Train: Trenitalia Disrupts the Balance on the Paris-Lyon Route

Starting December 2025, the Italian operator Trenitalia will increase its offer between Paris and Lyon, aiming to capture 30% of the market from SNCF.

At a time when France is starting to anticipate the strike days of the SNCF on the eve of the end-of-year holidays, Trenitalia is about to take a smart strategic move: increasing its commercial offer!

And not by a small amount: +55% in rotations, going from 9 to 14 round trips per day during the week. This is enough to make Trenitalia an essential player on this route where the SNCF has reigned unchallenged for decades.

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Paris–Lyon, a pillar of the French strategy

The presence of Trenitalia in the French market dates back to 2011, with the creation of Thello, a partnership between Trenitalia and Veolia Transdev. The brand initially operated night trains from Paris to Venice, then launched daytime connections between Marseille, Nice, and Milan in 2014. These activities ceased in 2021, paving the way for a new chapter: the birth of Trenitalia France in the autumn of that same year. On December 18, 2021, its first high-speed trains connected Paris and Milan via Lyon and Turin. A few months later, in April 2022, the company also launched a domestic service between Paris and Lyon, quickly expanding in June of that same year.

This rise in power, however, was interrupted at the end of summer 2023: a landslide in the Maurienne valley cut access to the Fréjus tunnel, forcing Trenitalia to suspend its international service for nearly two years. Only the Paris–Lyon route continued to operate, but the loss of revenue was significant, estimated at around 8 million euros per month.

April 1, 2025, marked the resumption of the Paris–Milan route, followed two months later, on June 15, by the opening of a new Paris–Marseille connection offering four daily round trips. This is enough to solidify the operator’s position in the French network and diversify its offering.

Direct rivalry with SNCF

With its Frecciarossa 1000 trains, developed and manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy, capable of being coupled to offer more than 900 seats per train, Trenitalia enjoys a flexibility that the SNCF does not yet have with its TGV-M, whose delivery has been delayed. In a market recently opened to competition, where the Spanish Renfe struggles to maintain its offensive due to lack of profitability, the Italian company stands out as the first solid foreign competitor against the historical French operator.

Beyond France, the Italian group is investing over 1.3 billion euros in a new generation of its Frecciarossa 1000 train, designed to travel seamlessly across Europe: Spain, Germany, France, and possibly even the UK via the Channel Tunnel. A project to compete with Eurostar is currently under development.

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