Ferrovie dello Stato

 

In 2017, FS estimated that its rail network consumed an amount of electricity that is similar to the consumption of an Italian province, Umbria, or 1.3 million average UK detached houses. FS notes that they are one of the largest consumers of electricity in Italy and has a strategy to reduce this consumption. Part of this strategy includes replacing its trains with more energy efficient models.

 

In December 2017, FS issued their first green bond of EUR 600m. Around half of the orders came from institutional investors with sustainability commitments. The issuance received much interest and achieved a coupon of 0.875%, which was the lowest coupon ever obtained by FS.

In July 2019, FS issued the second green bond, which received Climate Bonds Certification. The robust demand exceeded the offer by 3.5 times, with total orders of around 2.5 billion euro from 156 investors, of which 65% from abroad, largely from France (36%), Germany/Austria (8%) and UK/Ireland (7%).

For the second bond, within 6 months of the bond issuance, FS will allocate all the proceeds of the bond to a loan issued to Trenitalia, which will be used to procure new passenger and freight trains. The new models of passenger trains are: Pop, Rock, and ETR 1000.

Pop and Rock are 3 or 4 car double deck regional trains and up to 600 may be procured, mainly to replace older rolling stock. Pop is manufactured by Alstom, whilst Rock is built by Hitachi. They have capacities of 1400 passengers and may travel at speeds of up to 160km/h. They will have modern features to improve passenger comfort and will be up to 30% more energy efficient compared to the trains which they replace. The new trains began entering service in 2019, and the replacement program will take 5 years.

The ETR 1000 is the fastest long distance train on the Italy rail network and is one of the fastest in Europe. They operate at speeds of up to 300 km/h. The trains are manufactured by Hitachi and Bombardier. They began service in 2015 and have passenger capacities of approximately 500. They emit 20.5% less CO2 than the ETR 500 trains which they replaced.

The new freight trains to be procured as part of this program include the E494, which is the newest model of TRAXX trains. These are more energy efficient than the previous models.

FS sees that this upgrade of its electric train fleet encourages passengers and freight to be carried on its network. Therefore, CO2 emissions from road transport may be reduced.