Madrid/Barcelona, 11 August 2022
The Frecciarossa 1000 train is beginning technical trials on the rail lines between Madrid and Barcelona.
ILSA, the consortium that is part owned by Trenitalia (FS Italiane Group), is carrying out the tests on the Spanish lines, in the last step before the train is given final approval for use on the Spanish rail network.
That will allow iryo, the company’s commercial name, to offer passengers a new high-speed option by the end of 2022, with tickets set to go on sale between September and October.
The possibility of providing high-speed connections in Spain is part of a process that began in November 2019 with the award by ADIF, the controller of Spanish railway infrastructure, of 30% of the trains on the high-speed network – that amount is second only to Renfe, the Spanish national operator. In the first phase, iryo will join Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Malaga, Cordoba, Valencia, Alicante and Zaragoza, before expanding to include other destinations.
The project begun by Trenitalia in Spain is aimed at enticing a growing number of people to choose the train to get around, in accordance with the European Union’s sustainability goals. Sharing of the know-how that was developed in Italy with the high-speed system, and over ten years’ experience of running Frecciarossa routes, will allow significant further development of rail transport between the major Spanish cities.
The train convoy which is carrying out the technical trials is one of the twenty new Frecciarossa 1000s built by Hitachi in Italian workshops with the same characteristics as those used in Italy. The trains can be nearly completely recycled, and that means an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per passenger journey and, precisely for that reason, it has been awarded the EPD Environmental Product Declaration.
The FS Italiane Group, of which Trenitalia is the lead company, is also present in the passenger business in Europe through Trenitalia France, that runs trains between Milan and Paris, and Paris and Lyons, with the Frecciarossa 1000, in the UK with Avanti West Coast and c2c, in Germany with Netinera, a regional transport operator, in Grecia with Hellenic Train and in the Netherlands with the road operator, Qbuzz.