FS Class ETR 401

The ETR 401 was the first full tilting-body Pendolino trainset, built by Fiat in two units from 1975 for the Italian State Railways (FS). It followed the ETR Y 0160, an electrically powered car launched by Fiat in 1969 that was the first vehicle christened Pendolino. The four-car train entered public service on 2 July 1976 on the Rome to Ancona line, later extended to Rimini, where the 295 kilometre run took 2 hours 50 minutes against 3 hours 30 minutes for ordinary trains, and it was mostly considered a travelling laboratory for the new technology. A 1979 note in International Railway Journal described it as designed for a 30 percent speed increase on lines with a conventional design speed of 160 km/h and reported that prototype tests had shown the active suspension to be effective and durable. FS retired it in 1982 because of high maintenance cost, and Fiat turned it into a test train for the ETR 450. It later toured Europe to demonstrate tilting, ran as a charter train from 1994 to 2001 and has been partly restored since 2013. The second unit was adapted for the broad gauge Spanish Renfe network.