Railway connection between Italy and Slovenia: this route is being revived after 100 years

A new high-speed route between Italy and Slovenia has been launched thanks to a recently signed agreement between state-owned operators Trenitalia and SŽ Passenger Transport, or Slovenian Railways. The Frecciarossa train will run east from Milan to the Slovenian capital Ljubljana in seven hours.

It will pass through the historic Italian cities of Venice and Trieste. It will also make stops at some of Slovenia's famous natural attractions, including Postojna and Skočjan Caves, as well as Lipica, where the famous Lipizzaner horses have been bred since 1580, CNN Travel reports.

In fact, the train itself should evoke a feeling of returning centuries ago, to that ancient period. It is believed to be the first train from Milan to Ljubljana after the collapse of the empire in 1918. It also follows the route of the night train from Budapest to Venice, which used to pass through Ljubljana but was discontinued in 2011.

While a Trenitalia spokesperson told CNN that no launch date has been set, Slovenian Railways told the media that it wants to start "as soon as possible" - which could mean as early as April. It is expected that there will be one flight per day at first, followed by two.

In April, Croatian Railways will also launch the Rijeka-Trieste (Villa Opicina) route. It will arrive in Ljubljana in seven hours.

"Trieste and Ljubljana were first connected by rail in 1857, when both cities were part of the Habsburg Empire," says journalist Giovanni Vale, founder of the Vanished Countries project, which publishes travel guides to countries that no longer exist and is currently working on a guide to the Habsburg Empire. - The Southern Railway Company (Südbahn-Gesellschaft), which ran from Vienna to Trieste via Ljubljana, was one of the flagships of the empire's infrastructure. Trieste was one of the most important ports in the world at the time, and its connection to Vienna was very important for the empire. After the end of World War I, Trieste became a city in the extreme northeast of Italy, in an almost peripheral position, and there was often no railroad connection to the east to Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, or Budapest. Let's hope this is the beginning of a new season for rail connections between Trieste and the Balkans."

The Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) trains are capable of 300 km/h (186 mph) on the Italian network, although they are unlikely to travel that fast on this route, at least initially, as speeds tend to slow down east of Venice.

In March 2023, the Italian government pledged 1.8 billion euros (almost $2 billion) to upgrade the Venice-Trieste line to fully high-speed. Slovenian lines will be tested to see if they can be modernized as well.

Trenitalia also plans to develop direct rail connections between Italy and Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. In particular, the company has already signed a preliminary agreement with Deutsche Bahn to put the Frecciarossa into operation on the Italy-Germany routes by the end of 2026. The first route will be Milan-Munich with the prospect of extension to other destinations in Germany.