Palatino Express
 Palatino Express sleeper car in TEN livery in the 1980s
|
The Palatino Express or Rome Express is a historic express train operating between Paris, France, and Rome, Italy, since 1890. Under the name Rome Express the pre-war service operated daily until interrupted by the Second World War. The British film Rome Express (1932) derived its title and its setting from the train. The service was resumed after the war, and has operated with the name Palatino Express since 1969.
The original Rome Express route operated from Calais-Maritime, a coastal railway station providing a direct connection between cross-channel ferries from England and the SNCF network, via Paris and Florence to Rome. Following the name change to Palatino Express the service operated the same route, but without the Calais to Paris section. Travellers were still able to make the full journey, by using the Flèche d'Or express service from Calais-Maritime to Paris, until this service was withdrawn in 1972; and thereafter by using a regular service train from Calais-Maritime to Paris, until Calais-Maritime station was closed in the mid-1990s as a result of the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Even then, it remained possible to connect from the ferry port by bus to Calais's main railway station Calais-Ville and from there to take a service train to Paris.
The Rome Express was a service provided by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. The post-war resumption (from 1952) was a joint operation by the French and Italian national rail operators (who provided the locomotives and the train diagram) and the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits who provided the carriages and staff. The name was changed from Rome Express to Palatino Express in 1969. In 1971 the Wagons-Lit Company gave up operating its own coaches, although it continued to provide the staff and ancillary services (such as laundry) for sleeper coaches operated by the national rail companies. The various European rail operators formed a joint operation known as TEN (Trans Euro Night, or the equivalent translation in other languages, such as Trans Euro Nuit (French), Trans Euro Notte (Italian), Trans Euro Nacht (German), and so on). The Palatino Express was marketed as a TEN service from the 1970s through to 1995. On the formation of the Artesia railway company in 1995, the Palatino Express became one of the new venture's key routes. Artesia was a joint venture by SNCF and Trenitalia. Artesia broke up in November 2011 owing to realignment of shared operating procedures between European rail companies. The Palatino Express became a victim of these changing circumstances, and was discontinued on 10 December 2011. The service was briefly revived from December 2012 but was once more withdrawn from 15 December 2013 due to infrastructure problems.
...
Wikipedia