The management of the infrastructure is the responsibility of RFI SpA, a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato, which classifies the line as complementary.

Work began under the jurisdiction of the state company in the late 1840s and proceeded slowly, as Piedmont waited a long time for a response from the Swiss cantons in regard to the construction of a tunnel under the Lukmanier Pass.

In 1853, in the absence of certainty about the development of the Swiss network, it was decided to end the line at Arona and to organise ferries to Locarno.

[8] Ten years later, with the redemption of the SFAI property under the Basel Agreement, the infrastructure returned to the Italian state, while its operation was temporarily assigned to the private railway company.

[9] The Conventions of 1885 resolved the provisional situation by incorporating the state lines west of Milan in the Rete Mediterranea, under a sixty-year concession to the Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo.