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Ferrari head launches Europe’s first private high-speed train

By Channtal Fleischfresser | April 24, 2012, 4:00 AM PDT

While Ferrari has been known mostly for its sports cars, the Italian automaker’s chief has recently taken on another high-speed venture. Last Friday the first new “Ferrari train” rolled out of Rome’s Tiburtina station. The luxurious, red-painted train is one of 25 such trains to be produced by the privately-owned Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), founded by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo along with Diego Della Valle and French train organization SNCF.

Seats on the trains range from 45 Euros (US$60) to 360 Euros (US$480) for the Rome-Milan route. Amenities include personal media centers, power outlets, tunnel-proof WiFi, as well as cinema carriages, which will show new releases on large screens.

The NTV trains are based on Alstoms’ AGV technology, built from 98 percent recycled content. The trains are 10 percent lighter than their typical high-speed trains, a move which will in turn reduce their energy consumption by 15 percent. Thanks to an aero-acoustic design, the trains run at 360 kph (223 mph) with the same acoustic comfort level as other high-speed trains at 300 kph (190 mph).

The venture took shape after the European Union moved to liberalize the train market in 2006. The company hopes to break even within three years, taking on 20-25 percent of the train passenger market from government-run Trenitalia. Service begins for the public on April 28 in cities along the Naples-Milan corridor. All 25 NTV trains should be operational by the end of the year, extending service to Salerno, Turin, and Venice.

It is too early to determine the company’s success, but with rising gas and airline prices, efficient train travel has environmental as well as financial advantages. Doubtless many Americans would be pleased to see such initiatives on this side of the Atlantic.

Photo: Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori

via [treehugger]

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About Channtal Fleischfresser

Channtal Fleischfresser is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

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We had fast trains, US suffers from poor planning and a lack of leadership.

The track you ask for once existed.

During the highway construction boom of the 1960s and 1970s the US government facilitated the decommissioning of thousands of miles of express rails that crisscrossed the country.

This extensive network of rail lines allowed steam engines in the 1940s to make the Boston to NY and NY to DC runs in times that would put the billion dollar Acela, the closest thing to HSR in the US, to shame.

Sadly many of those routes have seen their rails removed and the land retasked for everything from local roads and highways to hiking and skimobile trails.

The sad joke is the same environmental groups that fight highway expansions, like the Interstate 93 widening from the Massachusetts line to Concord NH, will not give up their trails to reopen train service as an alternative to expanding the highway.

The NY High Line project is a great example of this short sighted thinking. While LA is talking about making people drive 100 miles outside the city to get to a HSR station, NY is cutting off a section of their downtown from ever having rail service.

The cost of upgrading existing rail beds is always less costly than land takings to create a right of way.

Edited by Hates Idiots

Updated - 24th Apr 2012

Just
In

Just going on the facts being spread about the project.

- - The luxurious, red-painted train is one of 25 such trains to be produced by the privately-owned Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), founded by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo along with Diego Della Valle and French train organization SNCF. - - The venture took shape after the European Union moved to liberalize the train market in 2006. The company hopes to break even within three years, taking on 20-25 percent of the train passenger market from government-run Trenitalia. - -

I have looked at this project from several sources, not just here.

Allegedly the trains are being built with private money.

Allegedly they are being operated as a private business separate from the government operated trains. In some cases replacing, in some cases in competition with the government trains.

They will run on the government owned tracks paying an access fee similar to what US freight train companies do on Amtrak rails.

Could this be some misinformation smoke screen? Maybe. But why?

If anything the government agencies would want to show they are competent.

Why give the credit to evil profit making private companies?

Posted by Hates Idiots

26th Apr 2012

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"Private" not "Personal"

Funny, I thought of "private" train the way I think of "private jet" i.e. one owned by an individual. These are really "public" trains run by a private company.

By the definition used here, all jets in the US are "private jets" because they are not run by the government.

Posted by JohnCBriggs

24th Apr 2012

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Things change.

Prior to the 1950s trains, and urban mass transit systems in the US were privately held.

Government policies favoring automobiles, trucks and buses forced many private mass transit companies into bankruptcy where they were taken over by federal, state or local governments.

The General Motors streetcar conspiracy in LA was by far the most public display of what many felt honestly was a national conspiracy to put mass transit out of business.

Europe went government owned during the rebuild after WW II.

Posted by Hates Idiots

Updated - 25th Apr 2012

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American Technology

It will take the USA another two to three generations before we can even build the track systems needed for high speed rail and this is not a joke. We have been trying for close to 30 years to build such a track between NYC and Boston and guess what, we still can't get it right and this was to handle the much slower trains built back then. If we ever do get there then we will certainly have to have the trains built elsewhere, that is unless we add high speed rail to the military focus of this nation. If that is done we could have the fastest train system in this world but can we get the taxpayers and their reps to believe that a train can become faster than a bullit?

Posted by dgage19558@...

24th Apr 2012

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We had fast trains, US suffers from poor planning and a lack of leadership.

Posted by Hates Idiots

Updated - 24th Apr 2012

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Nice design.

http://www.ntvspa.it/en/nuovo-trasporto-viaggiatori/37/3/high-speed-train-agv-italy-description

Posted by Hates Idiots

24th Apr 2012

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NOTHING concerning USA...

What does this have to do with the USA? Nothing, as the article goes. Nothing.

As for the rest of it, I could see riding in style- with a Channtal type at my side.

Posted by ddferrari

Updated - 24th Apr 2012

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Missed both points in discussion.

By pointing out the efficiencies gained in this design the article makes a tacit admission that current European HSR trains are too expensive to operate.

This is a much better HSR train design that is more affordable because it is more efficient to operate. The current operating deficits and heavy subsidies needed by European HSR are sufficient proof that a better design was needed. Lower operating costs with a higher passenger capacity are keys to making HSR a sustainable if not truly profitable success.

dgage19558 point was that this train design pushes the US further behind the HSR technology curve.

My point was that at one time the US was a leader, but poor planning and bad leadership gave our lead away.

In no way was either of us putting down the design. Call it envy on my part if you must call it something.

I find it interesting that such a leap in technology came when private money was on the line. Not taxpayer money.

As stated with the link above, I think this is a nice design. It has real potential to change the future of HSR.

Posted by Hates Idiots

Updated - 25th Apr 2012

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Fast train, slow logic

"I find it interesting that such a leap in technology came when private money was on the line. Not taxpayer money."

I doubt that. It will be little different to building the InterState Highway system: a Federal program with private companies fulfilling contracts. I don't know the details but somehow I doubt this HST will be running on tracks on land this private consortium purchased--I am sure it will be on state-owned land/track.
And clearly the only reason Alstom is number one in the world for HST (and several other things like light-rail) is because of the large scale programs of the French state: Alstom delivered its first TGV in 1977. And I doubt your argument that "such a leap in technology came when private money was on the line" has anything much to do with it. I am sure Alstom has had those advances in the works for a long time (and it may have partly come from its purchase of the Italian HST company that makes Pendolino, whose technology, in turn, came from purchasing the tilt train tech from the UK government entity in the 80s when Thatcher stupidly stopped that program).
I am saying that you have a simplistic view of how these things work. They cannot happen without government involvement (which is a fantasy of certain American neocon economists).

Posted by rhodez

26th Apr 2012

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+1 Vote

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Just going on the facts being spread about the project.

Posted by Hates Idiots

26th Apr 2012

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