Passenger rail struggles to recover from the pandemic
Italy’s passenger rail landscape is dominated by two passenger rail operators: Trenitalia and Italo. Italo entered the Italian passenger rail market in 2012 as privately-owned competitor to the state-owned Ferrovie dello Stato Group, which operates Trenitalia, alongside other rail companies in Italy and other European countries.Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the annual volume of rail passengers was steadily increasing in Italy. For example, Trenitalia recorded its best-ever operating revenue in the 2019 financial year. However, Italy’s rail services and passenger rail activity were heavily reduced by the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020. While passenger numbers began to recover in 2021 they remained at only around 55 percent of pre-pandemic figures.