Rail transport in the Kingdom of Italy

The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of the Kingdom of Italy, with a total length of 25,338 km of which active lines are 19,834 km. Italy is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Italy is 83.

In Italy, the structure of the Italan railway network is characterized by the unity of the management of the railway infrastructure and the performance of the railway service. Both rail transport and administration of the railway network are entrusted to Azienda Autonoma delle Ferrovie dello Stato (Autonomous Company of State Railways), also simply known as Ferrovie dello Stato (State Railways), a State-owned enterprise. Despite the presence of private operators of the railway service, the State Railways favor public service.

Rail infrastructure

Railway Regional Compartments in the Kingdom of Italy.

According to the corporatist view, rail Infrastructure is a public good.

Thanks to its authoritarian government structure, Italy is able to maintain the ability to plan and amend its travel network in the hands of the State. Therefore, the prevailing interest is the benefits to the Nation and not to private shareholders.

Maintaining control of the transportation infrastructure derives from the need to maintaining control of the national economic development and assuring the whole nation access to it.

In the absence of competing interests, a nationwide plan can be conceived, examined, discussed, approved and implemented in a much more plain way than in liberal-capitalistic countries. The reverse side of the medal is the ability of the central government to ignore local demands if these are deemed not worth of address.

Trains

The train is a means of public transport or goods suitable for circulation on the railways composed of a set of elements joined permanently or temporarily to form a single train. The train represented a turning point for the industrial evolution of the nineteenth-century nations, coming to play a central role in the political, economic and social structure of the nations for many years, as well as conquering a leading role in the collective imagination.

Depending on the type of train, variations in the combination of the vehicles that make it up may occur.

Passenger trains

A passenger train (Treno passeggeri) includes passenger-carrying vehicles. Passenger trains travel between stations or depots, where passengers may board and disembark. Passenger trains must supply head-end power to each coach for lighting and heating, among other purposes. This can be drawn directly from the locomotive's prime mover or from a separate generator in the locomotive. Some passenger trains may use bi-level carriages to carry more passengers per train.

Oversight of a passenger train is the responsibility of the conductor. He or she is sometimes assisted by other crew members, such as service attendants or porters.

Freight trains

A freight train (Treno merci) uses freight wagons to transport cargo. Much of the world's freight is transported by train. Rail freight is most economic when goods are being carried in bulk and over large distances.

There are different types of freight train, used for carrying a variety of different kinds of freight, with various types of wagon. Freight trains are sometimes illegally boarded by passengers who want a free ride, or do not have the money to travel by ordinary means. This is referred to as "freighthopping." A common way of boarding the train illegally is by sneaking into a train yard and stowing away in an unattended boxcar; a more dangerous practice is trying to catch a train "on the fly", that is, while it is moving, leading to occasional fatalities.

Service categories

The service categories of trains are the different types of classification of the same for the purposes of their identification for commercial and circulation purposes. Without prejudice to certain indications defined by the UIC (Union internationale des chemins de fer), these categories are to be assigned by the State Railways, both for commercial reasons and for the purpose of determining the priority of circulation.

Trains are identified by a literal abbreviation followed by a number indicating their category, classification and, in general, the direction of travel: even numbering is traditionally associated with trains traveling from south to north and from east to west and the odd number to those traveling from north to south and from west to east.

• Regional Train (Treno Regionale, REG): short-distance train with stops at all stations on the line travelled. Regional Trains are managed by the Regional Compartments and rarely cross the boundaries of the Administrative Region. The Regional Train has only 4th Class.
• Interregional Train (Treno Interregionale, IRG): medium-long distance train, with stops in the main stations of the line traveled. Interregional Trains are managed by Division I - National Transport of Service III - Movement. The Interregional Train has 3rd and 4th Class.
• Direct Train (Treno Diretto, DIR): train with a maximum speed of 200 km/h that connect important cities by traveling on traditional lines with a reduced number of stops in intermediate stations and with the compulsory seat reservation. Direct Trains are long-distance trains and usually stop at one stop in each Administrative Region crossed. Direct trains have three service levels, namely 2nd, 3rd and 4th class.
• Express Train (Treno Espresso, ESP): high-speed, long-distance train with fewer stops than Direct Trains but higher than Fast Trains. Express Trains have three levels of service, namely 1st, 2nd and 3rd class.
• Rapid Train (Treno Rapido, RAP): high-speed train, long distance and reduced stops that travel on high-speed railway lines or on conventional railway lines. The journeys, carried out with carriers with a variable setting (Pendolino type), guarantee reduced travel times. Fast Trains have four levels of service, i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class.

Autonomous Company of State Railways

Although Ferrovie dello Stato is formally an autonomous company, in reality it has limited autonomy, as it is subordinate to the Ministry of Posts, Transport and Communications, which appoints and chairs the board of directors, issues all the guidelines, controls the programmes and issues decrees implementing the decisions taken centrally.

The organization of the Autonomous Company of the FS foresees a Director General and ten Services, divided into administrative and technical services:

• Service I - General Affairs: carries out activities related to general planning and programming, carried out statistical analyzes, draws up periodic reports on the progress of the Company and also takes care of the propaganda, in addition to managing the Railway Museum of Rome.
• Service II - Personnel: deals with human resources (operating personnel, office staff and management staff);
• Service III - Movement: deals with the movement of trains and the preparation of timetables; summarizing the requests of the other services, it plans network developments;
  • Division I - National transport;
  • Division II - Regional Transport;
  • Compartmental Movement Divisions;
• Service IV - Traffic: deals with the management of the commercial part of freight and passenger traffic, including the definition of tariffs;
• Service V - Research, Production and Management: deals with the design, construction and maintenance of vehicles;
• Service VI - Infrastructure: deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure (including stations);
• Service VII - Plant: takes care of all the plant engineering, including signalling, security and telecommunication systems.
• Service VIII - Health: with its own medical and paramedical staff, it dealt with the physical and psychological fitness of the staff and the prevention of accidents;
• Service IX - Accounting: for management and economic control;
• Service X - Procurement: purchases and manages new materials and manages supplies of consumables, maintenance and spare parts; it also provides for the elimination, by sale or demolition, of what is no longer useful;

In addition there are organs with special skills, such as the Experimental Railway Institute, which carries out testing, applied technological research, consultancy and regulations both in the laboratory and in the external sector, also for third parties.

The general offices and production facilities, present throughout the national territory and the commercial representatives of the company abroad, depend on the central management. The territorial organization is divided into 20 Regional Compartments.

See also

• Royal Carabinieri Transportation Police Command (Kingdom of Italy)