The Anonymous Widower

Riding The Frecciarossa

After I left Aosta, I took a train to Turin Porta Nuova station.

The journey involved a change of trains at Ivrea station and then a reverse at Chivasso station.

Reverses, where a train stops in a station and the driver changes ends, to drive it out, are surely one of the most inefficient parts of passenger train operation.

Surely, automation could do better.

From Turin Porta Nuova station, I took one of Italy’s high-speed trains; a Frecciarossa to Milan. Centrale station.

Some of my observations.

The Route

Note that for a lot of the route, the Turin-Milan High Speed Railway runs alongside the Milan-Turin Autostrada (A4).

I wonder why HS2 is not being built alongside the M1 between London and Birmingham, with possibly a stop at Milton Keynes.

After all, HS1 follows the M2 and M20 in Kent.

Multi-Class Seating

I saw one train with four classes; Standard, Premium, Business and Executive.

Do Italians, really need that many classes?

Ticketing

I bought the ticket from a machine, which also sells the tickets for the slower classic route trains.

As you pick a train, when you buy a ticket in Italy, so you can have reserved seats, you can choose a fast or slow train.

I hope HS2 is the same, so that if say you want to go from London to Birmingham or Manchester, you can choose your route.

There’s only one problem with Italian ticket machines. Often, when you start to buy a ticket, a beggar will appear and try to help or scam a few euros out of you. Some ticket machines are now in separate rooms off the concourse.

May 30, 2018 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Frecciarossa, High Speed Rail, Milan Centrale Station, Turin, Two Nights In Novara