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RAIL

Italy rail privatization may be pushed back

The head of Italy's national rail operator said on Thursday the Ferrovia dello Stato's privatization would not necessarily take place in 2016, as previously announced, but when the company is ready.

Published: 4 December 2015 08:42 CET
Italy rail privatization may be pushed back
Italy's rail network would be partly privatized "when the company is ready". Photo: Beppus

The government had indicated the privatization of up to 40 percent of the group would take place next year as part of a drive aimed at helping pay down its debt, which stands at €2.2 trillion.

Italy's postal service was successfully listed in October in the first of a series set to include the privatization of air traffic controller Enav.

But Ferrovia dello Stato CEO Renato Mazzoncini, who took up his post on Tuesday, said the railway would only be listed “when we're ready”, insisting rushing the sale would be folly because “the stock market does not forgive”.

The group recorded a net profit of €292 million ($317 million) in the first half of 2015, up 2.5 percent from the same period last year, with an operating profit of some €948 million, up 0.7 percent.

The company, which marked a €8.4 billion turnover last year, employs more than 69,000 people.

Supporters say the privatization will improve Italy's slow and shabby regional rail services, which lag far behind its sleek and more lucrative high-speed railways.

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TRAVEL

Could Oslo-Copenhagen overnight train be set for return?

A direct overnight rail service between the Norwegian and Danish capitals has not operated since 2001, but authorities in Oslo are considering its return.

Published: 2 September 2021 14:56 CEST

Norway’s transport minister Knut Arild Hareide has asked the country’s railway authority Jernbanedirektoratet to investigate the options for opening a night rail connection between Oslo and Copenhagen.

An answer is expected by November 1st, after which the Norwegian government will decide whether to go forward with the proposal to directly link the two Nordic capitals by rail.

Jernbanedirektoratet is expected to assess a timeline for introducing the service along with costs, market and potential conflicts with other commercial services covering the route.

“I hope we’ll secure a deal. Cross-border trains are exciting, including taking a train to Malmö, Copenhagen and onwards to Europe,” Hareide told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

The minister said he envisaged either a state-funded project or a competition awarding a contract for the route’s operation to the best bidder.

A future Oslo-Copenhagen night train rests on the forthcoming Jernbanedirektoratet report and its chances of becoming a reality are therefore unclear. But the Norwegian rail authority earlier this year published a separate report on ways in which passenger train service options from Norway to Denmark via Sweden can be improved.

“We see an increasing interest in travelling out of Norway by train,” Jernbanedirektoratet project manager  Hanne Juul said in a statement when the report was published in January.

“A customer study confirmed this impression and we therefore wish to make it simpler to take the train to destinations abroad,” Juul added.

Participants in the study said that lower prices, fewer connections and better information were among the factors that would encourage them to choose the train for a journey abroad.

Norway’s rail authority also concluded that better international cooperation would optimise cross-border rail journeys, for example by making journey and departure times fit together more efficiently.

The Femahrn connection between Denmark and Germany, currently under construction, was cited as a factor which could also boost the potential for an overland rail connection from Norway to mainland Europe.

Night trains connected Oslo to Europe via Copenhagen with several departures daily as recently as the late 1990s, but the last such night train between the two cities ran in 2001 amid dwindling demand.

That trend has begun to reverse in recent years due in part to an increasing desire among travellers to select a greener option for their journey than flying.

Earlier this summer, a new overnight train from Stockholm to Berlin began operating. That service can be boarded by Danish passengers at Høje Taastrup near Copenhagen.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about the new night train from Copenhagen to Germany

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