Italian entrepreneurs to launch first pvt rail service

ROME: A group of Italian entrepreneurs on Tuesday announced plans for the country's first private train service, which is set to begin in 2011 and inject competition in a sector dominated by state monopoly.

The new rail operator, NTV, is a euro900 million (US$1.4 billion) project that will link Rome, Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Naples, as well as Bari and Salerno in the south, officials said. It will make a total of 54 journeys a day.

Investors include Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who serves as NTV president.

The service, which will run on Italy's existing rail network, will use 25 11-car AGV trains by French engineering company Alstom SA, which will be delivered in three years.

Alstom said NTV will be the first operator worldwide to use its AGV very high-speed train. The trains will be equipped with specially designed seats, Internet connections and on-demand TV, traveling at a cruising speed of around 300 kph (190 mph) on existing Italian high-speed rails, the company said.

Officials said at a news conference that the new operator will target 10 million travelers a year, or 20 percent of the market share.

They said they hope to lure business travelers and tourists currently using the state service, which is often hit by labor action and frequent delays due to traffic congestion.

State railway Trenitalia said Tuesday it did not have an immediate comment on the private initiative, the first of its kind in Italy. European officials praised the project and called for increased competition in the railway sector.

"The Commission will support initiatives that allow the market to be freer," said the EU's transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, who attended the project's presentation in Rome.