construction is the extension of the line from Santa Maria di Pisa to Li Punti and Baldinca, and the electrification of the railway to Sorso, 10 km from Sassari. It is also planned to convert and electrify the 28 km Sassari-Alghero railway to allow the trams to reach the village of Olmedo, Fertilia Airport and the town of Alghero.

Rail links to adjacent countries

Italy has 11 rail border crossings over the Alpine mountains with her neighbouring countries: six are designated as mainline tracks and two are metre-gauge tracks. The six mainline border crossings are: two with France, two with Switzerland, and two with Austria. The two-metre-gauge track crossings are located at the border town of Tirano and Domodossola.
There was a railway line connecting Italy's northeastern port of Trieste to Ljubljana
and Vienna, built when Trieste was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire:the Austrian Southern Railway. This railway stopped operating at the end of World War II.Direct connections between Trieste and Ljubljana have resumed since September 2018.
The Vatican City is also linked to Italy with a railway line serving a single railway station, the Vatican City railway station. This line is used only for special occasions.
San Marino used to have a narrow gauge rail connection with Italy; this was dismantled in 1944.
All links have the same gauge.
Stations on the border are:

Heritage railways

In Italy, the heritage railways institute is recognized and protected by law no. 128 of 9 August 2017, which has as its objective the protection and valorisation of disused, suspended or abolished railway lines, of particular cultural, landscape and tourist value, including both railway routes and stations and the related works of art and appurtenances, on which, upon the proposal of the regions to which they belong, tourism-type traffic management is applied. At the same time, the law identified a first list of 18 tourist railways, considered to be of particular value.
The list is periodically updated by decree of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, in agreement with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Culture, also taking into account the reports in the State-Regions Conference, a list which in 2022 reached 26 railway lines. According to article 1, law 128/2017 has as its purpose: "the protection and valorisation of railway sections of particular cultural, landscape and tourist value, which include railway routes, stations and related works of art and appurtenances, and of the historic and tourist rolling stock authorized to travel along them, as well as the regulation of the use of ferrocycles".
File:Viadukt zwischen Nulvi und Martis.jpg|thumb|Tourist train in transit on a viaduct of the Sassari–Tempio–Palau railway in Italy
File:Garessio staz ferr ALn 663.jpg|thumb|Tourist train in transit on the Ceva–Ormea railway in Italy
Below is the list of railway lines recognized as tourist railways by Italian legislation.
a) pursuant to art. 2 paragraph 2 law 128/2017:
  1. Sulmona-Castel di Sangro section of the
  6. Castel di Sangro-Carpinone section of the Sulmona-Isernia railway
  7. Ceva–Ormea railway
  10. Sassari–Tempio-Palau railway
  13. Castelvetrano-Porto Palo section of the
  14. Agrigento Bassa-Porto Empedocle section of the Castelvetrano-Porto Empedocle railway
  16. Asciano–Monte Antico railway
b) pursuant to the Ministerial Decree of 30 March 2022:
  3. Alba-Nizza Monferrato section of the
  4. Novara–Varallo railway
  5. Fabriano-Pergola section of the
  9. Malnate Olona-Swiss border section of the Valmorea railway.
File:Brusio Cavaglia 2009 2.jpg|thumb|Bernina railway line between Poschiavo, Switzerland, and Tirano, Italy
The Bernina railway line is a single-track railway line forming part of the Rhaetian Railway. It links the spa resort of St. Moritz, in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland, with the town of Tirano, in the Province of Sondrio, Italy, via the Bernina Pass. Reaching a height of above sea level, it is the third highest railway crossing in Europe. It also ranks as the highest adhesion railway of the continent, andwith inclines of up to 7%as one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world. The elevation difference on the section between the Bernina Pass and Tirano is, allowing passengers to view glaciers along the line. On 7 July 2008, the Bernina line and the Albula railway line, which also forms part of the RhB, were recorded in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, under the name Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes. The whole site is a cross-border joint Swiss-Italian heritage area. Trains operating on the Bernina line include the Bernina Express.
In July 2023, Ferrovie dello Stato established a new company, the "FS Treni Turistici Italiani", with the mission "to propose an offer of railway services expressly designed and calibrated for quality, sustainable tourism and attentive to rediscovering the riches of the Italian territory. Tourism that can experience the train journey as an integral moment of the holiday, an element of quality in the overall tourist experience". There are three service areas proposed: Luxury trains, which includes the circulation of the "Orient Express - La Dolce Vita" from 2024, and Venice Simplon Orient Express, already operating on European routes;Express and historic trains, with the express trains of the 1980s and 1990s being redeveloped and modernized in the railway workshops of Rimini, while the historic trains are used for journeys that include stops with guided tours and tastings; Regional trains, also with trips that include experiential tourist stops, which pass through places rich in history, with villages and areas of landscape, naturalistic, food and wine and agri-food interest.

Funding

The Italian railways are partially funded by the government, receiving €8.1 billion in 2009.

Categories and types of trains

These are the major service categories and models of Italian trains.