A recent ranking by Transport & Environment (T&E) has evaluated 27 European rail operators, and Trenitalia stands out as one of the best performers.
While the Italian operator has earned praise for its affordability, traveller experience, and commitment to special fares, the report also highlights significant areas where Trenitalia, and the rail sector as a whole, must improve to meet passenger expectations and environmental goals.
The eight criteria are, from left to right: price, special discounts, reliability, booking experience, compensation policy, traveller experience, nights trains and cycling policy.
The Highlights: What Trenitalia Does Well
Trenitalia ranks highly across multiple criteria in the study. The operator excels in:
- Special Fares and Discounts: Alongside a few other operators, Trenitalia leads in offering attractive discounts and special rates. These efforts make rail travel more accessible, particularly to budget-conscious passengers and specific groups like students or seniors.
- Traveller Experience: Trenitalia joins SNCF and Deutsche Bahn in providing some of the best journey comfort and speed, ensuring a pleasant experience for passengers.
- Night Train Development: With 15 night train routes, Trenitalia places third in Europe, indicating its growing commitment to offering sustainable alternatives to air travel for longer distances.
These achievements align with the broader aim of making rail travel the backbone of Europe’s zero-emission mobility network.
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The Challenges: Where Trenitalia Falls Short
Despite its successes, Trenitalia faces challenges that reflect broader systemic issues in the rail sector:
- Affordability Concerns: Ticket prices remain a mixed bag. While Trenitalia avoids the exorbitant rates seen with operators like Eurostar, the cost of rail travel in Europe is still a deterrent for many passengers. Rail fares often surpass low-cost airline prices on equivalent routes, underscoring the need for governmental VAT reductions and infrastructure subsidies.
- Reliability: Across Europe, reliability is a pain point for passengers, and Trenitalia is no exception. Punctuality rates for trains remain inconsistent, which undermines consumer trust and shifts demand to other transport modes.
- Booking Complexity: One of the report’s critical findings was the cumbersome booking process for international train journeys. Many passengers abandon their bookings due to unclear pricing, limited language options, or technical hurdles on digital platforms.
- Cycling Accessibility: While Trenitalia has embraced sustainability through night train routes, its policies for bringing bikes onboard lag behind consumer expectations, earning a lower score in this category.
Systemic Issues Impacting Performance
It’s important to note that rail operators like Trenitalia do not operate in a vacuum. Ticket affordability, for instance, is heavily influenced by VAT rates and track access charges imposed by infrastructure managers. Similarly, reliability depends on both operator efficiency and the quality of national rail networks.
Policymakers must step in to address these structural challenges, as the report underscores the sector’s inability to resolve them independently.
A Call for Action
For Trenitalia to solidify its position as a leader, it must focus on addressing passenger concerns around affordability, reliability, and accessibility. Moreover, systemic reforms at the EU and national levels, such as harmonized ticketing platforms and subsidies for eco-friendly rail travel, are urgently needed to unlock the full potential of rail as Europe’s green transport solution.
