European Rail News & Notes
Your source for updates on European train travel

Italy: new overnight services postponed

Arenaways is a newish Italian rail operator. The company launched passenger services in autumn 2010, speeding from Milan to Turin in competition with Trenitalia. Last week Arenaways was due to start overnight services in Italy, running from Turin to both Apulia and Calabria (and vice versa). The company’s plan is to provide high-quality sleeping cars, with each train also conveying vehicles. A great idea, but in fact these new services have not started operation. Arenaways cite delays in getting the necessary certification for their rolling stock.

In a separate development, Veolia Transdev this week announced that it was scaling back its investment in Thello, the operator of overnight trains between Italy and France. Thello is partly owned by Italian state operator Trenitalia. The company took to the rails last December, when it launched a night train from Venice to Paris (replacing the erstwhile Artesia service on the same route).

Thello was this summer due to launch a new Rome to Paris overnight train. Another great idea that has yet to come to fruition. Initially slated for June, then postponed to July 2012, but still no trains have run. Thello now say that they hope to start the Rome to Paris service in December 2012 (and the provisional schedules already appear in Table 44 of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable.)

Thello publicity is often woeful, and their website difficult to navigate. If the latter is to be believed, the company’s flagship Paris to Venice service will not run at all for a three-week spell this summer (10 August 2012 to 2 September 2012 inclusive). Evidently Thello trains are just like humans and need summer holidays.

Holders of rail passes such as Eurail or InterRail should note that Arenaways and Thello do not accept passes on their services.

Copyright © Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries. All rights reserved.
hidden europe
About The Authors

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries

Nicky and Susanne manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers and the authors of the book Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide. The 17th edition of that book was published in 2022 and reprinted in July 2023. You'll find a list of outlets that sell the book on this website.

0 Comments
Add a comment

*Please complete all fields correctly