Railway Performance Society Magazine - Milepost
Italy High-Speed network opens for business.
The bulk of Italy's High-Speed network commenced commercial service at the weekend. To date, the Milan to Bologna route has been in use, while Turin to Milan and Rome to Naples were partially open. From December 13th, the complete high-speed network from Turin to Naples via Milan, Bologna, Florence and Rome is now open allowing spectacular journey time reductions.
Longest non-stop journey is Milan to Rome - 350 miles in 2hr 59 - an average 117mph. Fastest scheduled journey is Milan Rogoredo to Rome Tiburtina, 550km (342miles) in 2hr 45min at an average 200km/h -124mph.
The Turin Milan HSL only allows 300/260kph for around 71 miles of the 90 route miles. The ETR 500 train sets are as powerful as TGV reseau, but have an extra four passenger vehicles, hence greater weight and slower acceleration to line speed. This line was partially open from Turin to Novara and is now complete to the outskirts of Milan. However, a glance at the timetable shows only a handful of services using the line throughout the day, and a single ticket is 32 Euro comnpared to 9 Euro for the 1h55min stoppers.
Bologna to Florence HSL is engineered for 300kph, but for now, trains are timed at 250kph. hence the 37 min journey time. I understand that an extension underground through Florence to the start of the Rome Florence Direttissima is planned/under construction, but for now trains rejoin the classic network at Firenze Castello.
Rome to Florence Direttissima - still limited to a linespeed of 250kph - despite talk of upgrading it to current HSL standards. Clearly the catenary has been upgraded, and some crossovers removed, but still 3kv DC throughout at present. Despite this, only 100mph average attained by most services.
Part of the problem is slow running on Classic lines from Florence SMN to start of Diretissimma at Rovezzano -max 80/120kph. Witness the difference in Average speeds on services from Florence S.M.N and those that start at Florence Campo Di Marte. Diretissimma ends 16km from Rome Termini, and trains limited to 120/130kph linespeeds.
Rome to Naples. The last section of line is now open through the naples suburbs bringing journey times down to 70min. A further stretch of 250kph HSL opened between Naples and Salerno some time ago, but for now, Naples seems to be the end of the line for High-Speed services.