Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori uses the brand name Italo for its Italian high-speed trains.
Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, usually abbreviated NTV, was founded in 2006 to compete in Italy’s newly liberalized high-speed rail market. Its passenger service began on 28 April 2012 under the Italo brand, making NTV an early private competitor to the state-backed Trenitalia group.
NTV’s first trains were Alstom AGV trainsets, among the fastest production trains in Europe. The company later added Alstom Pendolino-based ETR 675 trains, marketed as Italo EVO. Italo services connect major cities including Turin, Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice, and Salerno.
A common mix-up is Frecciarossa, which is Trenitalia’s competing high-speed brand, not NTV’s. “Intercity” describes another Trenitalia service category, while Pendolino is a family of tilting trains used by several operators. Italo therefore identifies the commercial service and trains operated by NTV, whose corporate name was later integrated into the Italo identity.