Cisalpino AG ( Aktiengesellschaft ) was a railway company, referred to as CIS in timetables, operating international trains between Switzerland and Italy connecting Basel, Schaffhausen, Zurich, Geneva, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Livorno, and Florence. The company has its legal headquarters in Muri bei Bern (BE), Switzerland, [1] and is jointly owned by the Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia.
It was founded in 1993 to operate fast trains across the Alps using tilting trains. In 2005, however, it also took over all daytime long-distance passenger trains between Switzerland and Italy run with conventional, non-tilting trains.
In the fall of 2009, the project was abandoned because of mounting bad press [2] over the quality of service and the fiasco surrounding orders placed for new trains. The remaining trains were split nearly evenly between the two owners.
Until December 2012 the company owned the ETR 610 trainsets and leased them to Trenitalia and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS). [3] The company still exists, but its name is no longer used for public purposes.
The original service was branded under the name "Cisalpino," using the abbreviation "CIS" in timetables, but it has now been replaced by the name EuroCity, using the abbreviation "EC". It operated with nine Italian ETR 470 tilting trains (colloquially known as "Pendolino").
During the 2009 timetable, these trains were used on two main routes to connect Milan with northern Switzerland. Four trains per day and per direction ran via the Lötschberg line to Bern and Basel. Zurich was connected via the Gotthardbahn with seven daily trains, of which three were direct, and four others required a change in Lugano onto a leased Swiss ICN train. [4] One of the Zurich-bound trains originally ran as far north as Stuttgart, but was cut back to Schaffhausen in 2006.
Train maintenance was carried out in the Milan Greco workshop by the Italian railway operator Trenitalia. Trains were staffed with personnel from Trenitalia as well as the Swiss Federal Railways, while the catering was provided by the Italian company Cremonini.
The trains had two classes. In first-class, power sockets were available. The Cisalpino train included a dining car.
The Cisalpino ETR 470 trains then in service suffered from a bad reputation due to continuing problems with punctuality (breakdowns in mid-journey) and cleanliness (overflowing toilets) and a ride that caused customers to complain of nausea due to these being first-generation Pendolinos. [5] The service between Zurich and Stuttgart was discontinued in mid-December 2006 for these reasons. In 2008, 83 Cisalpino trains failed to reach their destination [6] and 11.2% suffered a delay of 15 minutes or more (average delay 28 minutes).
A batch of fourteen new tilting trains ETR 610 was ordered in 2004 from Alstom (former Fiat Ferroviaria) in the hope of providing much-needed relief, but have themselves had some problems. [7] Entry into service, originally to come with the December 2007 timetable change together with the opening of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, was deferred and rescheduled for the spring of 2009. Again the trains were not ready for passenger-carrying service and their introduction was deferred to August 2009 when two did enter revenue-earning service. By December 2009 six trains were available, but the last train would be put into service only by December 2010, three years later than planned.
These new trains were ordered from the same consortium that built the original problematic trains.
During testing [8] in 2009 it was found that the new ETR 610 trains were too heavy for the main Gotthard route from Zurich to Milan for which they had been ordered. The weight of the train influences the permitted cornering speed due to forces on the track – the heavier the train the slower the cornering speed allowed. It was found the new trains would have to run so slowly that traditional trains without tilting technologies would be just as fast, thus calling the whole project into question.
Cisalpino also operated conventional EuroCity trains on two routes: from Basel or Zurich to Milan via Gotthard and from Geneva to Milan via Simplon. Three of these trains per day went all the way to Venice while one train continued from Milan to Genoa and Livorno.
These trains were run with traditional Swiss or Italian EuroCity non-tilting rolling stock. All trains had first- and second-class coaches. A dining car was available only on some of the trains.
For the Venice-bound trains, maintenance was carried out in Venice. The other trains were maintained in Switzerland. Like the Cisalpino trains, crews are provided by Trenitalia in Italy and the Swiss Federal Railways in Switzerland.
During the 2009 timetable Cisalpino also operated three couples of Milan-Bellinzona EuroCity with Italian stock.
Confusingly in 2010, whilst the name Cisalpino has disappeared from the timetables the older problematic ETR 470 trains live on. On the Zurich-Milan route, they are now also called EuroCity. The only way to tell which EuroCity is an old tilting train is to check whether folding bicycles are allowed (they are not allowed on tilting trains, although most folding bicycles actually fit into their luggage racks).
A tilting train is a train that has a mechanism enabling increased speed on regular rail tracks. As a train rounds a curve at speed, objects inside the train experience centrifugal force. This can cause packages to slide about or seated passengers to feel squashed by the outboard armrest, and standing passengers to lose their balance. In such excessive speeds, it could even cause the train to derail. Tilting trains are designed to counteract this by tilting the carriages towards the inside of the curve, thus compensating for the g-force. The train may be constructed such that inertial forces cause the tilting, or it may have a computer-controlled powered mechanism.
The Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon-Bahn (BLS), known between 1997 and 2006 as the BLS Lötschbergbahn, was a Swiss railway company. In 2006 the company merged with Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG to form a new company called BLS AG.
Swiss Federal Railways is the national railway company of Switzerland.
Rail transport in Switzerland is noteworthy for the density of its network, its coordination between services, its integration with other modes of transport, timeliness and a thriving domestic and trans-Alp freight system. It is made necessary by strong regulations on truck transport, and is enabled by properly coordinated intermodal logistics.
Milano Centrale is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Italy, and is the second busiest railway station in Italy for passenger flow and the largest railway station in Europe by volume.
Pendolino is an Italian family of high-speed tilting trains used in Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the UK, the US, Switzerland, China, and Greece. It was also used in Russia from December 12, 2010 until March 26, 2022. Based on the design of the Italian ETR 401, it was further developed and manufactured by Fiat Ferroviaria, which was taken over by Alstom in 2000.
The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of Italy, with a total length of 24,567 km (15,265 mi) of which active lines are 16,832 km (10,459 mi). The network has recently grown with the construction of the new high-speed rail network. Italy is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Italy is 83.
The New Pendolino is a class of high-speed tilting trains built by Alstom Ferroviaria for Trenitalia and Cisalpino.
High-speed rail in Italy consists of two lines connecting most of the country's major cities. The first line connects Turin to Salerno via Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples, the second runs from Turin to Venice via Milan and Verona, and is under construction in parts. Trains are operated with a top speed of 300 km/h (190 mph).
ETR 470 is a high-speed tilting electric multiple unit, which is now only operated by the Greek company, Hellenic Train. Introduced in September 1996, nine units were built for the Italo-Swiss firm Cisalpino. They were made by Fiat Ferroviaria, and could tilt up to 8°. Today, there are five trains in Greece.
The Gottardo was an express train that, for most of its existence, linked Zurich, Switzerland, with Milan, Italy. Introduced in 1961, it was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express (TEE) until 1988, then becoming a EuroCity service and finally a EuroNight service – on a longer route, to Rome – before being discontinued in 2002. The train followed the Gotthard railway and was named for the line, using the Italian spelling for it, Ferrovia del Gottardo.
The Ticino was an express train that linked Milan in Italy, with Zürich, Switzerland and for some years even to Munich, Germany. The train was named after the Canton of Ticino in the south of Switzerland. Introduced in 1961, it was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express (TEE) service until 1974. Later, it was a EuroCity service.
The Colosseum was an express train initially linking Rome and Milan, later Frankfurt am Main. The train was named after the Amphitheatrum Flavium, renowned as the Colosseum.
The Simplon Railway is a line that links Lausanne in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy, via Brig. The 20 km (12 mi)-long Simplon Tunnel is a major part of it. The line between Lausanne and Vallorbe is sometimes considered to form part of the line, making it 233 km (145 mi) long.
High-speed rail in Switzerland consists of two new lines and three new base tunnels, including the world's longest railway and deepest traffic tunnel: the Gotthard Base Tunnel whose length is 57 km (35 mi). Each of these tunnels have a technical maximum speed of 250 km/h (155 mph), which is reduced, at least in the Gotthard Base Tunnel and the Ceneri Base Tunnel, to a maximum authorized speed of 230 km/h (145 mph), for environmental and economic reasons.
The RABe 501, nicknamed Giruno, is a high-speed electric multiple unit train built by Stadler Rail of Switzerland for the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). According to Stadler Rail, it was the world's first single-decker low-floor high-speed train.
Frecciabianca is a high-speed train operated by Trenitalia, Italy's national train operator, and one of its Le Frecce brands, along with Frecciarossa and Frecciargento. Frecciabianca was introduced in 2011, replacing Eurostar Italia. Frecciabianca trains operate at speeds up to 200 km/h (124 mph).
Le Frecce is the high-speed rail train category operated by Trenitalia in Italy under overall three brand names.
EuroCity Express, or short ECE, is a category of Eurocity train marketed by Deutsche Bahn that runs on two routes as of 2021. It was created to classify a newly introduced international high speed train service in a higher category - equivalent to the Intercity-Express - than the existing Eurocity, which is equivalent to the "second tier" domestic Intercity.
The InterCity, abbreviated IC, is a category of mainline train services in Switzerland operated by Swiss Federal Railways, connecting the country's major cities, the range of services of which is located between InterRegio (IR) (inter-regional) and EuroCity (EC).