NEW YORK, December 30, 2025, 04:45 ET
- Italy’s state railway FS and U.S. investment firm Certares will form a joint venture to back a €1 billion expansion of Trenitalia France.
- The Paris-based operator is targeting entry on the Paris–London high-speed route by 2029, alongside fleet and frequency upgrades in France.
- Certares’ travel-distribution holdings are expected to help sell more rail tickets through business and leisure travel channels.
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS) and U.S. investment firm Certares said they will create a joint venture and support a €1 billion investment plan to expand FS’s Paris-based Trenitalia France in France, Britain and other cross-border markets. (Source: Fsitaliane)
The tie-up matters because it injects new capital and travel-distribution reach into Trenitalia’s push to break further into Europe’s busiest high-speed corridors, including the Paris–London route now served by Eurostar.
It also comes as European passenger rail competition deepens under EU “rail liberalisation” rules — regulations that allow multiple operators to run passenger services on the same tracks under certain conditions — raising the stakes for frequency, pricing and access to customers.
FS and Certares said the partnership’s first focus will be Trenitalia France, with the joint venture designed to support investment and commercial distribution — how tickets are sold to travellers through corporate booking systems and travel agencies.
Trenitalia France plans to expand its fleet to at least 19 trainsets, build a new maintenance facility near Paris on a site recently awarded to the company, and increase frequencies on existing routes, including up to 28 daily services on the Paris–Lyon line, the partners said.
The company also said the programme includes “hundreds” of new jobs and continued spending on technology, brand and marketing as it tries to scale operations.
Trenitalia France currently runs high-speed passenger services on Paris–Lyon and Paris–Marseille, and operates the cross-border Paris–Milan route, according to the partners.
The operator said it has carried more than 4.7 million passengers since it began operations and wants to expand further, with entry onto the Paris–London route targeted by 2029.
Certares, which invests in travel and tourism businesses, said it will support rail bookings through its portfolio of travel-distribution companies, including stakes tied to American Express Global Business Travel and other travel groups cited by FS and Certares. (Source: Voyages D Affaires)
The partners also flagged plans to integrate booking tools and “dynamic packaging” — bundling transport with other travel products such as hotels — to attract leisure travellers, alongside efforts aimed at corporate customers.
FS has been pitching its overseas growth as a way to broaden its network without diverting resources from Italy. “This is important, as it will not take funds away from Italy,” FS CEO Stefano Donnarumma said earlier this month at a strategy update. (Source: Reuters)
For FS, the deal aligns with its 2025–2029 strategy and supports its international division, FS International, which the company said currently generates about €3 billion in net revenues and employs around 12,000 people.
The expansion plan sets up a direct challenge on routes where incumbents already have scale — including Eurostar on Paris–London — while Trenitalia continues competing in France’s high-speed market dominated by the national operator SNCF.
FS and Certares did not disclose a closing timetable for the joint venture, but said the investment plan is aimed at accelerating Trenitalia France’s growth and consolidating its presence in France, the United Kingdom and cross-border markets. (Source: Globalbankingandfinance)
