Trenitalia to Marseille and other rail news
News
Trenitalia will introduce services between Paris and Marseille from 15 June 2025. Here is a view of the harbour in Marseille (photo © Sokol25 / dreamstime.com).
We live in interesting times. Austrian operator ÖBB has paused some overnight sleeper services because of the sheer difficulty in getting reliable paths through Germany. The Berlin to Brussels Nightjet is a victim of this: it is suspended until further notice – a decision which ÖBB evidently made only very reluctantly, but one which surely brings joy to rival operator European Sleeper who offer a thrice-weekly overnight service from Berlin to Brussels.
Renfe hesitates over Toulouse
Meanwhile, the promised new daytime fast AVE train from Toulouse to Barcelona has not started. A start date of 7 April has been mooted, but tickets were never released for sale. Renfe seems to have cold feet over its cross-border operations from Spain into France. So we may never get that promised new link from Toulouse into Spain. There’s a perceptive opinion piece on Renfe’s approach to cross-border operations appended to the Newslines in the May 2025 digital edition of the European Rail Timetable. You can read that here on our website.
Now you surely need some good news. The major engineering work around the rail tunnel under the Tauern Alps proceeds apace and the main Tauern route from Salzburg south into Carinthia is due to reopen on time in mid July. So that will see the happy reinstatement of the Munich to Rome night train.
But even here, good tidings are laced with bad news as this service will not run to Florence and Rome from 29 September until mid-December. It will instead be diverted to terminate in Milan.
Railjets to Ancona
On Italy’s Adriatic coast, 17 April saw the inauguration of the new direct seasonal Railjet from Munich to Ancona. This useful new daytime link from Bavaria to Italy’s Le Marche region will run daily until early October. Departure time from Munich is normally at 09.33, giving an arrival in Ancona at 19.10.
Trenitalia extends horizons
Next month may or may not see the introduction of a direct Trenitalia Frecciarossa link into Slovenia. Milan to Ljubljana has been provisionally slated for 15 June, but we are still waiting confirmation on that. However, you will be able to see sleek Frecciarossa trains in Marseille from 15 June, when Trenitalia launches four-times daily services from Paris to Marseille.
SNCF must be apprehensive about having sharp competition on this key French domestic route. Trenitalia has opted for a long booking horizon, so tickets are already on sale for journeys right through into early November. One-way fares in standard class start at €27, and in business class at €37.
Other news
ÖBB seems to have gone quiet about a direct daytime service to Milan via the Brenner route. But an additional Brenner train now extends to Bologna. This means the Italian city now has three direct Railjets each day via the Brenner route to Innsbruck and Munich.
Meanwhile, Swiss national operator SBB has its eyes on the Brenner route with talk of a direct daytime Giruno train from Zürich to Bolzano. Perhaps not till 2026. Or 2027. Time will tell. From December this year, SBB’s existing once-daily Zürich to Bologna service could well be extended to Florence, and press reports suggest that the daily Zürich to Genoa train might run on to Livorno.
About The Authors
Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Nicky and Susanne manage hidden europe, a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. From 2005 to 2023, they were the editors of hidden europe magazine. Nicky and Susanne are dedicated slow travellers and the authors of the book Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide. The 18th edition of that book was published in October 2024. You'll find a list of outlets that sell the book on this website. Susanne and Nicky also provide consultancy to the rail industry on fares, routes and ticketing. Between them, they know a thing or two about rail APIs.