Italian president Sergio Mattarella was in Milan over the weekend for the debut of Europe’s fastest production train, the Frecciarossa 1000.
Government officials and company representatives made the inaugural journey on April 25, departing Milan Central at 13.30 and arriving two hours and 55 minutes later in Rome.
Timetabled services will start from June 14 with six trains a day between Milan and Rome. By the end of the year, the arrival of more trains will see the service frequency increase to 22 trains a day.
Dedicated to Italian sprinter Pietro Mennea, the train was the first of a €1.6 billion order for 50 trains. Six units have been delivered so far. All 50 are scheduled to be with Trenitalia by early 2017.
The Frecciarossa 1000 has been approved by Italy’s national safety body, Agenzia Nazionale per la Sicurezza delle Ferrovie (ANSF), for 300 km/h operation but is designed for regular operating speeds of 360 km/h and a maximum speed of 400 km/h.
Testing was carried out on the railway between Genoa and Savona – a line which is connected to Bombardier’s Vado Ligure factory.
The eight-car Frecciarossa 1000, which can run in single and multiple operation, can accelerate from naught to 300 km/h in four minutes and 16 seconds. Built by Bombardier and AnsaldoBreda consortium, the Frecciarossa 1000 is based on the high-speed Zefiro platform.
Photos courtesy of FS Italiane
There seems to be some disagrement whether the ETR 1000 can transport 485 or 600 passengers in a 200 meter train. Still, if 485 is the correct number, the train has the highest capacity of single-deck very high speed EMU’s and it gets close to the TGV duplex.
hmmm… AnsaldoBreda…. now why does that not reassure me 😀