Hitachi Rail Italy rolls out first Rock EMU for Trenitalia

THE first Rock double-deck regional EMU for Trenitalia was officially unveiled at a ceremony at the Hitachi Rail Italy (HRI) plant in Pistoia on April 18 in the presence of Italian State Railways (FS) CEO, Mr Renato Mazzoncini, Mr Orazio Iacono, managing director of Trenitalia, and Mr Maurizio Manfellotto, CEO of HRI.

Trenitalia awarded HRI a framework contract in August 2016 to supply up to 300 of the trains with maximum value of €2.6bn. The initial order for 25 five-car and 14 four-car trains is worth €333m.

The first trains are due to enter service in spring 2019 in the region of Emilia Romagna, which will eventually recveive 39 Rock sets. Trenitalia will also receive Rock EMUs for Veneto (47) Liguria (28) and Tuscany (4).

The 136m-long five-car variant of the train will accommodate up to 656 passengers.

“We are changing life for Italian commuters with a €4.5bn investment in new trains,” Mazzoncini says. “The new Rock train fits into this great industrial operation that, by value economic and number of trains, is unprecedented in Italy. We want to improve the collective and shared integrated mobility of the country. Rock is a wonderful train that will come to all the Italian regions where Trenitalia has won tenders to operate regional services.

“In Emilia-Romagna, we have signed long-term service contracts, and we will sign contracts in Veneto and Liguria, in the coming months. By 2023, we want to renew 75% of Trenitalia’s regional fleet and halve the average age of trains from 20.3 years to 10.6 in 2024.”

Manfellotto says the first train will now be sent to the Velim test centre in the Czech Republic for homologation.

by  Marco Chiandoni