Cisalpino

Cisalpino AG (Aktiengesellschaft) was a railway company, referred to as CIS in timetables, operating international trains between Switzerland and Italy connecting Basel, Schaffhausen, Zurich, Geneva, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Livorno, and Florence.

The company has its legal headquarters in Muri bei Bern (BE), Switzerland,[1] and is jointly owned by the Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia.

In the fall of 2009, the project was abandoned because of mounting bad press[2] over the quality of service and the fiasco surrounding orders placed for new trains.

Until December 2012 the company owned the ETR 610 trainsets and leased them to Trenitalia and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS).

Trains were staffed with personnel from Trenitalia as well as the Swiss Federal Railways, while the catering was provided by the Italian company Cremonini.

A batch of fourteen new tilting trains ETR 610 was ordered in 2004 from Alstom (former Fiat Ferroviaria) in the hope of providing much-needed relief, but have themselves had some problems.

[7] Entry into service, originally to come with the December 2007 timetable change together with the opening of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel, was deferred and rescheduled for the spring of 2009.

During testing[8] in 2009 it was found that the new ETR 610 trains were too heavy for the main Gotthard route from Zurich to Milan for which they had been ordered.