The conductor’s whistle will be heard the day after the Epiphany at 5.55am. A passenger train towards Savigliano will depart from Cuneo station on 7 January 2025, the first 13 years after the closure of the Cuneo-Saluzzo-Savigliano route, at the time defined as uneconomic by the Piedmont Region. It will be an Arenaways train, the railway company that last March signed an agreement with the Piedmont Region to restart the connection closed in 2012. Calabria is also awaiting the start with interest, considering that in 2026 – according to the timetable – the new drawn. A panacea to further improve mobility. The new Arenaways is led by Matteo Arena, son of Giuseppe, and is part of the Longitude group. Members include Caronte & Tourist, active in naval transport between Sicily and Calabria, and GCF, specialized in railway armaments. The new group’s strategy aims to cover neglected routes, considered unprofitable.
And right with Matteo Arena we took stock of the situation.
«The news that Arenaways was penalized by RFI and Trenitalia (FS group) in the alternative regional transport project between 2008 and 2010, starting from the connection between Milan and Turin, gives me energy», his father told us after a sentence which proved him right. Her father, the son of a railway worker from Messina, has now handed over the scepter to her. But who is Matteo Arena and what was his path?
«I consider myself a son of art in the railway sector. My father Giuseppe was a pioneer in Italy in the liberalization of the freight sector first and then the passenger sector. I have always accompanied him on his travels and in his entrepreneurial projects, somehow absorbing his great wealth of knowledge on railway matters. However, although trains have always been in my life, my career initially shifted towards shipping. I graduated in Maritime Business in England and then joined one of the 15 largest shipping companies in the world, a job that led me to gain experience in Germany, Northern Europe and Dubai. Up to dealing with the management and development operations of intra-Gulf container services between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Let’s say, however, that in fact I never stopped being interested in the development and potential of the railway sector, until, at the beginning of 2021, I decided to virtually take up the baton from my father by creating with other partners Longitude Holding Srl, the railway company of which I am CEO and which operates under the Arenaways commercial brand. A brand that my father had created in 2006 and that we decided to buy and continue to use, due to the great value that it has been able to maintain over time, especially in the memory of those who were lucky enough to travel on the trains of the time, those who created our “Rail different” philosophy».
Among the partners is Caronte & Tourist. What can we say about this synergy? How did they welcome you and what did you agree on?
«With Caronte & Tourist we are linked first of all by a long-standing relationship: the Franza family and then, naturally, also the Matacena family have always believed in the Arenaways project, because they have always believed in and supported projects that target the development of the South Italy. The philosophy of Caronte & Tourist – oriented towards innovation, respect for the territory and the constant search for better solutions capable of creating value – fits perfectly with the “Rail different” mentality of Arenaways. The collaboration between our families can actually be defined as natural. Common visions join forces to pursue a common objective: to offer a cutting-edge and increasingly widespread passenger transport service, which constantly places attention on the customer at the center.”
From January, Italy will have a new railway company: Arenaways. After Trenitalia and Italo, the new service will debut with the first train departing from Cuneo station, at 5.55am. The Cuneo-Saluzzo-Savigliano line will serve south-western Piedmont, while new routes are planned in Calabria in 2026. What idea of mobility are you pursuing?
«Arenaways concentrates where there is no service. We must therefore dispel a false myth that private operators are only interested in high speed; we want to operate in other market sectors. We will bring quality services, until now reserved exclusively for high-speed users, to the so-called secondary connections. The train is the most democratic transport system that exists and we are convinced that it will be among the protagonists of the mobility of the future. A mobility that is based on a fundamental concept: integration. For example, in Piedmont the train-coach synergy with the operators already present in the area will make the public service system increasingly efficient, for a user base spread over very large areas. The objective is ambitious: to make public transport successful compared to forms of private transport. A model that can be replicated anywhere. Regarding Calabria, it is important to keep in mind that in the railway sector the timescales for the actual departure of a service are very long. The South is among our objectives, but also with a view to future development, it is now essential to give our all on the reopening of the two sections covered by the contract with the Piedmont Region. Once full operations have started, we will be able to broaden our range of action.”
So what can we say to Calabrian travellers?
«At the beginning of March the Transport Authority completed the economic balance analyses, giving the green light to intercity connections on the Rome-Reggio line. It is one of five lines on which Arenaways trains will operate. The others are Rome-Genoa, Rome-Florence-Venice, Turin-Milan-Venice and the international connection Milan-Munich, passing through the Brenner Pass. On the Intercity service the aim is to compete with competitors by focusing on convenience. A service that is halfway between high speed and intercity. For example, on the Rome-Reggio route we chose to make 14 stops (Termini, Latina, Formia-Gaeta, Aversa, Napoli C.le, Salerno, Sapri, Paola, Lamezia Terme, Vibo-Pizzo, Rosarno, Gioia Tauro, Villa San Giovanni and Reggio Calabria C.le), which are less than the 22 of the universal service, but more than the 10 or 12 of the high speed”.
What employment opportunities can open up for young people from the South?
«A train requires a lot of staff and this is a condition that is created in all the places where it operates, both directly and indirectly. Directly because the staff is also necessary spread across the territory, indirectly due to the related activities that each new railway service generates. So employment opportunities will certainly open up once we activate the connections to the South.”