Adif, Cobra, Consultrans, Copasa, Dimetronic, Imathia, Inabesa, Inecao, Indra OHL, Talgo and Renfe make part of the consortium.

33 trains (additional 23, as option) are going to be supplied from Talgo, based on S-112 for Renfe.

An additional luxury train specifically designed for the king makes part of the rolling stock offer  (see images below).

[pictures from El País and Vía Libre]

Two services will cover the route Torino-Alessandria-Bari and Torino -Alessandria-Villa San Giovanni (Calabria, but Sicily it’s just a matter of some metres of sea from there, by ferry), pending the approval of the infrastructure manager RFI.

Tha agreement with the Spanish national operator, RENFE, lets Arenaways to rent three of the comfortable and modern Trenhotel train sets, manufactured by Talgo, for five years.

A news for Italy, since the overnight connections North-South, seem not to be the focus of Trenitalia’s offer. Following some protests after a decision to cut these services years ago, Trenitalia kept them but, frankly, they are of a really poor quality and recently became more expensive.

Who said that in a time of low cost airlines, travelling on a sleeping car for 1000 km, overnight, having the possibility to have a decent dinner, watch a movie and have a restful sleep (if not a shower, possibly, on the high-end class of Trenhotel) could worth more than being packed on a noisy low cost flight taken in the middle of nowhere and without any comfort except from a place where to seat?

As a user of this kind of service, I’m really looking forward to switching back to a sleeping train to come back home on Christmas, Easter and Summer times. Travelling comfortably, hopefully, and enjoying the real pleasure (and convenience) of a journey on rails.

More information on Trenhotel trains on Talgo’s website, a picture gallery here, and a video after the post.

The description is in Spanish, unfortunately I have not so much time to translate it in English, perhaps it can help a bit the result from Google Translator.

Antonio Perez, President and CEO of Talgo America gives a presentation about some of Talgo’s current and upcoming trains, and Talgo’s partnerships with states such as the Washington-Oregon Amtrak Cascades.

The new AVRIL (Alta Velocidad Rueda Independiente LIgero, Light High Speed (train) with Independent Wheels) design still preserve Talgo’s peculiar technical characteristics (independent wheels, passive tilting, light weight structure and low floor) applied to a 380 km/h capable train set.

It should be underlined the 3+2 seat configuration, new for the European market.

AVRIL Presentation

Talgo AVRIL

Both of the files from  Spanish ForoTrenes, the second can be downloaded directly here.

I suppose it refers to first Talgo II train set produced in the U.S. in 1949 by the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF) under the direction of Spanish engineers.

Photos were taken by Al Fenn.

For those who like to have a piece of story hung up their walls, there’s the possibility to order a printed and framed version of the chosen photo directly from the web (starting from $89.99).

Of course, there are plenty of photos to be viewed on this powerfulf search engine; I think I’ll post new ones in case I see a new photo set.