Rimini, 15 October, TTG Travel Experience: Trenitalia (FS Group) and Costa Crociere signed a memorandum of understanding. Trenitalia’s statement and FS News say the same: the train enters Costa’s platform from January 2027. The ticket is not on sale today. This is not a merger. ANSA headlined “treno e crociera in un solo acquisto”; the date is 2027.

At the press conference: Daniel Caprile, Costa vice-president for pricing, itineraries and transport, and Francesco Cacciapuoti, Trenitalia sales director. A booking engine is meant to link the two firms’ systems in real time. Travel agencies would be able to add Trenitalia domestic and international connections to a cruise and get immediate confirmation. That is the offer described, not a shop that opened on Monday.

Caprile, quoted by Trenitalia: Trenitalia knows the network; Costa knows the guest, the ship and the destinations. With integrated booking and the agencies, “la crociera non comincia più al porto, ma dalla stazione più vicina a casa”. His line. It is not a new timetable published today.

Cacciapuoti: a further step towards intermodal mobility, more integrated links, easier access to destinations, support for territories and Italian tourism. Still a quote. The protocol also wants better links with embarkation and disembarkation ports, plus trips into borghi, art towns and the hinterland. It wants them; it has not mapped them.

Among the initiatives planned: luggage handling, train times aligned with ships’ arrivals and departures, assistance in stations and on board. “Previste”, the firms write. We have not written that bags are already collected at the door. For Costa, the deal sits in its agency-channel strategy: Attraction, Experience, Sales. That is their commercial frame, not three products launched.

A protocol at TTG. The engine, from January 2027. Until then, the “single click” is not running.

Image: Frecciarossa 1000, Milano Centrale, 27 May 2018, Sabas88, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. A train, not a cruise ticket.

Sources consulted: Trenitalia e Costa Crociere: siglata intesa per una mobilità turistica integrata e intermodale — Trenitalia; Accordo Trenitalia- Costa Crociere per l’intermodalità turistica — FS News.