It connects Italy’s northwest with its south, running along the Tyrrhenian coast between the Italian regions of Tuscany and Lazio, through the provinces of Livorno, Grosseto, Viterbo and Rome.

The line is double track and is fully electrified at 3,000 V DC.

The southernmost section of the line between Rome and Civitavecchia was opened on 24 April 1859 by the Società Pio Central (Italian for Central Pius Company).

The line continued south from Vada and was opened to Nunziatella, near Capalbio, on the border with the Papal States on the Chiarone river in 1864.

[10] In 1910 a direct line was opened along the coast from Vada to the new central station at Livorno.