Italians are looking (?) for a buyer for the Hellenic Train

In the shadow of the Tempi accident, there is growing speculation that Italy’s FSI, also known as Trenitalia, is ready to leave Greece. In fact, names of potential buyers have already begun to emerge, ranging from domestic buyers and groups to railway organizations in Europe.

According to a report in Apogevmatini, the Italians have so far sent second-tier executives and second-tier trains to Greece and see it will take longer for the investments they made in 2017 to pay off. In September of the same year, the purchase of ΤΡΑΙΝΟΣΕ was completed for 45 million euros. A year and a half later, in 2019, the company acquired ΕΕΣΤΥ (a railway maintenance company) for 22 million euros.

And now 2023 has arrived… The tragedy in Tempi and the destruction caused by Hurricane Daniel are two very serious incidents that disrupted the plans of the Italian company. In the case of Tempi, the group’s income suffered greatly as the number of tickets on the Athens-Thessaloniki line was reduced.

Even more serious damage to the image of the Italian company was caused by the negative attitude towards Hellenic Train managing director and railway transport veteran Maurizio Capotorto in the Investigative Committee.

In 2017, the Italians decided to invest in Greece, despite the numerous and chronic problems of the Greek railway, because they saw that with low tariffs on the central and barren lines they would be able to compete with air transport and beyond.

Trenitalia therefore created a service similar to the one in Rome, based on the principles of the Greek railway, and tried to offer it to Greece in order to obtain the desired income. And everything was going towards this until the tragedy occurred in Tempi. In particular, passenger revenues doubled from 36.5 million euros in 2021 to 65 million euros. And those profits got even bigger after they sold five ETR 470 Silver Arrow trains to their Greek subsidiary for €47.5 million, regaining the large share they gave away in 2017.

So the earnings may have been good, but on February 28, 2023, a black page was written in Greece and in the history of Greek railways. Due to increasing reports of accidents on the railways and complaints about problems with staff training, the situation at Trenitalia is not ideal.

The big problem for the Italian group remains one… finding a buyer so that it can leave Greece.

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