ITALY: Alstom unveiled the first vehicle from a fleet of 12 Pendolino trainsets it is supplying to private high speed operator NTV at its Savigliano works on December 15.
The driving car is the first vehicle to be completed under a €460m contract initially finalised in October 2015. This covered the supply of eight non-tilting 250 km/h trainsets, which will have seven cars and seats for 480 passengers. A further four trains were ordered in December through an option held by NTV. The Pendolino fleet is due to be delivered by December 2017, with entry into service planned for March 2018.
Alstom has also been awarded a 30-year contract to maintain the 12 trainsets at Nola near Napoli.
NTV already has a fleet of 25 Alstom AGV trainsets that it uses under the Italo brand to compete for traffic against state-owned Trenitalia on the high speed network linking Milano with Bologna, Firenze, Roma and Napoli, and the additional trainsets will allow it to expand its services and respond to growing demand.
'Today is a great day for us. We are very proud to present these new trains that will enable us to grow', said NTV President Andrea Faragalli Zenobi. 'With this investment we will increase our fleet by 50%, we are ready to face this new challenge with enthusiasm. Special thanks today to those Italian entrepreneurs who in 2006 had this intuition called Italo, on which few would have bet initially and which is now a well-established company.'
