SNCF Voyageurs will open domestic connections in Italy in 2026

The railway company hopes to reach 15% market share in Italy by 2030.

SNCF Voyageurs announced on Wednesday June 12 its intention to establish itself in Italy from 2026, with the opening of several high-speed domestic connections. The railway company plans to reach 15% market share in Italy by 2030.

It plans to eventually offer nine round trips per day between Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples and four round trips between Turin and Venice. And this is thanks to 15 trainsets of the new TGV M, the first deliveries of which are planned for the second half of 2025. The French company will also serve Brescia, Verona, Padua, Bologna and Florence.

It will also continue its daily service between Paris, Turin and Milan, reduced to only one round trip per day, part of which by bus, since the landslide which cut the rail link in August 2023. This is not expected to reopen. before November.

The SNCF rail offer in Italy will be progressive, as was the case in Spain. SNCF was established there in 2021 and should have deployed its entire offer there by the end of 2024. The French company managed to conquer 20% of the Spanish market share on the lines at high speed thanks to its Ouigo offer.

“We have been present in Europe for several decades, in nine countries”, recalled the CEO of SNCF Voyageurs, Christophe Fanichet, during a meeting with the press. In most of them, apart from Spain and soon Italy, the SNCF cooperates with local companies, and on cross-border lines.

In Italy, SNCF Voyageurs will compete with the national company Trenitalia, which holds around two-thirds of the high-speed market share, and NTV, which belongs to the Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC and runs its trains under the Italo brand. . This Italian company has been providing connections in France since December 2021.