Castelvetrano – Porto Empedocle railway line
Castelvetrano – Porto Empedocle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Route length: | 123.1 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gauge : | 950 mm ( Italian meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Castelvetrano – Porto Empedocle railway was a single-track, narrow-gauge railway on the western south coast of Sicily . The 123 km long route led from Castelvetrano via Sciacca to Porto Empedocle , from where there was a connection to Agrigento via a three-rail track . The line opened between 1910 and 1923 and shut down between 1978 and 1985. The section from Castelvetrano to Ribera was the last narrow-gauge line of the FS .
history
The idea of a rail link on the western south coast of Sicily had been around since the 1880s. The project was only seriously tackled after the Rete Sicula had merged into the FS. The first section between Castelvetrano and Selinunte was put into operation on June 20, 1910; The line was continuously passable from July 2, 1923.
Start of operation of the individual sections:
Opening date | Route section |
---|---|
June 20, 1910 | Castelvetrano– Selinunte |
December 16, 1911 | Siculiana - Postage Empedocle |
February 21, 1914 | Selinunte - Sciacca |
June 16, 1915 | Cattolica Eraclea - Siculiana |
February 26, 1917 | Ribera - Cattolica Eraclea |
July 2, 1923 | Sciacca-Ribera |
After operations on the Ribera – Porto Empedocle line had already been given up on March 22, 1978, the last narrow-gauge train of the FS ran on December 31, 1985 between Castelvetrano and Ribera. The route was mentioned in the FS timetable for many years; the line was only definitely abandoned with a ministerial decree of March 14, 2004.
business
The line was operated by the FS. The entire operation was initially carried out with steam locomotives, from 1949 diesel railcars of the type RALn 60 were also used for passenger transport. Although the end of the line and thus of the narrow-gauge operation of the FS was already in sight, in 1978 they ordered two RD 142 diesel locomotives ; these were used in freight traffic for a few years from 1981.
literature
- Alfredo Alabiso: Posta per Ferrovia in Sicilia , Palermo 1994, p. 132.
- Railway Atlas Italy and Slovenia , Schweers + Wall, 2010, p. 106.
- Hansjürg Rohrer: Railways in Italy , Zurich 1985, ISBN 3-280-01611-8 , p. 152 ff.
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfredo Alabiso: Posta per Ferrovia in Sicilia , Palermo 1994, p. 132