Fiat Ferroviaria - Pendolino

Pendolino

During the 60s-70s Fiat Ferroviaria successfully developed the tilting technology for trains and was the first (and the only one for several decades) to produce active tilting trains with the trademark of Pendolino.

In Italy several classes of Pendolinos were adopted starting from 1976 (ETR 401, ETR 450, ETR 460-65, ETR 480-85 and the Alstom made ETR600.

Following the success of the ETR 450 series introduced in Italy in 1988 (the 401 series introduced in 1976 consisted of only 2 trainsets and never operated regular commercial service, working more like an "on-wheel laboratory"), tilting systems including bogies, traction, electric and electronic equipment were ordered by several countries:

• Germany (ICE T)
• Finland (VR Class Sm3 and VR Class Sm6)
• Switzerland (Cisalpino)
• Spain (Alaris)
• Portugal (Alfa Pendular)
• Slovenia (SŽ series 310)
• Czech Republic (ČD Class 680)

In 2001 also Virgin Trains ordered new tilting trainsets (Class 390), but Fiat Ferroviaria was sold to Alstom in 2000. For this reason they were sold under the "Alstom" brand, although the technology was still the same developed by Fiat Ferroviaria.

Directly or indirectly, 18 countries throughout the world applied the Italian Fiat Ferroviaria tilting technology to their trains, including United States and China.