Italo (the high speed train) is now an American company

Hummmm. Why do I instinctively think this is not a good thing? My immediate thought it that since we can't do high speed rail in the States, this company is a bad fit. Then again, I want to say that hopefully they have good experts, who may be from Europe where high-speed rail is valued. And anyway we have good engineers in the States, there's just no high-speed rail for them to work on .. . .

The reason we "can't do high speed rail in the states" (very well) has nothing to do with an American company owning anything. In the US, most if not all passenger rail service is provided by government-chartered corporations or government agencies (e.g. Amrak), not a private company like Italo.

The United States has deprioritized passenger rail travel for decades. In many regions of the US, like the west coast where I live, most train tracks are actually owned by the freight companies, and Amtrak has to lease them back. Sometimes, Amtrak trains have to stop and wait for freight trains to pass them, because the freight trains have priority. As much as I love train travel, in the US it's mostly a joke. Sadly, Amtrak has recently been plagued with numerous tragic accidents that show just how neglected it has become.

We could certainly do high speed rail in the US, if the people really wanted it. But Amtrak has powerful enemies in Congress (e.g Sen. John McCain) who keep big rail projects from getting much consideration. Clearly, European governments give far higher priority to their rail infrastructure than we do, which is why they have great train networks and we don't.

Kim if they are smart they'll do what the Germans did when they bought Lamborghini: they won't change anything out of the CEO's office.

Most Italo engineers are from Trenitalia and Alstom, that once was Fiat Ferroviaria. Both would be happy to hire them back and Equity Fund managers knows these things.

The only way to make Italotreno break-even, at least once, is to buy and run many more trains. I'm wondering if that's a long-term thinking Equity fund, not if it's american or chinese. Are they interested in waiting years before making money? The Genoa-Milan high speed tunnel will open in... 5 years? The Brennero tunnel in... Nobody knows... 2025? Same for the High speed link under the "real" Alps that should connect Turin and Lyon, I doubt we'll see anything running down there before 2030. Will they wait?

Global-Infra is a private equity fund that buys big infrastructure facilities, invests to build them up, then sell them. Their current transport sector investments include Gatwick Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Port of Melbourne. In 2016, they sold London City Airport.

Apparently, Itaoltreno was getting ready to go public on the Milan Stock Exchange when Global-Infra stepped in with an offer to buy the whole thing. Press release says current management will be retained.