The CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato said in an interview that the group is trying to activate a project to bring 50 Italian high-speed trains to Germany. FS controls Trenitalia, which has already expanded under its own brand in France and with a subsidiary in Spain.
Trenitalia is one of the most important carriers worldwide for high-speed trains. Its expansion has accelerated in recent years thanks to the liberalization of the railway systems of several states.
The experience accumulated in Italy has allowed it to compete with other state companies, finding important market spaces. In Germany, the dominance of Deutsche Bahn (DB), which has been in crisis for some time, would need to be undermined.
Ferrovie dello Stato wants to expand in Germany
During an interview with the German newspaper HandelsblattCEO Stefano Donnarumma revealed:
We are considering expanding our business in Germany, including the profitable high-speed train sector. I am convinced that wherever healthy competition develops, a better product or service emerges.
The plan is already at a good level of development, with some firm points decided and various practices initiated. The goal would be to bring 50 high-speed trains on the Frecciarossa model to Germany. FS has already undertaken the necessary contacts with the German authorities and network managers.
The move also recalls the continental metro project, which Donnarumma himself mentioned during the interview:
In Italy we call it, jokingly, the European metro. If we also enter the German high-speed market, we could propose ourselves as a leader in the realization of such a project.
The Deutsche Bahn crisis
As also noted by Donnarumma, FS’s main competitor in Germany will be Deutsche Bahn (DB), the German state railway company. Once upon a time, Db was synonymous with efficiency and punctuality, but in the space of a few years it became the high-speed company with the worst reputation in Europe.
In Germany trains are increasingly delayed. In 2022, only 65.2% of the country’s high-speed trains arrived on time. In the following years the situation worsened, with the punctuality rate of high speed and Intercity trains, calculated on a tolerance of 6 minutes, remaining at 62.5%.
Frecciarossa punctuality in Italy was 71% in 2025, despite the many construction sites open on Italian railways which often cause train delays.
The problems cited by Db to justify these delays are mainly three:
- the increase in rail traffic towards the major cities;
- systemic infrastructure deficiencies of German railways;
- difficulty finding staff.
Trenitalia in Spain and France
It is not clear how Ferrovie dello Stato wants to address these critical issues, which it will certainly have to help resolve if it wants to offer a service competitive with that of Db. However, the Italian company is not new to the introduction of high speed in new European markets with already well-established state companies.
In 2021 the Thello company became Trenitalia France, starting a Frecciarossa service between Milan and Paris. In November 2022, Iryo started running, with a fleet of trains made up of 20 ETR 1000s (Trenitalia’s Frecciarossa 1000s). Since the start of operations it has carried 13 million passengers.
