High-speed rail in Italy
overview of the high-speed rail system in Italy
High-speed rail in Italy consists of two lines connecting most of the country's major cities. The first line connects Turin to Salerno via Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, the second runs from Turin to Venice via Milan and Verona, and is under construction in parts.
Trains are operated with a top speed of 300 km/h (190 mph).
Passenger service is provided by Trenitalia and, since April 2012, by Italo (NTV), the world's first private open-access operator of high-speed rail to compete with a state-owned monopoly.
25 million passengers traveled on the network in 2011.
In 2015, ridership increased to 55 million for Trenitalia and 9.1 million for NTV, for a combined 64 million passengers.
History
The Italian high-speed service began in 1938 with an electric-multiple-unit ETR 200, designed for 200 km/h (120 mph), between Bologna and Naples. It too reached 160 km/h (99 mph) in commercial service, and achieved a world mean speed record of 203 km/h (126 mph) between Florence and Milan in 1938.
The Direttissima opened in 1977 as the first high-speed rail route in Italy and Europe, connecting Rome with Florence. The top speed on the line was 250 km/h (160 mph), giving an end-to-end journey time of about 90 minutes with an average speed of 200 km/h (120 mph).
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