For those looking to travel on high-speed lines in Italy, Italo (http://www.italotreno.it) has just started selling tickets for its services which will start running on Apr. 28th. Italo is a private railway. They have simply the most modern high-speed trains in Europe (Alstom's AGV), and will ultimately operate in cities alongside the high-speed axes. Initially, they will run just a handful of daily trains, but the number is set to increase to dozens over summer. I checked their fares: they are not as cheap as the cheapest Trenitalia's MINI, but less expensive than the usual MINI users can get. There are add-ons possible, such as reserving a seat in a quiet zone (no cell phone, no loud conversation) or seats with airplane-style individual entertainment systems (paid) or extra legroom seats (free but limited and need to be reserved in advance). Italo will not accept any pass, and doesn't participate in schemes of replacement, meaning you can't use a Trenitalia train if your Italo train is cancelled or vice-versa. I'm really excited as this is TRUE competition coming to rails.
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