High-speed, international rail links are revolutionising passenger transport – and it’s not just people that these big, fast trains can haul
High-speed trains have long promised to shake up the way business people travel. Many travellers remain sceptical about the potential for rail, but a new dawn is in prospect – thanks, in part, to companies such as Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, a pioneering Italian private operator of high-speed trains.
Launched this month under the brand name Italo, NTV’s service will provide three different classes of travel, with passengers offered the option to connect to tunnel-proof wireless internet, watch TV or have meals served at their leather seats by staff trained in hospitality services. Trains will include cinema coaches, while Italo lounges will provide waiting areas and ticket offices in every station.
And the price?
There is no catch, says NTV’s Mario Taliani. Italo will be competitive with state-owned rail operator Trenitalia, thanks to a tiered pricing system and the use of French AGV trains, which free up 20% extra passenger space compared with rival designs.
“It’s the most modern train in Europe,” Taliani says.
Other private operators exist, but in the depth of route offerings the NTV service is unparalleled. A fleet of 25 trains will link Turin in the north with Salerno in the south, via Milan, Rome and Naples, as well as Venice with Rome, at a speed of 300km/h, the maximum allowed speed on the Italian rail network.
Importantly, NTV rail bookings will be available to travel agents in Italy and worldwide via Travelport, a business service company that runs the Global Distribution System (GDS), which airline passengers have come to rely on for online price comparisons and availability checks. Some train operators do now offer GDS, but many still do not.
Tickets please
“Ticketing remains the Achilles heel of these new high-speed trains,” says Mark Smith, founder and writer of Man in Seat Sixty-One, a popular online train travel site. “For example, business travel houses may recommend flights even where rail is now cheaper, faster, more comfortable, and more productive. This is because they can easily sell air tickets via their GDS, but often cannot sell train tickets unless they work through smaller specialist agencies, which is more hassle.”
This is particularly the case for travellers looking to book rail tickets from outside the destination country, such as when booking international cross-border high-speed rail links.
The RailTeam Network alliance that launched in 2007 – including seven European high-speed rail operators – was to have created a consistent ticketing system on a single website. But the effort has largely failed because of fundamental differences in the German and French systems. A classic example of unfulfilled potential is the London to Amsterdam journey, which takes only 4h 20m but is underperforming because of two mismatched fare systems.
Typically, rail in Europe dominates on routes of three hours or less, and commands at least half the market on trips up to four-and-a-half hours. This is down to the inherent advantages of rail transport: reduced stress, and time saved on direct city-centre-to-city-centre travel that cuts out congested roads to and from the airport. Reduced carbon footprints are also a benefit.
High-speed rail is increasingly an attractive option for business travellers, Smith says, but the promise of a trans-European high-speed rail network remains distant.
In the meantime, the individual networks go from strength to strength. Spain, for example, now has one of the best rail systems with the most kilometres of high-speed track in service.
But because it’s at one end of Europe, international services from Spain have been problematic. That’s set to change, with the completion of a new high-speed offering between Barcelona and Paris, boasting a travel time of 7h 25m – an hour and a quarter quicker than the previous services.
As for technological innovations, new Siemens ICE 3 trains on order for Deutsche Bahn promise 30% less energy use, a quieter ride, and better interoperability for cross-border routes.
Deutsche Bahn spokesman Andreas Fuhrmann says that in practical terms, widespread international train travel is not yet possible because there are so many different systems across Europe. Things are getting better, though.
Germany is strongly connected to its six border countries, Fuhrmann says. He highlights the new direct high-speed routes from Germany to London and southern French cities as a measure of greater integration. These services can be booked directly on Deutsche Bahn’s website, as can tickets for journeys to major Austrian, Swiss or Polish towns.
“It is true that it’s quite difficult to buy international tickets for every destination but if you look at the most important lines where most of the people travel, we offer seamless booking connections,” Fuhrmann says.
Service dilution
Mark Smith agrees but points to a negative consequence from all the new competition from private operators such as NTV, saying they dilute services from less-travelled routes such as Venice to Slovenia.
“We’re starting to see multiple operators on already-well-served routes such as Milan-Rome and Prague-Ostrava and Vienna-Salzburg, but there are now no trains at all between Slovenia and Italy,” Smith says. He laments: “The EU policy and TrenItalia between them have closed the border to trains more effectively than 50 years of communism.”
And while the new entrants mean competition on prices, and drive improvements and innovation, that too has its side-effects.
“TrenItalia is now so worried it’s putting all its resources into managing its competition, while pulling the plug on other trains and services that it’s not interested in,” Smith says.
Increased co-operation and investment in high-speed rail also promises to create more efficient transnational freight corridors. In the middle of it all is DB Schenker, the transportation and logistics arm of Deutsche Bahn, which recently helped introduce a weekly rail freight service between Poland and the UK.
Launched in November 2011, the service was the first regular freight service to use the High Speed 1 rail route that runs from the Channel Tunnel to London. The route is the only Berne gauge line in the UK, enabling European-sized wagons to be pulled.
“This is an important step for rail freight in Europe, as a new market has been developed and a new trading route opened,” says Alain Thauvette, chief executive of DB Schenker Rail UK.
Another high-speed rail freight service aimed at the UK attempts a trans-continental distribution network for next-day delivery that could see a parcel package version of airfreight brought down to the rails. Introduced in March 2012 by Euro Carex, an alliance whose members include French air and freight operators, its backers say the express freight business could also be complemented by traditional road freight.
Yanick Paternotte, a member of the French parliament and chairman of Euro Carex, says: “The test over the European high speed rail network clearly shows the interest of strategic players in the logistics – airports as well as rail operators – in linking their infrastructures to key European economic centres in order to benefit businesses and communities.”
The service also offers a potential solution to the continuous rise in fuel prices, road congestion and environmental constraints that limit the number of night flights. We might be about to enter a new age of the train.