Cisalpino

Cisalpino

Cisalpino AG was a railway company operating international trains between Switzerland and Italy connecting Basel, Schaffhausen, Zürich, Geneva, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Livorno, and Florence. The company had its legal headquarters in Muri bei Bern, Switzerland, and was jointly owned by the Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia.

It was founded in 1993 to operate fast trains across the Alps using tilting trains. In 2005, however, it also took over all daytime long-distance passenger trains between Switzerland and Italy run with conventional, non-tilting trains.

In the fall of 2009, the project was abandoned because of mounting bad press over the quality of service and the fiasco surrounding orders placed for new trains. The remaining trains were split nearly evenly between the two owners.

The company still exists and owns the ETR 610, and leases it to Trenitalia and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS). For legal reasons the company will continue to do so for a certain period of time, but its name is no longer used for public purposes.