Renfe teams up with Arenaways for the Italian passenger market

In early October 2024, Renfe's administrative council gave its consent for the state-owned operator to purchase a significant number of shares in Longitude, which is the Italian company which owns open access operator Arenaways. This appears to be the starting point for Renfe to become involved in open access passenger services in Italy. Renfe is already active in France, and in the Czech Republic, in the latter through its purchase of a significant shareholding in LEO Express.

Sources indicate that the agreement with Longitude and Arenaways paves the way for Renfe to become active in Italy in either 2025 or 2026, on two local lines in Piemonte (provincial capital Torino), on the borders with France and Switzerland. These lines are:
- Cuneo to Saluzzo and Savigliano: From the start of 2025 this line will have up to 14 train pairs daily - 5,840 trains per annum, covering 160,819 train km annually. The operator will be Arenaways. The service was withdrawn in 2012 and was reinstated in 2019/20.
- Ceva to Ormea: Here the service, withdrawn in 2012 and reinstated in 2028, will consist of up to five train pairs per day, and 2,230 annually, covering 81,200 train km per annum. The operator here will also be Arenaways.

These PSO services ceased to be operated by Trenitalia in 2012, and are now to be taken over by Longitude/Arenaways, using Type ATR220 DMUs (034 to 037) previously used by FER hired from PESA. RFI is currently investing 70 million EUR in upgrading the two routes.

Giuseppe Arena first attempted to enter the Italian open access market in 2010 and 2011, with a service linking Torino and Milano. This was unsuccessful, and Arena subsequently became involved in founding a new company, Longitude Holding, in which he is the majority shareholder.

Arenaways currently has a Safety Certificate permitting operation throughout Italy up to 2029, and has authorisation to operate on six domestic and international routes. Renfe is keen to become involved in operating long distance services between Roma, Milano and München. The Spanish State operator also has its sights set on becoming involved in operations in Ukraine, in the United Arab Emirates and in Canada.

Clearly this ambition to go international is linked to the fact that in 2023 high speed services in Spain carried 32.4 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 37 %. On account of the growing presence of OUIGO and IRYO, Renfe lost 10 % of its market share.

On the Arenaways's facebook profile there is also a rendering of a RegioPanter (see our second picture). We asked the operator, if it will order these Škoda-built trains, how many units and for which line(s). The company answered us: "As we said full sustainability is a major goal, we are always looking at solutions that can optimise our operations and the Škoda BEMU represents an interesting platform for bimodal operations. However, the focus is to start-up the services with our current rolling stock."