Alcantara – Randazzo railway line

Alcantara-Randazzo
former Randazzo station
Route length:	37 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend Messina railway line 0.000 Alcantara 3  m slm Railway line to Syracuse 5.7 Gaggi 120  m slm 7.7 Graniti 150  m slm Gole Alcantara 12.8 Motta Camastra 250  m slm 17.5 Francavilla di Sicilia 330  m slm Alcantara 22.1 Castiglione di Sicilia 500  m slm Alcantara 26.7 Mojo Alcantara - Malvagna 535  m slm Alcantara 31.5 San Teodoro 638  m slm 37.0 Randazzo (FS) former transition to FCE 765  m slm

The Alcantara – Randazzo railway is a former railway line on Sicily in Italy .

history

Opening date	Route section
May 31, 1959	Alcantara-Randazzo

Arch bridge at Motta Camastra

Entrance building of the old Randazzo state train station

Already at the end of the 19th century there were considerations to build a railway line through the Alcantara valley . In 1873 the provincial government of Messina planned to build a railway line from Giardini to Leonforte to better connect the hinterland of Sicily to the port of Messina.

In 1928 construction began on the railway line between Alcantara station and Randazzo , but it came to a standstill a few years later. The global economic crisis and finally the Second World War initially prevented further construction. After the war, construction work was resumed. The railway line was officially opened on May 31, 1959. The traffic on the line developed disappointingly, just six months after the opening, voices were heard calling for the line to be closed. One of the reasons for the modest demand was probably the low speed: in the 1959 timetable, the 43 kilometers from Taormina Giardini to Randazzo were scheduled to take more than an hour.

A severe eruption of Mount Etna on March 18, 1981 interrupted the railway line between Randazzo and Mojo Alcantara . A replacement bus service was set up here for a long time. It was not until 1983 that operations in Randazzo could be resumed.

In 1994 the entire line was closed for renovation work, all level crossings were automated, all points at the intermediate stations were expanded - which were downgraded to stops - and all light signals were removed. In addition, the new Gole Alcantara stop was built directly at the well-known excursion destination. However, apart from a few special trains, train operations were not resumed.

The total shutdown took place on August 1, 2002. In August 2017, the Roman Senate passed a law on the financing of tourist railways. The establishment of tourist rail traffic for this railway line is planned.

Route description

The single-track line turns off the main Messina – Syracuse line behind Alcantara station and largely follows the course of the state road 185 on several viaducts and tunnels . Behind Francavilla di Sicilia , as well as in front of and behind Moio Alcantara, the route crosses the Alcantara river twice . Before Randazzo, the line runs parallel to Ferrovia Circumetnea and ends northwest of the FCE train station.

literature

• Giuseppe Barone: Le vie del Mezzogiorno. Donzelli, Roma 2002, ISBN 88-7989-684-9 .

Web links

Commons : Alcantara – Randazzo railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• ferrovieabbandonate.it - Disused railways - Pictures of the current state of the line (Italian)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Proposta d'una strada ferrata since Giardini a Leonforte per la Valle Alcantara. Relazione alla camera di Commercio di Messina degli ingegneri De Leo, Soraci, Vairo, Papa. Messina, 1873
2. ↑ Giuseppe Barone, Le vie del Mezzogiorno, pages 134-139, Verlag Donzelli 2002.
3. ^ Francesco Ogliari, Storia dei trasporti italiani, Dilettoso viaggio (Sicilia), 1977, p. 1004 f.
4. ↑ Decommissioning of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for the Alcantara – Randazzo line. http://www.mit.gov.it , October 31, 2000, accessed June 11, 2016 (Italian). 
5. ↑ Emendamenti di Commissione relativi al DDL n.2670. http://www.senato.it , August 2, 2017, accessed on October 18, 2017 (Italian).