Italy’s first private high speed train, the Italo Punto, was unveiled yesterday. The fleet, designed for the new Italian company NTV by Alstom, the French company responsible for the TGV, will eventually comprise 25 11-coach trains. The first is currently being tested at the Alstom plant in France.
This development follows legislation allowing private companies to compete for business on Italy’s long-distance domestic train routes. NTV [Nuovo Trasporti Viaggiatori] is chaired by Luca di Montezemolo of Ferrari.
The trains, which will start running on the Rome – Milan route in September 2011, will be able to travel at up to 360 kilometres per hour. Other routes across Italy will be introduced by summer 2012. The Italo’s real selling point, however, is going to be comfort: it will be fully equipped with wi-fi and satellite TV and one coach in each train, the “carrozza cinema”, will offer cinema-standard film viewing.
