Open-access long-distance operator Thello announced on October 30 that tickets have gone on sale for its new Marseilles – Milan service, which is due to begin operating next month.The daily service will call at Nice, Monaco and Genoa and each train will be formed of 1 or two first class coaches and six or seven standard class vehicles providing a total of 450-600 seats depending on demand. Thello says the recently-refurbished rolling stock will be provided by Trenitalia.The first Milan – Marseilles service will run on December 14, with Marseille – Milan services set to start the following day. The new Thello service from Marseilles to Milan, calling at Nice, Monaco and Genoa, will take tourists and cross-border employees from France to Italy (and vice versa), with no changes and at very reasonable prices, between 30 and 70 euro for the Marseilles-Milan trip (second class).Tickets will be available online and at Trenitalia ticket offices, as well as Thello self-service ticket machines, which will be installed at Marseilles Saint-Charles, Toulon, Nice, Monaco, and Menton stations in time for the launch. Tickets for domestic trips on the route are also available. Bookings can now be made for domestic Italian trips. French trips can be booked as of mid-December. Thello plans to launch two additional Nice – Milan services next April, increasing the service to three trains per day on this section of the route. After a difficult year in 2013, which concluded with the withdrawal of its Paris – Rome overnight service in December, the Transdev-Trenitalia joint venture says traffic levels are looking positive with 345,000 passengers using its trains so far this year, a 12% increase compared with the same period in 2013. Press Release and Photo by Thello