Trenitalia Billion-Euro Investment in Greener Transport with 40 New Frecciarossa Trains

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Trenitalia, a principal entity within the FS Group’s Passenger Division, is actively engaged in making transportation more sustainable and fostering eco-friendly growth in the mobility industry. An SWG survey commissioned by Trenitalia reveals that 80% of Italians view trains as the most eco-friendly mode of transportation. This perspective is supported by data showing that, in 2023, 45 million individuals preferred Frecciarossa trains over flying or driving. Opting for train travel from Milan to Rome over flying can reduce CO2 emissions by 9 tonnes annually, while choosing trains over cars can save 4 tonnes of CO2. From a corporate standpoint, a Bloomberg analysis by McKinsey indicates that 47,000 companies that opted for Trenitalia over cars avoided 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2023. Trenitalia has committed over a billion euros to acquire 40 new Frecciarossa trains and is initiating projects to diminish its carbon footprint by enhancing energy efficiency. Currently, Trenitalia operates 10 maintenance facilities with solar energy capabilities, with plans to increase this to 24 by 2032. Pietro Diamantini, Director of Trenitalia High Speed business, discusses the company’s forthcoming sustainability projects.

Transcript of the interview to Pietro Diamantini, Director of Trenitalia High Speed Business:

As regards sustainability, we have invested in the purchase of 40 new ETR1000 trains, which, in engineering terms, certainly deliver a much higher return than their predecessors. This fact alone means that a journey consumes less for the same level of service, speed and comfort. Indeed, the level may actually be better. On overall sustainability, our attention is focused not only on train travel, but also on all our maintenance facilities, where we have installed solar panels so that services are powered directly by the sun. This way we save on energy for maintenance. Meanwhile, the recyclability of our trains is very high. So, when we have to retire trains, or parts of them, the job of disposal is less onerous. We have a broad vision of our presence in the sustainability project and in guaranteeing what I would call the green positioning of our company. I could give you more examples: all the automobiles in our high-speed maintenance facilities are electric. We no longer use combustion engine cars. So, we have a variety of initiatives that, put together, produce a very significant benefit.

Then there’s the question of digitalisation, advances in low-visibility services. Digitalisation of maintenance services, for example. Thanks to preventive maintenance, the number of trains with small defects in their fittings or on-board malfunctions will be fewer. So, the likelihood of problems arising during a journey will continue to decrease. With advanced digitalisation, including use of artificial intelligence, we are also able to guarantee improved on-board communication with passengers.

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