Trenitalia is the passenger rail operator of the FS Group, running Frecciarossa high-speed services, intercity trains and regional services under contract with the Italian regions. It was created in 2000, when Ferrovie dello Stato separated transport operations from infrastructure management.
Trenitalia leads the group’s Passengers Business Unit and is the largest single user of the Italian network. Regional services alone account for more than 6,000 journeys a day and over 400 million passengers a year.
The company is licensed as a Railway Undertaking (EU definition) and buys capacity from RFI on the same commercial basis as its competitors, even though both companies share a parent. Its business divides into three distinct commercial logics: contracted regional traffic, subsidised intercity services and commercially operated high-speed trains.
Regional traffic carries the volume
Regional services run under public service contracts with the regions and autonomous provinces, which specify the service and pay for it. The regions are the clients; Trenitalia is the operator, and the contracts determine frequencies, fleet and quality standards.
Fleet renewal has been the main instrument of change. A programme worth around 7 billion EUR is intended to leave roughly 80 percent of the regional fleet as new-generation stock by 2027, supplied by Hitachi Rail and Alstom.
The company now has 1,009 new-generation regional trains in service: 674 delivered under the current programme and 335 acquired earlier. The stated target is 1,081 units by 2027.
Frecciarossa and the competition that shaped it
Italy opened its domestic passenger market well before EU law required it. Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV) began running Italo services in 2012 as the first open-access high-speed competitor in Europe. The 4th Railway Package made domestic market opening the European default eight years later, from the December 2020 timetable.
Trenitalia responded by increasing frequencies, restructuring its product classes and investing in the ETR 1000 Frecciarossa 1000, which operates at up to 300 km/h on the Italian high-speed network. Both operators use the same infrastructure and call at the same stations, so the competition plays out on frequency, price and product.
The fleet is still growing. In February 2026 the company set out a 2 billion EUR programme covering up to 74 further Frecciarossa 1000 sets, intended to be fully in service around 2030 and to support services outside Italy.
Operations beyond Italy
Trenitalia France has run Frecciarossa services between Milan and Paris since December 2021, competing directly with SNCF on the Paris-Lyon axis. The route was suspended after a landslide closed the Maurienne valley line and resumed during 2025.
In Spain, Trenitalia is the majority shareholder in ILSA, which operates 20 Frecciarossa 1000 sets under the Iryo brand on the Madrid corridors in competition with Renfe. Trenitalia holds 51 percent of ILSA, alongside Air Nostrum and Globalvia.
The UK operation ended on 20 July 2025, when the c2c commuter concession east of London passed to public ownership after eight years under Trenitalia. The company has since applied to run high-speed services between London and Paris.
Useful context for travelers too. Regional fares are set by the regional contracts, so booking early saves nothing there, while Frecce and Italo prices are dynamic and rise as trains fill. Buying ahead only pays off on high-speed routes.