Milan Central to Malpensa Airport, now possible

The first “Malpensa Express” left today, Sunday 12 December, at 5.25 a.m. from Central Station: 51 runs a day will be added to the 79 to and from Milan’s Cadorna Station. Of the runs to and from Cadorna, 54 go directly to Malpensa, with a journey time of 29 minutes. The new Trenitalia-LeNORD service now has 130 connections a day, between Milan and Malpensa Airport, from dawn to after midnight.

The connection has been made possible thanks to the opening of the track that joins Central Station to Bovisa Station, last July, and there are two types of service: there is a train from Central Station, every hour during the rush hour, at 25 minutes past  the hour, stopping at Garibaldi, Bovisa, Saronno, Busto Arsizio FN; outside rush hour, the train also stops at Rescaldina, Castellanza and Ferno-Lonate. During rush hour, there is also a fast service, which only stops at Porta Garibaldi and Bovisa, with 5 runs leaving from Milan Central, and 6 from Malpensa Airport.

The Milan Cadorna service has been rescheduled, with 54 non-stop runs outside rush hour (run time, 29 minutes), and 25 runs with stops at Saronno and Busto Arsizio FN, during rush hour (run time, 36 minutes).

For the next six months, the ticket from Milan Central will be sold a promotional price of €7. The timetable can be consulted at www.malpensaexpress.it and www.trenitalialenord.it.

“We’re increasing the connections to Malpensa without taking any resources away from the regional train service, because the Malpensa Express is a market service, that doesn’t get state subsidies,” said Giuseppe Biesuz, the managing director of Trenitalia-LeNORD. Biesuz then pointed out that “since it was established in August 2009, Trenitalia-LeNORD has introduced 373 new runs for commuters in Lombardy and has reduced delays by millions of hours, thanks to the essential contribution by the Region of Lombardy.”

Two of the six new Coradia trains for the airport service (shown here on the right, in a photo by Simone Carcano) are also starting work today. The remaining four trains will start work by next January.

The new trains were ordered in May 2009 by FERROVIENORD (a company that is part of the FNM Group) from Alstom, which won the public tender called in August 2007. The cost of supplying the six trains is €35 million, which is funded by the Region of Lombardy, and is part of an agreement that includes an option to increase the order up to 35 trains. The funding is part of the approximately €900 million that the Region of Lombardy has allocated, since 2001, for renewing the regional rolling stock.

The new train, which consists of five articulated carriages, is 82.2m long and 2.95m wide, and has a total of 230 seats. It has been designed in accordance with modern comfort, safety and accessibility standards, and can reach a maximum speed of 160 kph.

The entrances to the carriages are close to the ground, so, it is easy for passengers to get on, and the retractable footplates, installed on every door, give easy access also to passengers with reduced mobility. Each vehicle contains a luggage area. There are many services on board: a video surveillance system, information screens, sound system, writing in Braille, 220V sockets for mobile phones and laptops.

Three of Alstom factories in Italy are involved in making the trains. The Savigliano factory (near Cuneo) is responsible for project development, for part of the vehicle production and the type testing; the Sesto San Giovanni factory (near Milan) is responsible for the design and production of the traction systems and auxiliary converters; the Bologna factory is responsible for the on-board signalling system.

Here is the new timetable of the Malpensa Express.