SNCF: the launch of TGVs in Italy postponed to 2028

Our transalpine neighbors will still have to be patient. The SNCF will not be able to launch its TGVs on Italian lines before 2028, accusing yet another postponement of several months due to delays in the manufacture of the trainsets, the group confirmed on Thursday. This delay was communicated to the Italian network operator, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), in a letter sent at the end of July, according to information from the newspaper La Repubblica confirmed by the companies concerned.

The company's Italian subsidiary is initially planning seven round trips per day between Turin and Naples and two between Turin and Venice, with prices announced as "competitive" on these cardinal lines where Trenitalia, public operator, and the private Italo are already in strong competition. But the 15 new SNCF TGV-M ordered for the Italian network should not be approved and available neither in 2026 nor in September 2027, as announced, but rather in the “second quarter of 2028”, a spokesperson for SNCF Voyageurs confirmed to AFP.

This postponement is notably attributable to “the delivery of rolling stock as well as their approval and authorization process in Italy, which is more complex than in France”, according to this spokesperson. However, the SNCF had just won a battle in its crossing of the Alps. The Italian competition authority ruled in his favor in March in an appeal against RFI, which offered him circulation slots for ten years.

SNCF also blames “the unavailability of maintenance facilities in Italy, essential for starting operations”, particularly after a refusal from Alstom at its Nola site, near Naples (south). The Italian Transport Authority (ART) agreed with him, opening a sanction procedure against Alstom at the end of June after a complaint from SNCF Voyages Italia.

Alstom “refused or limited access” to the site “without implementing a real coordination procedure between applicants”, and de facto reserving itself for Italo, according to ART. The Ferrovie dello Stato group, parent company of RFI and Trenitalia, confirmed to AFP that it had received the letter from SNCF. A spokesperson clarified that this postponement, communicated too late, “complicated” the reallocation of slots already allocated to the SNCF.

The SNCF is currently only active on the Milan-Paris international line, which will remain the only active in the meantime. “These few months of delay do not call into question this long-term project” and SNCF Voyageurs “remains fully committed to this project and convinced of the value it will generate”, underlined its spokesperson.