Rete Ferroviaria Italiana

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana is the Italian railway infrastructure manager. It is a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato, a state-owned holding company. RFI is the owner of Italy's railway network, it provides signalling, maintenance and other services for the railway network. It also operates train ferries between the Italian Peninsula and Sicily. It was founded on 1 July 2001 in accordance with a European directive on rail transport that called for the separation of the infrastructure operator and the service operators. Before that the Italian rail network was managed directly by FS. The agency has been periodically accused to a failure to be impartial, including allegations of favouring sibling company Trenitalia over independent operations. References