Railway line Palermo – Agrigento / Porto Empedocle
Palermo – Agrigento / Porto Empedocle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Route number (RFI) : | 156 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Course book series (IT) : | 385 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Route length: | 144 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power system : | 3 kV = | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dual track : | Palermo Centrale – Fiumetorto |
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The Palermo – Agrigento railway is the oldest railway line in Sicily . It was built to connect the capital, Palermo, with the Sicilian sulfur mining areas and the port city of Porto Empedocle . The line between Palermo and Fiumetorto is part of the Berlin – Palermo railway axis .
history
Opening date | Route section |
---|---|
April 28, 1863 | Palermo - Bagheria |
July 25, 1864 | Bagheria - Trabia |
February 20, 1866 | Trabia - Termini Imerese |
April 1, 1869 | Terms Imerese - Cerda |
June 6, 1869 | Cerda - Sciara |
September 15, 1869 | Sciara - Montemaggiore Belsito |
February 16, 1870 | Montemaggiore Belsito – Fiaccati |
July 3, 1870 | Fiaccati - Roccapalumba |
September 1, 1870 | Roccapalumba - Lercara Bassa |
September 15, 1874 | Lercara Bassa - Cammarata |
November 1, 1874 | Comitini - Porto Empedocle |
September 30, 1875 | Cammarata-Spina |
September 30, 1875 | Passofonduto – Comitini |
December 16, 1876 | Spina – Passofonduto |
The first sections between Palermo and Fiumetorto were built by the company "Società Vittorio Emanuele", which was already responsible for the construction of several railway lines in southern Italy. The section between Palermo and Bagheria is also the oldest railway line in Sicily.
The construction of the railway line inland was primarily to improve the transport of sulfur from the large mines near Lercara to the sea ports. The gap was closed in 1876, now Porto Empedocle could also be reached directly from Palermo.
At the end of 1933, extensive renovation work was carried out at Agrigento . A short branch line to the new Agrigento Centrale station was built from today's Agrigento Bassa train station. At the same time, a three- rail track was built between Agrigento Bassa and Porto Empodocle . Since then, passenger traffic from Argento Bassa has only been carried out by narrow-gauge trains that run from Porto Empedocle to Castelvetrano .
Passenger traffic between Agrigento Bassa and Porto Empedocle was discontinued in 1977 when the narrow-gauge line was discontinued and the three-rail track was converted to standard gauge.
The entire line was electrified in the 1980s.
In December 2017, the variant di Lercara was opened. The old route between Castronovo di Sicilia and Roccapalumba-Alia was closed and replaced by a new section. The centerpiece is the new 2,800-meter-long Lercara tunnel . The new route opens before, under construction, separation station Lercara Diramazione in the railway Caltanissetta Xirbi-Roccapalumba-Alia one.
service
Since 2014, the Agrigento Bassa and Porto Empedocle section has been regularly used by historical or modern special trains. In March 2016, the Empedocle Succursale stop (formerly located on the narrow-gauge line) was reopened.
Picture gallery
The starting point of the railway line is the Palermo Centrale railway station
literature
- Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, Fascicolo linea 156
- Romualdo Giuffrida: Lo Stato e le ferrovie in Sicilia. (1860–1895) (= Storia economica di Sicilia. Vol. 8). Sciascia Editore, Caltanissetta et al. 1967.
- Giuseppe Barone: Le vie del Mezzogiorno. Donzelli, Roma 2002, ISBN 88-7989-684-9 .
- Francesco Maggiore Perni: Delle strade ferrate in Sicilia. Amenta, Palermo 1861, digitized .
Web links
- ferroviekaos.it - operator of the Agrigento Bassa – Porto Empedocle museum railway
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Impianti FS. In: I Treni No. 246 (March 2003), p. 8.
- ↑ Prospetto cronologico dei tratti di ferrovia aperti all'esercizio dal 1839 al 31 December 1926 - Chronology of the route openings in Italy between 1839 and 1926
- ↑ “Le vie del Mezzogiorno”, from page 135.
- ↑ Treni. There oggi in funzione il nuovo tratto sulla Palermo-Agrigento. http://www.infoagrigento.it , December 10, 2017, accessed December 24, 2017 (Italian).
- ^ Treni storici, inaugurata la stazione di Porto Empedocle Succursale. agrigentonotizie.it, accessed June 29, 2016 (Italian).