Porrettana railway

The railway line Bologna - Pistoia is a former main railway in Italy. Also known as Porretana route was inaugurated in 1864 by Victor Emmanuel II and was the first link between northern and central Italy, crossed the Apennines. It was designed already in 1851 Strada Ferrata dell'Italia Centrale.

At that time there was a significant technical project with 47 tunnels, 35 bridges and viaducts with a total length of 99 km. The most difficult section to be built was the connection between Pracchia and Pistoia, on the 14 kilometers on a slope of 500 meters had to be overcome. The work was supervised by the French engineer Jean -Louis Protche; doing so he solved the problem with the construction of the spiral tunnels on the route between Piteccio and Corbezzi, applied for example in the construction of the Gotthard Railway later. In Porretta Terme is an engineer and Victor Emmanuel II dedicated place today.

History

Mid-19th century possessed the Grand Duchy of Tuscany on a railway network with a total length of 225 km: the Leopoldabahn (Florence -Pisa- Livorno); the Maria Antonia railway Florence - Pistoia - Prato, the railway Pisa - Lucca and the Toscana Centrale Strada Ferrata between Empoli and Siena. At this time the construction of the line between Lucca and Pistoia began, and were presented the first drafts of the connections between Florence and Bologna by the Apennines to give rise to an important railway branch between northern and southern Italy.

1845 laid engineer from San Marcello Cini Pistoiese and engineering Ciardi from Prato before the two plans to cross the Apennines. The line of Cini began in Pistoia, led with an inclination of 20 per thousand up the valley of the brook Ombrone Pistoiese to San Felice. From here, the train climbed the Apennine ridge over a 16 km stretch with many bends and a slope 25 to 12 per thousand over the mountains to Pracchia. The plan shall include a tunnel of 2800 meters length was recorded. From Pracchia to Bologna railway had run along the river Reno. The railway line was pretty convoluted, but Cini was interested primarily in the economic development of Pistoia.

Ciardi suggested another project with the overall objective that it could be as cheap and fast for freight and passenger transport. For example, this route had to be so little steep and as short as possible. Ciardi suggested as the first project on the Bisenzio, the Setta and the Renotal, the inclines of more than 12% had, but a total of 14 km shorter than the Porrettanabahn was.

The prospect of a decision led to an altercation between the cities. In Prato, a committee was formed to support the proposal of the Bisenzio project. In Pistoia Cini promoted the creation of a company. Decisive, however, was the military interests of Austria, which was looking for a quick connection between the strategic port of Livorno, Pistoia and targeted. Austria therefore preferred the Porrettanabahn and exercised on Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, pressure, so that he would opt for the Pistoia option.

On May 18, 1846, the governments of the Austrian Empire, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the duchies of Parma and Modena and the Papal States signed an international agreement for the construction of the "Italian Central Railway" between Piacenza and Pistoia with a branch to Mantua, which are existing with already Railroads in Lombardy and Veneto would connect. The plan was also an extension to Rome. The contract for the Porretana was completed on January 26, 1852 in Modena, Cini could not co-sign him because he had died the day before.

1856, the route after years of working on an international corporation headed by the French engineer Jean -Louis Protche ( 1818-1886 ) was passed, which solved the problem of crossing opportunities in the curve with a 2927 meter long tunnel ( Galleria Apennines ), which often is still cited as an example of an engineering feat.

The Porrettanabahn was seventy years, until the opening of the railway line Bologna - Florence in 1934, one of the most important arteries of Italy. She was at that time a technical masterpiece, by which the distance between Bologna and Florence ( 131 km) could be overcome in five hours by stagecoach was needed, however, for 14 hours. The total costs were found to be higher than that for the Fréjus tunnel.

Opening data

• Bologna Vergato, 39 km, 18 August 1862
• Vergato - Pracchia, 35 km, December 1, 1863
• Pracchia - Pistoia, 25 km, November 2, 1864

At the opening of the entire railway line (1864 ) Austria had lost its supremacy in Italy for four years, so the original military purposes were no longer met. The many obstacles the railway line for passenger and freight transport were therefore clearly. Especially the railway line between Pistoia and Pracchia had among other things a power level of 27 pairs of trains daily. This means if even the best mountain locomotive could cover the distance between Florence and Bologna in 3 hours, the railway could bear a maximum load of only 3,000 tons daily, inappropriate for the economic development of Italy in the second half of the 19th century. 1864 ran only two pairs of trains daily and local trains were here because of the many transit trains for a long time do not run, nor could develop tourist trips.

The total distance was from Bologna to Pistoia single track and the first locomotive reached a speed of 20 km / h

The biggest traffic handled the Porrettanabahn in the First World War, when 70 pairs of trains perverted around the clock. At the tunnel portals drivers were stationed on horses in order to, if necessary, replace their colleagues who almost choked at the tunnel ride because of the smoke. 1927, the line was electrified with AC and there came the series E 550, 431, 432 and 554 are used. In 1890 the railway line Faenza - Florence was opened to relieve the Porrettanabahn. Finally, it was on April 22, 1934, the railway line Bologna - Florence, whose work had begun in 1913 and had been interrupted because of the war, will be opened. The Direttissima was electrified with direct current to 1935 and adjusted the Porretana it.

This was the Porrettanabahn to a local train, an hourly service is to the present ( 2012) between Porretta Terme and Bologna, between Porretta Terme and Pistoia, a 2 -hour clock. Freight there is no more. Their raison d'être are the commuters who drive from the Reno Valley to Bologna.

Credentials

• 1435 mm
• Railroad track in the Emilia -Romagna
• Railroad track in Tuscany
• Apennines