Back in 2018, Trenitalia began an experiment called “Mercitalia Fast” – using a converted ETR-500 300km/h high speed train to convey light freight at high speed. You can read more about the project here.
Now Trenitalia has announced a new overnight service, likewise using a ETR-500, connecting Milano and Reggia di Calabria, with a journey time of about 11 hours… but just with seats! Surely there would be potential to convert older high speed trains like this, or the TGVs that SNCF is taking out of service, and equip them for service at night – but also with proper beds to allow passengers to sleep comfortably.
It’s not only in Italy where new overnight trains are launching, but only with seats. Flixtrain is about to start a Hamburg-Berlin-München overnight service just with seats, and we have recently reported on Arriva’s plans for something similar in Netherlands.
If there is a market for pretty uncomfortable overnight services, surely there is a solid market for trains with proper beds!
Photos used in this post
Clipper98
Il treno di Mercitalia fast in viaggio
26 October 2019
License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Richard Latten
Flixtrain 243 | öja
May 13, 2021
License: Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
