High-speed trains to link Italy, Austria and Germany

Italy’s Frecciarossa high-speed trains are very much on the move with the launch of direct services between Italy, Austria and Germany getting closer. 

Across Europe, trains can provide travellers with an affordable alternative to short-haul flights.

Testing of the trains began in Germany and Austria last week as part of the international approval process. 

Subject to successful certification, commercial services between Milan and Munich and Rome and Munich are expected to start in summer 2027.

The project is being developed by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS), through Trenitalia, in partnership with Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB) and Austria’s ÖBB.

The initial service will comprise four connections across the two routes.

The Milan-Munich journey will take about six and a half hours, covering roughly 600 kilometers. Planned intermediate stops include Brescia, Verona, Rovereto, Trento, Bolzano and Innsbruck.

The Rome-Munich service will take approximately eight and a half hours, with stops at Florence, Bologna, Verona, Rovereto, Trento, Bolzano and Innsbruck.

The services will use the Frecciarossa 1000, Trenitalia’s flagship high-speed train. The train is certified to European interoperability standards and is designed to operate across different railway systems, power supplies and signalling technologies, news hub Travel Mole reports.

The network is planned to grow substantially from December 2028, when the full program is expected to reach 10 connections between Italy and Germany.

Future services will extend the network to Berlin and Naples, including planned routes linking Milan with Berlin and Naples with both Munich and Berlin. The longer-term network is expected to create five daily round-trip services across the Germany-Austria-Italy corridor.

Rome to Pompeii and back - in a day

You are in Rome. You want to see the ruins of Pompeii, but time is of the essence.

A new high-speed train service is now connecting Rome to Pompeii in under two hours, making what was once a serious trek a day trip possibility.

The new direct train service - a collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Culture and Italian State Railways - is to operate on Sundays in a bid to boost tourism to the archaeological site.

The direct Rome to Pompeii service is operated on a Frecciarossa 1000 train, the flagship in the Trenitalia fleet.

It departs Roma Termini on selected Sunday mornings at 8:53am and arrives in Pompeii at 10:40am, Travel Mole reports.

During the journey, passengers can learn about Pompeii’s history from a video played on the onboard monitors.

On arrival, a Pompeii Link shuttle bus takes passengers to the archaeological site.

Making day trips feasible is the fact the return journey to Rome departs at 18:40pm.

There are about 50 Frecciarossa and regional services that currently run between Rome and Pompeii, but all involve a tiresome transfer at Napoli Centrale station.

Pompeii was buried by volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD and is a major tourism drawcard with visitors keen to walk in the steps of people who lived almost 2,000 years ago.