Trenitalia France
Trenitalia France is an open-access train operator running international services between France and Italy. Founded in 2011 as "Thello", and initially set up as a joint venture between Trenitalia and Veolia Transdev, Transdev sold their share to Trenitalia in 2016. Services were withdrawn during the COVID-19 pandemic, and definitely ended on July 1, 2021. Trenitalia announced shifting to high speed services between the two countries following the pandemic. Thello was renamed "Trenitalia France" in October 2021 and started a highspeed connection between Paris and Milan on 18 December 2021 using Frecciarossa 1000 trainsets. History. In 2011, SNCF  announced they would be withdrawing from the Artesia joint venture that operated trains between Paris and Italy. Trenitalia and Veolia Transport (later Transdev) launched Thello to operate day and night international services between the countries. Night trains run by Thello operated daily from 11 December 2011 on the route between Paris Gare de Lyon, Dijon-Ville, Milano Centrale and Venezia Santa Lucia. Cabotage, the carriage of national passengers on a leg of the international journey, was not permitted, and tickets between Paris and Dijon were not offered by Thello. In December 2012, Thello took over services between Paris, Firenze Santa  Maria Novella and Roma Termini, which had previously been operated by Artesia, but the service was withdrawn after one year, on 14 December 2013; Thello reported a loss of 30 million euros in 2012. The specific reason given was difficulties in obtaining timetable routes with attractive travel times. Following permission in 2013, Thello operated daytime trains between Milan and Marseille, via Genoa and Nice from December 2014. Since the beginning of 2013, the company acquired the safety certificate required for traffic on the Belgian railway network. Thello had announced that they wanted to appear in direct competition with Thalys on  the Paris-Brussels route. These trains did not materialise. In 2016, Transdev sold their 33% share in Thello to Trenitalia, giving their Italian partner full control over Thello. Transdev stated that poor revenues were due to increased customs controls thanks to the European migrant crisis, the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015 as well as delays caused by railway engineering works. In 2019, Thello announced a plan to link Milan, Turin, Lyon and Paris with a daytime high speed service, using Italian Frecciarossa 1000 trains. These would be faster than existing TGV services, as the Frecciarossia trains would be able  to run on the Turin–Milan high-speed railway. In 2020, Thello overnight services between Paris and Venice were suspended in March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic, with the daytime train cut back to run between Nice and Milan. In June 2021, all services were withdrawn, with Trenitalia announcing a focus on high speed services between the two countries following the pandemic. The withdrawal was criticised, given the reduction in services between Nice and Milan and efforts by other operators (such as ÖBB Nightjet) to increase the number of night trains in Europe. After being renamed Trenitalia France, the company  started commercial service between Milan and Paris on December 18, 2021. Trains. Current high-speed services. Trenitalia France is using Trenitalia's Frecciarossa 1000 trainsets for its services between Milan, Lyon, and Paris. Former services. The train operating staff was Trenitalia's in Italy and Thello's in France. Initially the carriages were leased by Trenitalia while the locomotive was leased from Akiem by SNCF Geodis. The locomotives used were three-system SNCF Class BB 36000 electric locomotives uprated from to operation in France to the Italian border. The sleeping-cars were type MU, a design originally created for the  Wagons-Lits Company, built 1964-1974 but refurbished by Trenitalia in the mid-2000s when LED lighting & corridor CCTV were fitted and carpets had been removed. Each sleeping-car has 12 compartments with washbasin, each usable as single, double, or triple. Couchette cars are of various types and could be used as 4 berth or 6 berth. Thello night trains had three classes: Some services carried a restaurant car operated by LSG Sky Chefs, where it was possible to have dinner and breakfast on board.