ITALY: FS Group’s recently formed tourist train business FS Treni Turistici Italiani has launched its first service.
Branded Espresso Cadore, the overnight service between Roma Termini and Calalzo-Pieve di Cadore-Cortina will run every Friday night until mid-February. On arrival, a connecting bus takes passengers to Cortina d’Ampezzo in 45 min. The return train departs on Sundays, arriving at Roma Termini on Monday morning.
According to FS Group CEO Luigi Ferraris, the launch of Treni Turistici Italiani ‘marks the start of a whole new adventure’ for the national railway group. It will enable people ‘to discover all the beauty our country has to offer with slow tourism — in other words, by using trains that allow us to drink in the landscape at a gentle, peaceful pace’.
The refurbished rolling stock is branded Treno Azzurro for its blue livery. The fleet includes sleeping and couchette cars, a dining car and a baggage car for large items such as tents, canoes or electric bikes.
FS Treni Turistici Italiani CEO Luigi Cantamessa, said the vehicles ‘represent the latest in fine Italian workmanship: solid, well-designed carriages that are built to last’ and refurbished like a family hotel.
‘This is not merely a nostalgic indulgence: this is a train crafted around the idea of being a tourist’, he explained. ‘The holiday starts the moment the train pulls out of the station.’
Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanché said the new business launched on December 15 offered ‘an excellent opportunity and a huge leap forward for both national and international tourism, but this is only the very first Treno Azzurro so far. We are committed to increase train coverage because without travel and without transport, tourism simply cannot have a future.’
