Train travel to Italy should become easier and faster.
Deutsche Bahn is planning new express trains – including from Munich to Milan and Rome.
Munich – If you want to travel by train from Munich to Rome or Milan in an environmentally friendly way, you need patience and strong nerves: the journey through the Alps to the heart of the two metropolises is currently only possible with a change and takes at least nine and a half or seven and a half hours – if you not immediately take the night train, which takes 14 or 11 hours.
Via Munich to Italy: Cross-border rail traffic is to be tripled
That is set to change soon: the EU is subsidizing ten new cross-border international rail connections.
The aim: to double passenger transport by rail across national borders by 2030 and even triple it by 2050.
Routes selected include those from Munich to Milan and Rome.
Actually, these routes are not new, the Italian state railways Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) ran the route to Rome until 2008, when they discontinued the EuroCity "Michelangelo".
Since 2009, DB and ÖBB have only operated the Eurocity as far as Bologna.
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An Italian Frecciargento train in Venice Santa Lucia station
© wikipedia/Tobias B Koehler
From Munich to Rome: "New trains are scheduled to start operating at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026."
The South Tyrolean EU parliamentarian Herbert Dorfmann (South Tyrolean People's Party) explains how the new traffic via the Brenner Pass and via Switzerland to Italy is planned: "The new trains should start operating at the end of 2025 or beginning of 2026." regulatory things necessary.
Dorfmann: "It's about the approval of the trains, the expansion of the signaling technology, the training of the train drivers." The latter would have to be able to speak both Italian and German.
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According to Dorfmann, Italian Freccia trains, which roughly correspond to the German ICE, are to roll on the Brenner line.
Dorfmann is convinced: "If the Freccia train runs over the Brenner Pass, that would be a leap in quality." The Frecciargento trains (Silver Arrow trains) have tilting technology and can travel the winding Brenner route relatively quickly.
Up to an hour faster at the destination: "The current train material is no longer up to date."
In addition, according to Dorfmann, the sometimes half-hour waiting times at the Brenner Pass would be eliminated, as would some of the stops previously served by the Eurocity.
In Italy, the trains continue on the high-speed line Bologna-Rome, in Switzerland through the new Gotthard base tunnel.
There is no need to change trains in Bologna or Zurich, so there is no risk of missing connecting trains.
Travel times could be cut by over an hour.
According to Dorfmann, the Freccia trains are more comfortable than the current Eurocities: "The current train material on the Brenner route is no longer up to date."
Why did DB, FS and ÖBB apply to the EU for the new trains?
Dorfmann: "The railways want to build up heavy traffic before the opening of the Brenner Base Tunnel."
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List of rubrics: © wikipedia/Tobias b Köhler