History of rail transport in Italy
[5] The following year the firm Holzhammer of Bolzano was granted the "Imperial-Royal privilege" to build the Milano–Monza line (12 km (7.5 mi)), the second railway built in Italy, in the then Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a part of the Austrian Empire.
[8] In Tuscany, the Duke of Lucca signed the concession for the Lucca–Pisa railway, while, in 1845, the Duchy of Parma began the construction of two lines towards Piacenza and Modena.
In the course of the Wars of Italian Independence railways proved to be instrumental in the defeat of Charles Albert's army at Peschiera [it], as well as in the Austrian defeats at Palestro and Magenta: in the latter French troops were able to reach the battlefield quickly thanks to the new means of transport and established a defence line right on the ballast of the line.
In 1870 the last remnant of the Papal States was also annexed to Italy: it comprised the railway connection from Rome to Frascati, Civitavecchia, Terni and Cassino (through Velletri).
Timeline Despite this situation, in 1884 the Italian Parliament issued a commission study in which it was declared preferable a private administration of railways.
[16] Under Bianchi, the FFSS rapidly modernised; the semaphore system was introduced; and centralized hydrodynamic switches and signals were added in the main stations, which were updated or built from scratch.
The company suffered much destruction, and after the end of the conflict, had new problems from the incorporation of lines in the new territories lost by Austria, with different equipment and rules.
[17] The period from 1922 to 1939 was heavy with important construction and modernisation programmes for the Italian railways, which also incorporated 400 km (250 mi) from the Ferrovie Reali Sarde of Sardinia.
Other improvements included automatic blocks, light signals, construction of numerous main stations (Milan Central, Napoli Mergellina, Roma Ostiense and others) and other technical modernisations.
The Italian EMUs (elettrotreni), in particular, started the traditional vanguard position of Italy in the field: on 6 December 1937 an ETR 200 travelled on the Rome-Naples line at a speed of 201 km/h (125 mph) in the Campoleone-Cisterna section.
In this period food trains made up of refrigerated wagons started to run from southern to northern Italy, and abroad.
However, a lack of attention to the problem of reconstruction and the short-sightedness of politicians did not allow, as there could have been, a remedy for the inconsistencies of the conformation of the network that were the legacy of the past, correcting no longer functional layouts, and building entirely new ones; it was preferred to quickly reactivate everything possible.
Increasing numbers of steam locomotives were replaced by electric or diesel ones; in the 1960s also the first unified passenger cars appeared and the first attempts of interoperability with foreign companies were started, culminating in the creation of Trans Europe Express services.
However, as it was decided to put more emphasis on local traffic, this caused a shifting of resources from the ongoing high speed projects, with their subsequent slowing or, in some cases, total abandonment.
Therefore, 160 E.656 electric and 35 D.345 locomotives for short-medium range traffic were acquired, together with 80 EMUs of the ALe 801/940 class, 120 ALn 668 diesel railcars.
Despite the recent efforts, the average age of the rolling stock increased, especially on secondary lines, late running was frequent and the freight sector lost ground in favour of road transportation.
The situation started to improve only from the early 1990s, when the first effects of the new high-speed programs launched from the late 1970s began to appear: these included the famous ETR 400 Pendolino, capable of 250 km/h (160 mph)[25] and first used for the Rome-Florence-Bologna-Milan service.
[28] The freight sector has only recently showed signs of recovery from the long-term depressed state it has lived in through the 20th century.
