FS Italiane Now Owns Greek Railway Operator Trainose

Greek national passenger and freight train operator Trainose was sold off on Wednesday to Italian state railway group Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) Italiane for a sum of 45 million euros.

Named preferred bidder last summer, the Italian company signed a purchase agreement for 100 percent of Trainose on Wednesday, pending EU approval as well as a European Commission state aid investigation into debts of over 700 million euros that Trainose owes to national railway OSE.

The acquisition of Trainose was ”an opportunity for growth and improvement both for FS Italiane, which carries on its international development, and for the Greek railways which will be able to take advantage of FS’s know how and experience’’, said FS Italiane CEO Renato Mazzoncini.

Mazzoncini told SKAI TV that FS Italiane was aiming in the near future to invest 500 million euros in rolling stock in efforts to upgrade Trainose services and improve operations with the use of new ticketing and information technologies. He added that FS Italiane also has plans to boost the Athens – Thessaloniki line employing the Rome – Milan route model, which saw passenger traffic doubled in a decade.

In 2015, Trainose, which employs 670 people, handled some 16 million passengers and recorded 130 million euros in revenues and 2.7 million euros in net profit.