The first contract abroad, in Lima, Peru, then one assignment after another, until Oman, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia today. And in Italy, after the high-speed railway, the works management of Expo 2015 in Milan.
Italferr was founded in 1984 to operate chiefly abroad, but from the mid-90s onwards it started following the most prestigious projects in Italy of the then Ente Ferrovie dello Stato, linking its name to the creation of the High Speed/High Capacity rail network that has revolutionised the country’s rail transport. The first contract outside of Italy dates to 1987 in Peru and concerned the planning of the metropolitan network of Lima. In thirty years of history, Italferr has been awarded public and private contracts from over 60 countries, and is considered one of the most authoritative railway engineering companies in the world. The economic results of Italferr have always been excellent too, distinguished by their plus sign, and today the company has an annual turnover of around 150 million euros and profits of around 10 million.
Italferr flourished in the wake of the great Italian engineering tradition that, in the 19th century, produced personalities like Luigi Negrelli, and in the 20th century Pier Luigi Nervi and Riccardo Morandi, to name but a few, and it has gained a great deal of experience in important infrastructural projects, obviously in the traditional railway and High Speed railway sectors, but also involving metropolitan and road transport systems.
The company’s activities range from design engineering, to work contracts, to works management and supervision, to the putting into service and testing of lines, stations, intermodal centres and distribution hubs, through to project management, organisational consulting, training and transfer of know-how.
By the end of the ‘90s, Italferr had become the first contracting authority in Italy. It played a key role in the most important investment acceleration process ever to take place in the railway sector in Italy, by planning and engineering most of the works identified by the so-called “Legge Obiettivo”, launched by the Government to speed up the large-scale works deemed to be strategic for the nation. With the construction of the Italian HS/HC system, the first section (Rome-Naples) of which was officially opened in 2005, Italferr gained experience of fundamental importance, widely acknowledged abroad, which placed it among the sector’s élite group of international top players. The line, in fact, is the first in the world managed by the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) level 2, without any other “reserve” system.
Franco Tanel
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