Original subtitles

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) in Italy, style isn't just for runways.

Here, fashion is on the fast track.

This thing isn't messing around.

(Teddy) meet two champions of the rails

The frecciarossa 1000.

I can't wait to feel the speed of this train for myself.

(Teddy) and the italo evo.

Designers looked to sports cars for inspiration.

These high-speed marvels must journey through

Landscape that is as stunning

You almost can't believe there's a train line here at all.

(Teddy) it is treacherous.

And laying new track can be like going into combat.

Join me as we criss-cross the country aboard

Not one but two of the fastest trains on earth.

♪ ♪ ♪

All across europe from the city to the country going

Places is getting faster and faster.

Italy is known for its food, its architecture,

Its beautiful scenery and most importantly,

Its high-speed trains!

(Teddy) Italy is the only country

In the world to boast two competing high tech,

High speed train lines.

♪ ♪ ♪

High speed rail is very, very competitive.

There was a rivalry that was very, very strong.

Quando voi, andiamo, perfetto, grazi, ciao.

(Teddy) there's the government owned and operated, frecciarosa 1000.

The fastest train in europe.

300 kilometers per hour, maximum comfort, what else?

And its sleek rival, the privately owned italo ntv evo.

Tickets please.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa and the

Evo compete for customers every day, side by side,

At the same stations on the same tracks.

We have to take into consideration there's

An infrastructure, like an airport,

And on the same infrastructure we have two company.

(Teddy) in a single year,

Sixty-four million italians and visitors ride these high-speed wonders.

And now I'm going to join them.

♪ ♪ ♪

Later, I'll be zooming on the evo through the alpine foothills

Of northern Italy from venice to turin.

But first I'm riding the red arrow, the frecciarossa 1000,

Which is whizzing south from milan to naples.

My high-speed journey begins at milan central station.

(Teddy) 400,000 daily passengers

Make this station europe's busiest

Some are here to ride the fastest train on the continent.

I love this job.

I actually, I chose it, it's great.

(Teddy) daniele lazzarin is about to

Take over the driver's seat.

(Teddy) his colleague coming off shift

Confirms there's been no techincal issues.

The train is working perfectly.

The frecciarossa is bi-directional.

This cabin has been powered down.

Daniele will pilot from the cabin at the other end.

Now I have to close the door for security reasons.

And then we need to go to the other cabin for the departure.

(Teddy) he has to be ready to leave in 15 minutes.

It's pretty long, it's almost 400 meters.

So we have to walk really fast to get on time and start on time.

The most difficult part of this job is that

You have to be focused for long hours.

You wake up very early in the morning,

But after a while you get used to it and its pretty cool.

(Teddy) daniele signs in with his secure passcode

This is my license, I have to put it over here.

This is the black box, I guess, of the train.

Everything that I do is registered over here.

Every day is different, the shift is different.

It's never boring, it's never monotonous.

I will never get sick of this job.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa 1000 or 'red arrow' is 202 meters long,

2.9 meters wide and 4 meters high.

The eight-car train can seat 457 passengers

Capacity doubles to just over 900 when trains are joined

The frecciarossa does not have a dedicated locomotive,

Instead each train has four cars fitted with 16 electric motors

With two trains combined for today's journey,

32 motors will power the ride.

Here's where the trains kiss.

(Teddy) conductor matteo el-chakra

Takes charge of nearly 600 passengers.

I like taking responsibility, so whenever there are any

Kind of problems, I have to act on it.

I like being the person that people go to if they have a problem.

(Teddy) as for potential problems on the track,

The frecciarossa's maintenance crew is on the case working

Some 800 kilometers south in naples.

All trains that come into the depot they are expected to

Go out on time because they need to respect the schedule.

So, it's very important factor, that as soon as the train

Gets in the depot we already know what to do.

We already have the components by the train,

We already have people there.

(Teddy) these are the overhead pantographs that draw

Electricity to the train's transformer.

It's the switch, it's where you get the power from.

If you don't maintain it properly you can cause

Damages to overhead line.

You can cut it or you can cause disruptions of service.

(Teddy) each axle on the train

Is inspected with an ultra-sound probe.

This uses sound waves to generate a precise image

From deep inside the axle.

With this machine, we put a probe into the axle,

And discover if there is any defect or any crack.

This is so important because we cannot allow any defect

Being in the axle especially in high speed train.

Ciao.

Ciao.

(Teddy) once a train passes inspection,

It goes back into service ready to roll across the country.

In milan matteo gives a final warning to any remaining

Passengers on the platform.

The final moments before departure are really

Important for the train's staff.

They have to get the passengers on board,

Do their final safety checks, and make sure the tracks

Are clear before they can get the green light

To start our journey to naples.

(Teddy) right on time,

The frecciarossa 1000 departs from milan.

Now I have to do a little brake test.

(Teddy) before the train

Can hit its stride, daniele must perform

A critical safety check.

Once the train get a little speed like 70, 80,

I have to brake and to feel the train that it brakes

Because this train will run to three hundred and we have to be

Very, very sure this train will brake.

(Teddy) if the brakes fail the test,

Daniele would have to return to the station.

That would just be frustrating.

If they fail at high speed, the results could be catastrophic.

Now I'm braking over here, I can feel the train

And it's pulling a little back so it's okay, I'm okay.

We are okay to go to 300 kilometers.

(Teddy) and we are off!

On the first half of our italian adventure!

(Teddy) from milan, I'm heading nearly

Eight hundred kilometers south, first across a vast stretch of

Flatland called the pianura padana then onto bologna.

From there, I'll travel through the apennine mountain range

To florence, on to the capital rome, ending at naples

Located near a volcanic region called the phlegraean fields.

The trip will take 4 hours, 20 minutes.

It's a whole new way to travel the country by train.

I used to live here

And 30 years ago I rode the trains,

Back and forth but they were 5 and a half hours long

And you had to stand, sometimes there was a pig

Or sheep on the train, it was very different.

This is very different.

It seems like italians have a bit of a thing for speed,

You know, whether it's really fast cars or state of art trains.

What do you think it is about speed?

It's because we're always in a hurry, that's why.

We need to go places quickly enough, that's why.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) 15 minutes outside milan,

Daniele prepares for maximum speed.

The red arrow's railpath is a chain of conventional

And high speed sections the equivalent of

A straightaway on a race track.

Now we are approaching the last regular signal,

I have to confirm that I know that we are approaching the high-speed line.

(Teddy) there's no obvious physical difference between the tracks

On the high-speed and conventional sections.

But high speed sections are straighter with shallower curves.

And right now I'm changing the voltage over here.

(Teddy) the real difference

Between sections is the amount of power the train uses.

To run at high speed, the frecciarossa has to

Increase from 3000 direct current to 25,000 alternating current.

And when everything is set, I can drive the train

To three hundred kilometers.

(Teddy) as those twenty thousand extra

Volts charge into the train's motors,

The red arrow begins to fly, to the people outside, it's a blur.

And the feeling of bringing in this powerful thing to this

Speed is inexplicable, it's cool.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa's engineers have done a spectacular job.

The ride is so smooth passengers are unaware

Of the increase in speed.

They don't notice the speed,

They don't notice the speed.

People say, "are we really going 300 kilometers an hour?"

Yes, we are.

Are you feeling the speed right now?

It's incredibly smooth, it's smoother than most trains.

It is, it is.

So, people don't believe that we're going 300 kilometers an hour,

It's impossible, I feel nothing.

(Teddy) we're speeding along in total comfort and safety.

But even the smoothest train ride can end

With a terrible jolt.

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) I'm in Italy on board

The high speed frecciarossa 1000.

The fastest train in europe.

The italian landscape is already so beautiful.

It's going by so fast.

Our first stop will be bologna, that's coming up soon.

From bologna we'll go south through florence

Then rome, until we reach naples.

Where you headed?

Rome for today.

Why did you guys want to take this train as a family?

Because walking would be too slow.

(laughter)

(Teddy) as daniele approaches bologna he begins braking

Four kilometers from the station.

That's how much distance he needs to bring 1000 tons

Of train plus cargo and passengers to a smooth and safe stop.

Now I have to speed down a little bit more.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa relies on

A combination of pneumatic and electric braking.

When daniele gets the braking process started

The computer engages the electric brakes,

Cutting off power to the motors,

Which now create a resistant

Torque that slows the train.

As the train gets closer to the terminal, the computer

Then engages the pneumatic brakes, where brake pads

Press against brake discs mounted on the axles just like a car.

The train relies on electric braking at higher speeds

And on the pneumatic brakes at lower speeds

Bringing the train to a stop and holding it in place at the station.

We're in bologna, it's an underground station.

(Teddy) bologna is also headquarters to a critical command centre.

The are two trains that are being serviced

For passengers in bologna station.

It is a very busy line for a high-speed line.

Every day we have 215 high speed trains

That reach the maximum speed on this track lines.

We are also increasing the number of high-speed trains

That are programmed in circulation.

(Teddy) these controllers are trained to

Respond to minor and major traffic disruptions.

The issue in these situations regarding trains has to do with

Where the trains will stop.

How the continuation of the trips will be handled

For the passengers while ensuring their security.

(Teddy) unfortunately, some disruptions are horrific.

♪ ♪ ♪

On August 2nd, 1980, this station became the site of

One of the worst terrorist attacks in europe's history.

At 10:25 a.M. A bomb was detonated,

Killing 85 people and injuring more than 200.

And to help people here remember the victims of that day,

The clock here permanently marks the time of the attack.

(Teddy) after bologna no one takes

Safety for granted in this country.

We have the authorization, so let's go.

(Teddy) back on the platform our freciarossa 1000 leaves bologna

On time for florence, rome and naples.

On this track, there are lots of trains so it's really important

That we keep on time otherwise we will affect the other time tables.

(Teddy) matteo heads to his cabin

Where he can keep an eye on the entire train,

Receive alerts and adjust the temperature of each coach

With the tap of a screen.

So right now, and I'm sure you not feeling it,

We're going at 297 kilometers per hour.

Just wait a few seconds

And daniele up there with reach the 300 kilometers per hour

Maximum speed, so, 299, and go for 300, ah!

(Teddy) matteo's right.

At 300 kilometers an hour, this ride is smooth and stable.

And given Italy's rocky terrain, that's nothing to take for granted.

I'm excited to get up in the air,

All right here we go!

In Italy track work is often done at locations so difficult

To access, crews need a helicopter.

As we follow this part of the coastline

Of the italian riviera

We're seeing part of cinque terre, the five lands.

It's an incredibly popular tourist spot.

A crew is working here to protect a section of track

And tunnel from being washed away.

You can actually see a train going in the tunnel.

A train just passed by there.

And you can see all the fences that are stopping rockslides

Because the train runs directly below us.

And I mean just looking up there you almost can't believe

There's a train line here at all.

This team has to divert a river that often floods this tunnel.

(Teddy) the river dries up in the summer

So crews have a short time to get the work done.

Geologist fabio rivolta works for rete ferroviaria italiana

The national corporation that maintains Italy's rail track.

Even just getting down here is a challenge but we're going

To take a closer look at what the workers have been doing down here.

Wow, so we're on the side of a mountain, giant cliff walls,

And the train runs right through this tunnel here,

It's really amazing!

Where is the river right now and where are you moving it to?

The river usually runs here, and then in normal conditions

It would continue to run across this little bridge.

In extreme situations, like a flood,

The river runs over the tunnel and falls in this area.

(Teddy) while trains roar by,

The crew will divert the river.

It's a big job that will take weeks.

We're only here for a small portion of it.

Here the work is always 'in progress'.

There is always another new intervention,

A wall that needs more securing, a river that needs fixing.

(Teddy) without crews like these,

Our frecciarossa 1000 would slow to a crawl.

♪ ♪ ♪

Back on our trip, we're about to gear down.

We are in the connection from the high speed line to the station of florence.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa is capable of reaching 400 kilometers per hour

But driver daniele lazzarin has to make sure he stays at

The speed limit set by the government.

For now, that's 300 kilometers per hour.

(alarm beeping)

This is a safety device that tells me I'm a little high in speed.

Just a couple of kilometers per hour more

And tells me that I have to brake.

If I don't brake it, it will do it until

A complete stop of the train.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa 1000

Comes equipped with various other safety devices.

Every fifty seconds I have to push it and if I don't do it

Because something happens to me to the drivers and the train will stop completely.

We don't have just the pedal.

We have eight other points like the brake, the horn,

And other points that I can touch to reset

The count down of this fifty seconds.

(Teddy) then just outside florence central station

Wait a second, something happened.

We have no power.

(Teddy) the train has already started slowing down.

Back in his office matteo also receives an alert

That the train is quickly losing speed.

Daniele knows there's another train behind him just minutes away.

They need to find out what's going on, now.

Is everything okay?

♪ ♪ ♪

We have no power.

(Teddy) just outside florence,

The fastest train in europe has suddenly lost power.

Something happened.

(Teddy) driver daniele lazzarin

Needs to figure out what's going on.

Conductor matteo el-chakra has nearly 600 passengers on board.

They expect to arrive at their stops on time.

(Teddy) at the control centre in bologna

The delay is real cause for concern.

If it doesn't get resolved soon,

Dozens of trains using the same line could be affected.

(Teddy) fortunately, it doesn't take

Long for daniele to figure out what happened.

Something happened to the voltage over here

And now everything's okay.

(Teddy) the train was drawing too much

Power so a circuit breaker automatically kicked in.

There is a protection that will cut all the voltage for like a couple of minutes.

Everything is up and running again.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa roars back to life.

It's a huge relief.

♪ ♪ ♪

Rome is the next stop, 230 kilometers away.

With the passage of each kilometer, daniele is alerted

To any signal that could compromise safety.

They teach us every day, every update to put safety first

And he depends on the tracks below him.

(Teddy) 100 kilometers north of rome, near the town of orvieto

A team of engineers gather at the paglia bridge

Built in the 1960's.

♪ ♪ ♪

It is important to analyze the stability and the safety of the bridge.

(Teddy) the team has been sent by

The government owned rete ferroviaria italiana or r.F.I.

It's responsible for Italy's track network.

R.F.I. Asked to inspect each bridge annually.

We have to inspect all the components of the bridge

This is an experimental activity because today

The drone cannot fully replace the inspection performed by an engineer

But it is a valid support to an engineer.

(Teddy) and the drone will allow

The crew to inspect the bridge without disrupting traffic.

♪ ♪ ♪

Today we are performing a side flight

In order to acquire all the data of all structural components of the bridge.

There could be cause for concern.

Now we are seeing there is corrosion at the base

Of the concrete pillar and we can see the presence of water infiltration

(Teddy) large infrastructure requires constant inspection.

Over time, minor issues can grow into major problems

If unchecked, a defect can cause corrosion of the reinforcements in the concrete.

The r.F.I. Crew is here to make sure that doesn't happen.

They rely on a mixture of real time footage relayed to their

Monitor as well as thermal imaging to reveal any structural issues.

From the ground we see the those defects

That look like the crack.

(Teddy) a serious defect could

Shut down the bridge for repairs, or worse.

(Teddy) after closer inspection

Of the footage, it turns out that the water damage

Is not a cause for concern.

The defect is quite light and don't affect

The stability of the bridge.

We have to know where is this defect so that we can plan

The ordinary maintenance intervention to remove it.

(Teddy) the vast high-speed network

Depends on the government's constant inspection process.

Meanwhile the frecciarossa 1000 is closing in on rome.

The drive from milan typically takes 6 hours.

The frecciarossa has covered the distance

In three and a half hours.

Thanks to these high speed trains, we gave the italians

A chance to live in their homes and work in other cities.

We have people going to milan in the morning

Come back in the evening and go to their families.

We are almost in roma termini,

I'm now approaching the station at a slow speed.

We're a bit behind schedule so we got to hurry up.

(Teddy) to depart the terminal,

Daniele has to go back the way he came in.

This means piloting from the cabin at the other end of the train.

We have to leave in a few minutes to naples

Which is our final stop.

Running a few minutes behind schedule may not sound serious

But delays ripple down the track.

And for the crew, staying on time is a matter of pride.

I'm confident I will make up the time in napoli centrale.

As always, we have to do a little connection from

Here to the high-speed line.

(Teddy) the frecciarossa's speed

Depends on a stable trackbed below.

Constant upkeep of infrastructure can prevent

Major problems on bridges and tunnels but some

Problems are utterly unpredictable.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) as we speed from rome to naples

On board the frecciarossa 1000, we're traveling over countryside

Rocked for centuries by shifting tectonic plates.

Earthquakes are really common here in Italy,

So when the entire high-speed railway was designed

It had to be built to withstand the powerful tremors

That rock this country hundreds of times each year.

There are no earthquake sensors on the train or tracks.

Instead, tremors are monitored in real time by Italy's

National earthquake centre and alerts are sent out to the train lines.

Drivers have to respond immediately.

The only thing you can do is activate the emergency brake

And stop the train.

(Teddy) stopping a train far from

A station carries its own set of risks.

There could be another train going on the other side

But you have to be sure, absolutely sure before you

Unlock the door and we have to get permission about that.

If this happens inside a tunnel there are some

Certain points you have to stop in order evacuate the place.

(Teddy) speeding from rome the ground is stable today.

We arrive on time at our final destination of naples.

Now we've arrived in naples, in napoli and the last thing

I have to do is check that nobody is on the train,

Nobody left their luggages.

Okay, we're ready. Train is empty, nobody's aboard

And I guess I'm done for the day.

(Teddy) and so is daniele.

They will hand over to another crew who will guide the train back to milan.

Daniele, thank you for the trip my friend.

Hey, hi. Thank you.

I hope everything was good.

It was a great ride.

Okay, you enjoyed the ride.

It was incredible.

Well, it's my first time here in naples and this marks the end this journey.

But we're not done yet, next I'm headed to venice

To ride another one of Italy's high speed wonders.

♪ ♪ ♪

The second half of my high speed adventure begins

Just steps away from these famous canals.

Our journey begins here in venice.

We're jumping on board a high-speed train that was

Inspired by Italy's sports car culture and love of racing.

That train is the italo evo.

♪ ♪ ♪

The evo is 187.3 meters long,

2.8 meters wide and 4.1 meters high.

It can carry up to 480 passengers in its seven cars.

The train reaches a maximum speed of 250 kilometers per hour,

95% of the evo is made of recyclable materials.

Buon giorno, Teddy.

Giorno.

Hello.

Hello, so you're driving the train today but you're

Training the new drivers for this brand new train.

It must be a thrill for you?

Yes, it's an amazing job.

(Teddy) launched in 2017, the evo is

So new even the drivers are still getting used to it.

(Teddy) on this trip

Trainer giulio berti needs to be sure driver sebastiano

Is up to speed.

Driving this generation of train is the culmination of a lot of

Hard work with two years training to reach this goal.

A lot of sacrifices, a lot of studying,

A lot of training.

It's what you have to do to achieve this goal.

Gulio so driving this train

Is the reward of so many sacrifices made,

Numerous hours studying, numerous hours of training.

So it's a very emotional moment, but really nothing more than

The reward of reaching a goal that you've been looking

Forward to for a long time.

(whistle blows)

(Teddy) the last passengers are aboard.

With all the preliminary checks done, it's time to roll.

(over intercom) welcome on board italo 8972

From venezia santa lucia to torino porta nova.

(Teddy) I'm traveling 400 kilometers across northern Italy

I start in the city of canals, venice and move west

Skirting the foot of the alps into wine country.

Through padua onto verona, brescia and then to

The largest city in the north, milan

Before finishing in turin.

The trip will take 3 and a half hours.

(Teddy) as the evo speeds away from venice to brescia

Sebastiano has to prove he can follow all procedures

While keeping his passengers safe.

Sebastiano is making sure the tracks are clear,

Even if the signals say there are.

So, we've got more than eight thousand meters

Free ahead of us, for now.

Certainly at the beginning it is more difficult to manage

All the controls, then you get used to it,

It becomes routine.

(Teddy) it's not just the drivers under pressure.

This team at the evo plant is charged with assembling

One of the most high-tech trains in the railway world.

Their inspiration?

One of the fastest cars of all time.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) I'm riding the italo evo

The train that's rocking the high-speed industry in Italy.

It's the first case where a private company in open access

Competition against other public, state owned company.

So it's very interesting business case.

It's the first in the world and of course it's working very well.

When designing this train, making it fast and functional

Were the most important factors but making it sleek and stylish

Were also at the top of the list.

So designers looked to sports cars for inspiration

To make the evo stand out wherever it goes.

♪ ♪ ♪

It's incredible that this train we are on,

This is how it started, you and a sketch pad.

Ya.

It's amazing. It's amazing!

Allard xavier is the evo's lead designer.

The main idea concerning evo came from the legend ferrari

P4 1967 and it was a fantastic car with a very, very beautiful

Curves, very beautiful shape.

(Teddy) the evo's 'racetrack red'

Evokes Italy's motorsport glory.

So the reference belonging to the past

But expressing also the modernity,

Something from today, something from the future.

(Teddy) these designs were the first steps of an epic journey

That leads to northern Italy and the alstom plant in savigliano.

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) here, 300 workers spend 40,000 hours building an evo.

♪ ♪ ♪

We can perform the cutting for of different components

Such as brackets plates of different materials.

(Teddy) at this work station,

It takes 3 days to weld together the walls,

Floor and roof for a single coach frame.

♪ ♪ ♪

We check 100 physical points inside and outside of the car

In order to be able to understand if the welding

And all the complete car respect the technical tolerances

Reported in our drawings.

(Teddy) before being put into service,

Every system on the evo is put throuh multiple tests.

(Teddy) 500,000 kilometers per year

Without the need for heavy maintenance.

The evo's nose is a signature design feature

But there's more to it than meets the eye.

(Teddy) in the event of a head-on collision,

The evo's nose has been designed to provide

Maximum crash protection.

Inside the nose are four 'crash boxes'

Composed of layers of steel.

On impact, these boxes collapse,

Absorbing and displacing the oncoming force.

The boxes also provide a protective barrier

Between the driver and the object of impact.

(Teddy) we're an hour away from milan.

Under the watchful eye of his supervisor, giulio berti

Driver sebastiano is still working to get fully certified.

♪ ♪ ♪

If a person's been trained, there's nothing to worry about.

Every supervisor should check on their employees.

It's right that safety should always be guaranteed.

(Teddy) even when there's testing

Involved there's no denying this is one of the best jobs in Italy.

We are travelling at 246, 250 kilometers and driving a train

Like this is like driving a sports car like

A ferrari or a maserati.

At the beginning one feels a great emotion reaching certain

Speeds like 300 kilometers an hour.

In fact, you suffer when you are not travelling at high-speeds

Because you get used to this.

(Teddy) sebastiano's progress,

Along with the entire fleet of evo's is monitored

By the ntv control centre in naples.

(Teddy) co-ordinator paolo capasso

And his team rely on their diagnostic train tracer

To analyse onboard computer systems in real time.

Our job is to see what the driver cannot see.

We can see the status in the real time of

The main system of the train,

High voltage, traction, air conditioning.

(Teddy) on one train,

The tracer has found something.

We have discovered a fault on the medium voltage of the train

Which needs to be well investigated because it will be

A problem on reliability on air conditioning and all the comfort

System on the train in that specific car.

(Teddy) thanks to the tracer,

Maintenance crews know what they need to do before the train arrives.

So when the train comes out comes into the depot tonight

We will already know what to do to solve this problem.

(Teddy) this attention to detail

And service is fueling the growth of high speed rail

And the demand for more track grows with it.

Construction crews are working hard to keep up.

A lot of really difficult and dangerous work going on inside

And right now we're headed into the heart of it.

It's a massive tunnel.

(loud blast)

♪ ♪ ♪

(Teddy) I'm racing on the italo

Evo from milan to turin.

The track beneath us crosses all kinds of infrastructure.

Between milan and turin alone, we're crossing 51 viaducts,

90 kilometers of embankments, and over 100 bypasses

And overpasses, all within a relatively

Short stretch of track.

And that translates into hundreds of millions of dollars

Of infrastructure.

And Italy's high-speed railway network just keeps growing

We're headed to just outside the city of tortona

In northwest Italy it's lies in a mountainous area

Close to the alps, 80 kilometers away from genoa.

Welcome to the biggest construction project in the country!

A brand new high speed line.

We are talking about fifty-three kilometers of railway, new railway.

The value of this project is six point two billion of euro.

This new high-speed line will slash travel times for cargo

Moving between the mediterranean and the north sea.

(Teddy) this means boring and blasting Italy's longest tunnel

Through 27 kilometers of rock

(loud blast)

Right now we're headed into the longest of these series of tunnels.

All told it's one of the largest construction projects in all of europe.

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Basically we are digging these tunnels under hundred of meters of rock

Up to six hundred meters, tunneling is always difficult.

It's a challenge but in this case it's even more complicated.

In this region we have a transition between alps

And apennines so which categorizes this area as

A very geological complex system, a tectonic line.

Each day we can excavate about twenty meters.

So it's a very fast production.

In a month you can bore about up to five hundred meters.

(Teddy) as the boring machine

Tears through clay, sand, stone and silt

Engineer marco keeps watch for danger zones.

It could happen that suddenly in the excavation chamber

We can have a lot of water so we have to face with

This problem, and it is very difficult.

(Teddy) and there's still another challenge confronting the crew.

Because this is Italy, obviously a country with a really long

And rich history, as the tunnel boring machine

Is doing its work and material is constantly being pulled out

Sometimes they find few surprises.

(Teddy) decades after its end,

World war two wreckage lurks beneath the soil

We find a lot of bombs, american bombs.

Or we find some roman tombs or archeological ruins that

Came from the roman age.

(Teddy) as the tunnel presses forward,

Each section is reinforced,

You're almost there, just a little more.

(Teddy) a key piece of the tunnel boring

Process is this machine that presses these giant slabs

Of concrete up against the interior of the tunnel wall

To keep all of the rock and debris from falling in.

It's like a roman arch.

(Teddy) 9 slabs and a keystone are

Required to support a single section of the tunnel.

The entire tunnel project will require, roughly

155,000 slabs and keystones

This new line is expected to be completed in 2023.

We built a new connection that change the way to live,

The way to connect with so many people, it changed the culture.

(Teddy) meanwhile, my evo has crossed

Northern Italy in a mere three and a half hours.

Before I know it, we're approaching turin.

(Teddy) evo driver sebastiano serpico

Is ready to savour his passage from apprentice to driver.

It's the arrival at the station.

The satisfaction that we've arrived on time for so many passengers and safely.

Everything's gone well it's the greatest satisfaction.

(Teddy) sebastiano has passed his inspection.

He's fully certified to run solo trips across the country.

Bon laboro.

Grazzi.

Complemente

Grazzi.

Well we've made it to turin and this is the end of our

High-speed adventure across Italy.

It's been a thrill to ride two of the world's fastest,

Most advanced trains through a country that's

Redefining high speed rail.

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