Milan–Bologna railway
Milan–Bologna railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Electrification | Electrified at 3000 V DC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Milan–Bologna railway is the northern part of the traditional main north–south trunk line of the Italian railway network. It closely follows the ancient
History
The Milan–Bologna line was not built as it is now but was created out of the merger of two existing lines built at different times and for different purposes: it was formed by linking the line from Milan towards Piacenza with the line from Turin through Piacenza to Bologna, Florence and Rome.
The Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia was until 1859 still part of the Austrian Empire and conceived concessions for the construction of railways, not so much for its commercial advantages as for military purposes and to bring together the various geographical regions of the empire. As early as September 1835 the Venice Chamber of Commerce had asked permission to form a company for the construction and operation of a railway line from Venice to Milan, but found it very difficult to obtain this "privilege".
Section | Opening[5] |
---|---|
Piacenza-Bologna | 21 July 1859 |
Milan-Piacenza | 14 November 1861 |
The first railway in the region, the
The Austrians were defeated and on 11 July 1859 signed the Armistice of Villafranca; Lombardy was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Veneto remained Austrian. As a result, the Lombard rail network was separated from that of Austria[6] and therefore the nature of its development and operations changed. Instead of links with Venice, links with central Italy and the Adriatic Sea were promoted. The Treaty of Zürich signed on 10 November 1859 also included an agreement[7] that was the origin of the Società delle Strade Ferrate della Lombardia e dell'Italia Centrale (Lombardy and Central Italy Railway Company) and the Società delle Strade Ferrate dell'Austria meridionale e del Veneto (Southern Austria and Veneto Railway Company).[8] Both companies soon began building new lines and completing others: on 21 July 1859 the 146 km long Piacenza–Bologna line was opened, and on 14 November 1861 the 68 km long Milan-Piacenza section was opened[9] with a temporary wooden bridge over the Po. In 1863 a flood swept away the structures and the line was interrupted several times. The construction of a long steel girder bridge, completed in 1864, put an end to the insecurity of the rail link.
Meanwhile, Piacenza had already been connected to the Piedmont network in 1860 and the important Turin–
In 1865 many small railway companies were merged into four large companies that took over the assets and lines along with the granting of new concessions. The Società delle Strade Ferrate della Lombardia e dell'Italia Centrale was merged with other Alpine and Apennine lines, becoming the Società per le strade ferrate dell'Alta Italia ("Upper Italian Railway", SFAI) with 2,092 km of lines in operation and 300 km under construction or proposed.
In 1871 with the opening of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel to rail traffic,[10] a mail train, the Indian Mail (known in Italian as La Valigia delle Indie) was routed over the line from Piacenza to Bologna; it operated weekly from London and Paris via Modane and Turin to Ancona and Brindisi, where it connected with steamships to India via the Suez Canal. In 1879 this became a passenger train, and later carriages were branded "CIWL" (Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits) by agreement with the operator of the line, the SFAI. The commercial speed of the train, however, remained low at about 40 km/h, due to the condition of the line and its bridges.
The reorganisation of the Italian railways into four companies, however, gave rise to more problems than it solved, so in 1885 the railways were divided between two new companies, the Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo — known as the
Starting in 1890 the Adriatic Network agreed to the luxurious
The line under Ferrovie dello Stato
When the state railway company,
Only after this work was finished in the 1910s could the new powerful Italian 690 Pacific steam locomotives be introduced; they were designed specifically for flat and fast lines but had a very high weight per axle compared to locomotives previously used in Italy. In the 1920s improvements to the line finally allowed train operation at up to 100 km/h for the fastest trains. Only in 1929 was the line adequate for loads of 20 tons per axle; even then this required slowing to 20 km/h on the long iron bridge over the Po near Piacenza until its replacement by a new bridge. After its opening, the average commercial speed on the line was raised to 87 km/h.
Starting in 1927, the Milan–Bologna line was the site of the first major trial of in-cab signalling, with the signalling information passed by magnets. This system was designed by the engineer Gino Minucciani. The successful experiment was followed in 1928 by the equipping of the line to Bologna for the repetition of two types of signals: stop and go; if the driver did not comply the braking system would be automatically applied. The 690 locomotives were equipped with this system.
In the late 1920s the limits of steam began to become clear, especially in terms of its high operating costs and its limited potential for further acceleration. It was decided to electrify the line at 3,000 volts direct current following excellent results achieved in experiments, although the Porrettana line between Bologna and Florence had been electrified with a three-phase alternating current system in 1927, and this system was proposed for the new Bologna–Florence direttissima. During the same period the ever-increasing traffic on the line, which had become the primary axis of the Italian railway network, began to saturate the capacity of the stations in Bologna, and a rail bypass was built to its north.
Following the electrification of the line in 1938, Minucciani's system of in-cab signalling was abandoned because it was considered too expensive to equip the electric locomotives with it. Instead FS tested a new system of
Recent projects
In 1991, a deviation of the line was activated between Milano Rogoredo station and San Giuliano Milanese station, on which the new stations of Borgolombardo and San Donato Milanese were built.[13] (the latter was only opened in 2003). This deviation was necessary to enable the construction of the "fast line" on the alignment of the original line.
The quadrupling of the section between Milano Rogoredo station and
In 2002, work began on the construction of the Milan–Bologna high-speed railway, which connects to the old line in the municipality of San Zenone al Lambro. The line from there to Milan had already been quadrupled. The high-speed line was opened in 2008, after the interconnection in Tavazzano was completed on 29 May 2005.[2]
The line from Milan Rogoredo to Lodi has been served by line S1 of the Milan suburban railway service since 13 December 2009.
Infrastructure
The line has two tracks built to 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Route
The line starts at Milano Centrale and runs along the belt railway, along with the lines to Venice and Genoa, passing through the stations of Milano Lambrate (where it separates from the line for Venice), Milano Forlanini and Milano Rogoredo, where it separates from the line for Genoa. The line between Rogoredo and San Giuliano Milanese has been doubled since 1991 with the construction of the fast line on the historic route and the building of the stations of San Donato Milanese (which was not actually opened until 2003[15]) and Borgolombardo.[13]
Since 1997, the line to Sordio junction (before San Zenone al Lambro) has been quadrupled by the construction of a new line that bypasses the town of Melegnano and that is used by traffic to and from the high-speed line.[16] Shortly after Melegnano, the historic line and the new line cross the river Lambro on two separate bridges.[17] After San Zenone, the line passes through Tavazzano station, which, since 2005, has been linked by the Interconnessione di Tavazzano (Tavazzano interconnection) between the historic line and the new line that it used by high-speed traffic.[2]
The section between
Near the city there are two links with the high-speed line: the Piacenza west interconnection,[18] located just before the bridge over the Po and the Piacenza east interconnection,[18] located just after the city.
After Piacenza the railway runs parallel to the
In November 2014, a deviation was opened between Rubiera and Modena that is more than 8.5 kilometres long, including an almost 2 km-long tunnel. This was built as part of the construction of the high-speed line and the simultaneous upgrade of the traditional line. The new route, located farther north than previously, avoids crossing the western part of Modena and is connected to the Verona line by means of a link line. Marzaglia freight yard was opened on the new line.
References
Footnotes
- ^ "San Donato, finalmente!". I Treni (in Italian) (255): 7. January 2004.
- ^ ISSN 0392-4602.
- ^ "Impianti FS". I Treni (in Italian) (359): 8. May 2013.
- ISBN 978-3-89494-129-1.
- ^ "Prospetto cronologico dei tratti di ferrovia aperti all'esercizio dal 1839 al 31 dicembre 1926" (in Italian). Retrieved 17 August 2018.
- ^ Briano, Italo (1977). Storia delle Ferrovie in Italia (in Italian). Vol. I. Milan: Cavallotti. p. 75.
- ^ Raccolta dei Trattati e delle Convenzioni Commerciali in vigore tra l'Italia e gli Stati Stranieri (in Italian). Turin: Tipografia Favale. 1862. p. 806.
- ^ Annali Universali di Statistica, Economia Pubblica, Legisla. Storia, Viaggi e Commercio (in Italian). Vol. IV. Milan. October 1860. p. 212.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Kalla-Bishop, P. M. (1971). Italian Railways. Newton Abbott, Devon, England: David & Charles. p. 37.
- ^ Ferrovie dello Stato. 1961. p. 88.
- Ferrovie dello Stato. 1961. p. 71.
- ^ Piccinini, Alberto. In orario, il manifesto. p. 12.
- ^ a b "Notizia flash". I Treni Oggi (in Italian) (117): 4. July 1991.
- ^ "Linea ferroviaria Milano - Bologna (tratta lombarda)]" (in Italian). trail.unioncamerelombardia.it. Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- ^ "San Donato, finalmente!". I Treni (in Italian) (255): 7. January 2004.
- ^ "L'opzione ferroviaria" (PDF) (in Italian). provincia.cremona.it. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- ^ Fumich, S. (2012). Brembio e Secugnago nei primi anni ottanta (in Italian). Brembio: Lulu. pp. 347–348.
- ^ a b c d e f "Da Milano a Bologna a 300 km/h" (in Italian). ferrovie.it. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
- ^ "Modena, attivata la variante ovest" (in Italian). ferrovie.it. Archived from the original on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
References
- Coletti, Giovanni (1978). Il passaggio delle ferrovie dall'amministrazione privata all'amministrazione pubblica nel 1905 (in Italian). CIFI.
- Gallio, Silvio (2009). Oggi è un'ora di viaggio - La costruzione della strada ferrata tra Milano e Bologna (in Italian). Bologna: CLUEB. ISBN 978-88-491-3173-4.
- Mascherpa, Erminio (1997). 691 compromesso vincente (in Italian). Salò: Editrice ETR.
- Mascherpa, Erminio (1992). Ripetizione segnali e vigilanti (in Italian). Salò: Editrice ETR.