FS Group as well as Certares have confirmed signing a strategic partnership that is aimed at supporting development when it comes to international high-speed rail services in Europe.
The agreement was announced in Paris on 29 December 2025 and offers the creation of a joint venture in addition to a targeted investment in Trenitalia France.
This collaboration is intended to make the FS Group’s international high-speed rail activities more robust, with an initial focus on Trenitalia France. It also looks forward to supporting the commercial distribution of rail services and also underpinning an investment programme of almost 1 billion EUR throughout France and the UK.
It is well to be noted that Trenitalia France, which is going to host the regional headquarters of the joint venture in Paris, at present operates high-speed passenger services on the Paris–Lyon as well as the Paris–Marseille routes, and also a cross-border Paris–Milan service. Since the launch of its operations, the company has gone ahead and carried over 4.7 million passengers. It plans to broaden its network further, which includes the proposed entry on the Paris–London corridor and also more cross-border routes.
As per the terms of the partnership, Trenitalia France looks forward to using the new investment in order to support growth across France and the UK as well as other European markets. Planned measures include expanding its fleet to a minimum of 19 trainsets, creating a new maintenance facility situated near Paris on a recently awarded site as well as increasing the service frequencies on the present routes, which includes up to 28 daily services on the Paris–Lyon line.
The programme also goes on to have the creation of many hundred new roles along with continued investment within tech, branding, and also marketing. Entry onto the Paris–London route is aimed for 2029.
Notably, the partnership meant for uplifting high-speed rail services in Europe is crafted in such a way so as to support broader adoption in terms of rail travel for both business and leisure journeys, taking benefits out of the ongoing liberalization of the European rail market. Trenitalia France is most likely to work along with the portfolio companies of Certares in order to support the corporate customers who are increasingly considering high-speed rail as an option to air travel. The partners also plan to come up with rail-inclusive travel products in terms of leisure markets, which includes integrated booking along with packaging tools.
The partnership also supports the FS Group 2025–2029 Strategic Plan, which goes on to stress global growth via collaboration with financial as well as industrial partners.
