Naples, 17 December 2018
The FS Italiane Group, through its subsidiary Trenitalia, is strongly committed to relaunching regional and commuter transport, with the aim of putting the needs of the people who choose the train to move for work, school, or tourism at the centre of the industrial chain. This will be the biggest challenge over the next five years, which sees, at the national level, a maximum investment of six billion euro in new regional trains.
The full-scale models (1: 1) of the new regional Rock and Pop trains were presented this morning in Piazza del Plebiscito, in Naples, in the Trenitalia Village #lamusicastacambiando (#themusicischanging) by Gianfranco Battisti, CEO of FS Italiane, Tiziano Onesti, President Trenitalia, and Orazio Iacono, Trenitalia Managing Director to Luca Cascone, President of the Campania Region Transport Commission, and to Enrico Panini, Deputy Mayor of Naples.
Even the Neapolitan stage, the thirteenth of the Trenitalia roadshow that is stopping at major Italian piazzas, has offered the opportunity of meeting with local representatives of consumer associations, people with disabilities, and environmentalists.
A journey that started in production, with the engineers of Trenitalia and construction companies, which has allowed, the only example in Europe, to further increase the levels of accessibility and comfort required by EU regulations, starting with people with reduced mobility.
From Thursday 13 to Sunday 16 December more than 45,000 visitors have boarded the life-size models of the Rock and Poptrains to get to know and evaluate in detail the technical and technological details of the new trains: from the driver's cab to the seats, from the toilets to the dedicated spaces for wheelchair bound passengers, from on-board monitors to bike racks.
Intended to improve the commuter travel experience, Rock and Pop are part of the new fleet of over 600 commuter trains and represent the realization of the renewal process currently under way.
They will begin circulating in the spring of 2019 in the Italian regions that have signed new long-term service contracts with Trenitalia and will join the Vivalto, Jazz and Swing trains that, together with the Minuetto, accompany 1.5 million Italians every day to school, to work, and on leisure trips.
The arrival of the Rock and Pop in Campania is subject to the signing of the new long-term service contract, to which the Region and Trenitalia are working on an overall strategy to revitalize regional rail transport, which has already seen the improvement of commuter satisfaction on the services already offered.
In fact, in Campania, where 13 new Jazz trains are already in circulation, another 11 will be added by 2019 for a total of 24, the modernization of the fleet has already brought advantages in terms of trip comfort, timeliness, and security. The data collected by a third-party demographic company show satisfaction growth of 6.7%, between 2014 and 2018, reaching 74.1%, with peaks of up to 86.1% for travel times, and of 93, 9% for on-board personnel.
A growing appreciation, therefore, from people who travel every day on regional trains to which Trenitalia, and the whole FS Italian Group, devotes particular attention and care.
More comfortable, more sustainable and more accessible - even for people with reduced mobility and disabilities - Rock and Popare currently under construction in the Italian plants of Hitachi Rail Italy and Alstom Italy that have been awarded the work after the end of an international tender offering. The first models are already undergoing technical-dynamic tests for homologation on the special Velim railway circuit (Czech Republic).
The Rock is a generational leap from the point of view of reliability, energy savings, and performance compared to the current double-decker trains in service in Italy.
Entirely made in Italy, it consists of five carriages, 136 meters long and 2.8 meters wide, and can transport up to 656 passengers and reach a top speed of 160 km / h. Characterized by ample space for travellers, it allows unique performances on the market in terms of transport capacity per unit of length, consumption per passenger kilometre (-30% compared to the most recent vehicles circulating in Italy).
The Pop, which is part of the Coradia Stream family, can reach a top speed of 160 km/h and carry about 530 people, with over 300 seats in the 4-car version, and about 400, with 200 seats, in the 3-car version. It is designed and built around the needs of those who will travel and work on it; more comfortable and flexible in interior fittings, adaptable to the different needs of the territory, more secure thanks to advanced video surveillance systems, more sustainable and "green" in reducing consumption and almost complete recyclability of used materials, more accessible also to people with reduced mobility and with disabilities.