First Germany, from June 2028. Then the target is Belgium and the Netherlands, but not before 2030-2031. Italo, the private high-speed rail company, thinks big and aims to grow in Europe. Exploiting the weapon of the new Siemens trains, built for the German market, but capable of running also on the rail lines of other European countries. This was stated, in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, by Italo’s CEO, Gianbattista La Rocca. “The announced investment of 3.6 billion for the German market – explains La Rocca – has started 100% and without the possibility of turning back. In July we signed a purchase contract with Siemens for 26 high-speed trains and a 30-year service contract, which includes full maintenance of the trains. We are starting to build everything needed to have, from June 1, 2028, the first four trains running on German tracks.”
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The landing in Europe has led Italo to start a deep reorganization of the group. La Rocca continues: “Italo Holding was born, which has under its two arms: on one side Italo Italia, which also controls Itabus. On the other, Italo International, which heads the German operating company that will compete with the monopolist Deutsche Bahn (Db). We are defining the CEO choice these days. The German project for us is a project where Italy, and therefore Italians, will bring know-how and experience. The rest will be an entirely German company, made up of German personnel.”
One of the main barriers a railway company encounters when aiming to expand abroad is interoperability: that is, the possibility of having a train that, technically and in terms of certification, is able to run also on the networks of other countries. And Siemens trains have these characteristics. The CEO continues: “Now we are focused on Germany. From there you can then reach Belgium, the Netherlands, France looking west; Poland and Eastern countries if you look east. Our agreement with Siemens will allow us to be competitive not only at the German national level but also internationally. The trains, when they come out, will not be certified only for Germany, but will already be certified also for Belgium and the Netherlands. Not before, however, 2030-2031.” So, for Italo, Germany will not be an endpoint but a starting point.
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What pushes Italo beyond the Alps are the market dimensions: “The German long-distance demand is already twice the Italian one and, according to our analyses, opening to competition could make it grow by a further 40-50%,” observes La Rocca. In Germany Italo will start on two axes: Munich-Cologne-Frankfurt and Munich-Berlin-Hamburg. And Hamburg allows glimpsing another direction of the strategy. The entry of Msc into the shareholding indeed opens the way to building multimodal connections between rail and sea. “The presence of Msc – underlines La Rocca – also allows us to think about multimodal synergies, ranging from ferries such as those with Snav and Gnv in Italy to cruises.” Hamburg is one of the ports touched by Msc cruises and for Italo’s CEO the goal is that “multimodality for passengers becomes a normality and a habit.”
Finally technology. The Siemens trains destined for Germany will be born already with Starlink on board, transferring the experience gained during this period on the Italian fleet (the first market to have started testing connections on trains through the satellite network, with a system being transferred to the entire Italo fleet). As for rail transport in general, “I see it growing a lot in Europe.”
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