Private company

Trenitalia

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author , uploaded by Teo.raff, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

Italian railway company

Trenitalia SpA is the primary train operator of Italy, which was established in 2000. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, it was established following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail transport. The company operates both regional and long-distance trains.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

2000Founded1
  • Industryrail transport1
  • HeadquartersRome1
  • Founded inRome1
  • Websitewww.trenitalia.com
  • Legal formsocietà per azioni1
  • LEI549300M8OMBYLAW8P6923
  • StatusActive3
  • LEI statusIssued and current3
  • Registered addressPIAZZA DELLA CROCE ROSSA 1, 00161 Rome, Italy3
  • Registered withInfocamere, 054031510033

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Sede Centrale FS
Photo: Carlo Dani, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons6

Trenitalia SpA is the primary train operator of Italy, which was established in 2000. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, it was established following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail transport. The company operates both regional and long-distance trains. It also operates or operated in the past through ownerships or subsidiary companies in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Among the company's high-speed train are Frecciarossa, Frecciargento, Frecciabianca, InterCity, and InterCity Notte. In 2024, Trenitalia was recognized as the best rail passenger operator in Europe.2

Corporate structure

Trenitalia is part of a group headed by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. 62 entities, 7 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Trenitalia reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

The Italian government formed Trenitalia as a società per azioni (SpA) to comply with European Union regulations. The European Commission's First Railway Directive from 1991 (91/440/EC) required separation of accounting between entities which manage the rail infrastructure and entities which provide the actual rail transportation. On the 1st of June 2000, Italy created Trenitalia as the primary rail transportation company, and on 1 July 2001 established Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) as the company overseeing the rail network; however, the separation was only formal since both are subsidiaries of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane holding and are owned wholly by the government. Trenitalia operated freight rail services under the Trenitalia Cargo brand until 2017, when Mercitalia took over state-owned freight rail and logistics operations.

In early 2012, Trenitalia released a web advertisement to promote its change from two classes of train compartments into four classes. Passengers travelling by the fourth class were not permitted to use the on-board cafeteria or enter the carriages reserved for the other three classes. This change alone reportedly caused controversy, and more controversy followed with the release of the accompanying web advertisement. The web advertisement showed only white people seated in the upper three classes, as well as a black family in the fourth. Italian online media observed this and branded the advertisement as "grotesque". Other complaints of racial discrimination followed in British newspapers, social media, and online. Trenitalia withdrew the web commercial and quickly substituted it following the allegations of racism. Since 13 January 2012, the cafeteria is accessible also for passengers of lower classes. As of July 2014, Adria Ferries has a partnership with Trenitalia wherein tickets can be booked at any train station for onward journey to Durrës, at a steeply discounted price with respect to both tickets separately purchased. This is for connections either in Ancona or in Trieste, and continues the historical link between the Via Appia Traiana and the Via Egnatia.

In December 2024, Trenitalia was recognized as the best European rail passenger for the year, with a score of 7.7 out of a 10-point scale. In a 2024 comparative study by the European umbrella organisation Transport & Environment (T&E), Trenitalia achieved the best result of 27 companies. The criteria were reliability, booking, amenities on board, and taking bikes on medium and long-distance connections.

From Wikipedia’s article on Trenitalia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Products and brands

International passenger services

Current

Iryo, a high-speed operator in Spain owned by Trenitalia and Air Nostrum, as part of the ILSA consortium. ILSA was selected by ADIF, the company that runs Spanish rail infrastructure, as the first private operator to be granted access to the Spanish rail market. The Trenitalia consortium will run high-speed services on the Madrid-Barcelona, Madrid-Valencia/Alicante and Madrid-Malaga/Seville lines, branded as IRYO. Services will start running in January 2022. The service contract will have a duration of 10 years. The ILSA consortium will offer 32 daily links with a fleet of 23 trains.

TILO: 50% owned by Trenord (formerly these shares were owned by Trenitalia), 50% owned by the Swiss Federal Railways. The company runs the regional services between Italy and Switzerland. The staff all change at the border and are either FS Trenitalia or SBB CFF FFS. Trenitalia operates all fast trains to/from Switzerland in the Italian portion of the route.

Trenitalia France was created in October 2021 by repurposing the former Thello subsidiary. In December 2021, Trenitalia France launched the Milan–Paris Frecciarossa, an open-access service between Paris and Milan, using Frecciarossa 1000 trains. Two trains a day run from Gare de Lyon and Milano Centrale in each direction with intermediate stops at Lyon Part-Dieu, Chambéry-Challes-les-Eaux and Modane in France and Torino Porta Susa in Italy.

Former

Artésia was a company jointly owned by Trenitalia and SNCF, operating trains between France and Italy. It ceased operating in November 2011 after SNCF purchased a stake in Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori.

Read the full text

Thello was a private railway service formed as a joint venture with Transdev. In September 2016, Trenitalia bought out Transdev's 33% shareholding. It operated night trains between Paris Gare de Lyon and Venezia Santa Lucia railway station and daytime trains between Milan and Marseille via Genoa and Nice. In 2020, Thello overnight services between Paris and Venice were suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, with the daytime train cut back to run between Nice and Milan. In June 2021, all services were withdrawn, with Trenitalia announcing a focus on high-speed services between the two countries following the pandemic. The withdrawal was criticised, given the reduction in services between Nice and Milan. Thello was renamed Trenitalia France in October 2021.

Operations in the United Kingdom

In January 2017, Trenitalia won a bid from the Department for Transport (DfT) to run train operating company c2c from National Express which has a contract to operate the Essex Thameside franchise until November 2029. In the same month it took a 30% stake in a joint venture with FirstGroup, named First Trenitalia, that was later shortlisted to bid for the East Midlands Railway and West Coast Partnership franchises. It was also shortlisted to bid for the South Eastern franchise in its own right. In August 2017, Trenitalia withdrew from the South Eastern contest, citing a desire to concentrate its resources on its bid for the West Coast Partnership. In April 2018, along with FirstGroup, it withdrew from the East Midlands contest citing the same reason. In August 2019, the First Trenitalia consortium was awarded the West Coast Partnership contract. Avanti West Coast ran its first train between London and Manchester on 8 December.

From Wikipedia’s article on Trenitalia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Owners

Subsidiaries

Also owns

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. Dec 2020Acquired Netinera1

Timeline

  1. May 22, 2023Parent Directly consolidated by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane3
  2. 2000Founded Founded in Rome1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6