FS Group, the new company “FS Treni Turistici Italiani” is established

Rome, 24 July 2023

The Ferrovie dello Stato Group presents “FS Treni Turistici Italiani”. This new company was founded with the mission of proposing a range of rail services specifically designed and calibrated for quality, with sustainable tourism that is attentive to rediscovering the riches of the Italian territory.  A form of tourism that can experience rail travel as an integral part of the holiday, a quality component of the overall tourist experience.

FS Treni Turistici Italiani was presented by Ferrovie dello Stato CEO Luigi Ferraris, at the Museo Nazionale Ferroviario di Pietrarsa in Naples, in the presence of authorities and stakeholders who arrived aboard a train comprised of prototype wagons that will form an essential part of the fleet.

Illustrating the company’s mission and characteristics was FS Treni Turistici Italiani CEO Luigi Cantamessa, part of the FS Group since 2002 and General Manager of the Fondazione FS Italiane since 2013.

Amongst those at the presentation were Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, President of the FS Fondazione, Trenitalia President Stefano Cuzzilla, Trenitalia CEO Luigi Corradi, Infrastructure and Transport Deputy Minister Edoardo Rixi, along with Karima Delli, President of the Committee on Transport and Tourism of the European Parliament.

The new company shall be part of the Passenger Business Unit of the FS Italiane Group, with Trenitalia at the helm. The Board of Directors, chaired by Alessandro Vannini Scatoli, consists of Liberio Andreatta, Luigi Cantamessa, Maria Luisa Grilletta and Cinzia Marzoli.

Three service areas have been introduced by FS Treni Turistici Italiani:

• Luxury, with the traction of prestigious high-end trains, firstly the Orient Express La Dolce Vita, a luxury Italian train that will début in 2024, or the legendary Venice Simplon Orient Express by Belmond, already operating on European routes.
• Express and Historical Trains, with the introduction of new connections, including night trains, on medium- to long-haul routes between the main Italian cities and places of significant tourist attraction (such as Night or Day trains from Rome/Milan to Calalzo/Cortina, San Candido, Milan-Genoa with branches to Ventimiglia/Livorno; Rome-Metaponto-Catanzaro via Jonica and Reggio Calabria). The connections offered by the Express trains shall consist of 1980s and 1990s wagons that will undergo complete upgrading and modernisation in the Rimini railway workshops, solely for tourist use. These workshops will become a sort of refitting atelier for this segment, consisting of wagons offering differentiated service environments (restaurant cars with express cooking on board, sleeping wagons, meeting wagons, luggage carriages for transporting bicycles, skis and vehicles for sustainable mobility). FS Treni Turistici Italiani will also manage the trips on historic trains, owned by the Fondazione FS, in various regions and areas of historical and scenic interest throughout the peninsula, with ad hoc programmes and more regular frequencies, tours that combine train travel with stops for guided visits, walking routes and tastings.
• Omnibus-Regional, services that will guarantee the circulation of regional trains on weekends, at favourable fares and accessible to all, along lines that cross territories rich in history, replete with villages and areas of scenic and naturalistic interest, distinguished by unique wine and food traditions. Also here, planning the trip, the stops and the timetable will be designed with tourism and experience in mind.

FS Treni Turistici Italiani will acquire the assets and rolling stock from Trenitalia’s commercial fleet, set to be modernised before forming a fleet of Italian trains specifically designed for the needs of tourists and which will also include wagons for religious tourism. At a later stage, the new company will even acquire real estate assets such as workshops for overhaul, fit-out and maintenance operations. It will have its own staff including train operators, train conductors and maintenance personnel, trained according to the new tourism standards.

FS Treni Turistici Italiani shall operate in synergy with the Fondazione FS Italiane, which thus remains the owner of a fleet of almost 400 historic and protected vehicles, and above all with Trenitalia’s Business Divisions: High Speed, Intercity and Regional trains along with the entire Passenger Business Unit of the FS Group.

In addition to responding to the growing demand for rail tourism in our country, FS Treni Turistici Italiani will therefore help to promote a new, truly sustainable kind of tourism, to reach both well-known destinations and those off the classic routes.

It is estimated that by 2030, travellers around the world will reach 2 billion. Most of these tourists will choose Italy, with a growth in influxes expected especially from Asia. Italy is fifth in the world for the number of tourists with about 56 million international arrivals in 2022 and a forecast of over 75 million trips from abroad in 2023. According to a recent study, carried out by the Bocconi University of Milan on behalf of the Fondazione FS, for every 1 euro a passenger spends on purchasing historical-tourist train services, they will also spend at least 1.50 euro and up to 3.18 euro on goods and services offered by the territory traversed – a multiplier effect that will help generate wealth for the country’s inland areas.