Italy’s culinary rail route reopens
Italy’s northwestern Piedmont region, known for its vineyards, truffle-filled woods and Michelin-starred restaurants, is seeing the return and extension of its culinary rail route.
The old rail route between the wine-producing town of Asti and the white truffle capital Alba has reopened, and new services exploring the region’s historical villages will start next year.
From January 2025, a rote between Savigliano and Cuneo will open, followed by a route between Ceva and Ormea.
Following a one-year hiatus, the route’s operations have returned with six weekly services.
Asti is well-known for producing Asti Spumante, a fizzy white wine, and Moscato d’Asti, a sparkling dessert wine. The town also hosts wine festivals, Douja d’Or and the Festival delle Sagre.
Alba is recognised as the birthplace of Nutella. Visitors can tour the truffle farms and go to restaurants, which the farms supply with their produce. It will host the 94th edition of the International Alba White Truffle Fair from October 12 to December 8 year.
SWISS expands air-rail service
SWISS International Air Lines has announced the expansion of its multimodal ticket policy, which allows passengers to book regional train travel in conjunction with SWISS flights.
The SWISS air-rail network from Geneva Airport, operated by Swiss Federal Railways, will now include destinations in the west of the country, adding the cities of Vevey, Montreux, Sion, Sierre, Visp and Brig to its collection. This will allow international visitors to travel to popular holiday resorts in Valais, which brings the multimodal ticket connections to a total of 17 destinations.
The new rail tickets can be booked from June 11 with any SWISS flight arriving in Switzerland for all travel agencies and online. To book these tickets, one of the available train stations can be chosen as a departure or arrival point. The train portion of the trip can be taken up to one day before departure or one day after arrival.
SWISS offers travellers a connection guarantee on its air rail tickets. In addition, members of Miles and More can earn points when they travel via rail.
French Midnight Trains cancelled
French start-up company Midnight Trains has announced that it will abandon its plan to develop a luxury overnight train network in Europe.
The company had planned to launch the luxury service in 2025, which would have offered travellers from Paris hotel-standard accommodation on train routes up to 1 500 km from the French capital. The initial plans were announced in June 2021.
The company could not raise the necessary funding to lease suitable trains for its launch, which would have operated between Paris, Milano and Venezia. The start-up needed to raise €5 million (R102 million).
Co-founder Adrien Aumont hoped to attract 2 million passengers a year. He said that overnight trains needed to be redesigned to match the expectations of modern travellers if they hoped to compete with airlines.
