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New Milano - Marseille Thello service

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Oscar

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Searle

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That's a long time for actually not very far travelling! 7 hours by train for a plane journey of just over an hour.

Still, it does make an awkward journey with many changes a lot easier.
 

nw1

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When I was in the Nice area relatively recently (Sep 2012) it was rather puzzling that there were no through "fast" services into Italy from this part of France. Only slow trains to Ventimiglia which required a change.

I'm surprised there aren't several a day TBH.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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When I was in the Nice area relatively recently (Sep 2012) it was rather puzzling that there were no through "fast" services into Italy from this part of France. Only slow trains to Ventimiglia which required a change.
I'm surprised there aren't several a day TBH.

It was the same last year too when I travelled this route.
But since June this year there are 3 daily Nice-Milan through EC services.
These seem to be extensions of some of the 2-hourly Ventimiglia-Milan Trenitalia IC services.
 

Oscar

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When I was in the Nice area relatively recently (Sep 2012) it was rather puzzling that there were no through "fast" services into Italy from this part of France. Only slow trains to Ventimiglia which required a change.

I'm surprised there aren't several a day TBH.

Of course there used to be, I think only a few years ago. Relations between SNCF and Trenitalia/FS have become very strained. There were major operational problems on Artésia services to/from Paris, which meant passengers often had to travel between Modane and Torino / Milano by bus. The implementation of the European Commission's Railway Packages promoting open access has meant that the passenger rail divisions of the two companies can run independently into each other's countries. Open access also allowed SNCF to buy a 20% stake in Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, the owning group of Italo, and following this the co-operation ended fairly abruptly.
 

dutchflyer

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Italy/FS has problems with about any of its neighbour countries on running trains.
It should also be noted that demand for this trip is very limited to near nil. Just check how many of those flights do fly in fact.
ID-bus, owned by the SNCF has tried to fill in the gap by offering state-rail-run direct coaches (long-dist.bus), but also did not succeed to tap into a market.
Another ecent problem are the huge nrs. of refugees from Ethiopia and Syria etc. crowding the area around Ventimiglia, trying to enter France (and then maybe other EU-membercountries).
There are direct treni-mostly limited to Pilgrims to Lourdes from Italia. Also there is no real HS-route at all between the 2 citie (except Milano-Torino) and the existing routes have and will be very low-speed. But the sights are often fenomenal.
 

reb0118

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Italy/FS has problems with all of its neighbouring countries on running trains.

I can concur. Just look at the poor service from Venedig & Triest to Slovenia. At one time the Austrians were running buses from Venedig to Villach to connect with services to Wien.

How about cross border services to/from Switzerland? These seem reasonable - to an Ausländer at least.
 
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Searle

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reb0118:1936148 said:
Italy/FS has problems with all of its neighbouring countries on running trains.

I can concur. Just look at the poor service from Venedig & Triest to Slovenia. At one time the Austrians were running buses from Venedig to Graz to connect with services to Wien.

How about cross border services to/from Switzerland? These seem reasonable - to an Ausländer at least.

The services from Lugano/Chiasso down to Milano are smooth and effective, although there does seem to be some timetabling discrepancy regarding which trains continue south into Italy.
 

Oscar

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The services from Lugano/Chiasso down to Milano are smooth and effective, although there does seem to be some timetabling discrepancy regarding which trains continue south into Italy.

The TILO services operated by electric FLIRT services have recently increased in frequency and run several times a day. The journey times for these services are similar or slightly longer than by road. There are also EuroCity services with much higher fares. The hourly stopping services with a change in Chiasso are very slow and the rolling stock used in Italy is several decades old.
 
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