The Ferrovia della Valtellina (Valtellina railway) is a railway line in Italy that runs from

Lecco Lecco (, , ; lmo, label= Lecchese, Lècch ) is a city of 48,131 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). ...

Valtellina Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; rm, Vuclina (); lmo, Valtelina or ; german: Veltlin; it, Valtellina) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Toda ...

and

Valchiavenna The Valchiavenna is an alpine valley in the province of Sondrio, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It lies to the north of Lake Como, and is traversed by the rivers Mera and Liro. It can be divided into three parts which branch from the confl ...

. It was opened in 1894 and electrified on the three-phase system in 1902. It is now electrified at 3 kV

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or eve ...

and operated by

Trenord Trenord is a railway company which is responsible for the operation of regional passenger trains in Lombardy. The company was established by the two main railway companies in Lombardy, Trenitalia and Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM), to manage train ope ...

History

The line was built in stages between 1885 and 1894. Two large railway companies dominated the area at the time. They were the Rete Adriatica (Adriatic network) and the

Rete Mediterranea Rete Mediterranea (RM) defines that part of the Italian railway network that, under the law of 27 April 1885 no. 3048, was assigned to the Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo for operation and development. These were mainly lines fro ...

(Mediterranean network). with the opening of the Colico-Bellano section, on 1 August 1894 a complete railway service started.

Electrification

The Valtellina railway is notable for being an early user of electric traction. It was the first in Italy and the first in the world to use high-voltage three-phase alternating current for rail traction. On 15 October 1902 the electrification began on the

Colico Colico ( Comasque: or ; la, Colicum) is a city in the province of Lecco, Lombardy, Italy. It is situated on the northern arm of Lake Como, where the river Adda enters the lake. Colico is the most important city in the northern part of Lake ...

- Chiavenna and Colico- Sondrio sections with overhead power lines at 3,000 V, 15 Hz. The frequency was later raised to 15.8 Hz for reasons unknown. Finally, the voltage and frequency were raised to 3,600 V, 16.7 Hz, which became an Italian standard. Power was supplied by the Campovico

hydroelectric plant Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

. The line is now electrified with 3 kV

The route

The line was built with great technical daring but the Lecco-Colico-Chiavenna section now shows its age. Over the 40 kilometres to Colico there are 89 curves, 18 viaducts and 19 tunnels. However, the line, which runs along the eastern shore of Lake Como with its jagged coastline, offers passengers enchanting views of inlets in which can be seen patrician villas, lush vegetation and lake marinas. Tirano station is an interchange point for travellers who want to go to Switzerland on the

Rhaetian Railway The Rhaetian Railway (german: Rhätische Bahn; it, Ferrovia retica; rm, Viafier retica), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the Rh ...

, a narrow-gauge line, departing from the aforementioned station that follows a route that reaches 2,253 metres in height and the famous tourist station St. Moritz.

Traffic

The line is used by regional trains of

which run along the Sondrio-Lecco and Sondrio-Tirano routes (stopping at all stations), and from Regio Express trains - until 2007 called Diretti - of Trenord, many of which travel the entire Tirano route to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

Central. From December 2014, on public holidays and the month of August the Regional trains of Lecco-Sondrio terminate at Colico and are replaced by buses for the remaining section.

Rolling stock

Historical

Initially the rolling stock used, with three-phase alternating current, consisted of: * RA 34, later,

FS Class E.430 The FS Class E.430 locomotives, initially classed as RA 34, were three-phase alternating current electric locomotives of the Italian railways. They were built for Ferrovia della Valtellina by Ganz and MÁVAG in 1901 and had a power output of 440 ...

, Bo+Bo locomotive * RA 361, later FS Class E.360,

1′C1′ Rigid-framed electric locomotives were some of the first generations of electric locomotive design. When these began the traction motors of these early locomotives, particularly with AC motors, were too large and heavy to be mounted directly to the ...

locomotive * Railcars

Recent

More recently, compositions have been used, between Milan and Tirano, of an FS Class E.464 electric locomotive with 7 MDVC carriages [] and MDVC pilot, while the festive trains consist of FS Class ALe 803 electric multiple units or E.464 locomotives and low-floor carriages. Sometimes FS Class ALe 582 or, rarely, compositions of

FS Class ALn 668 The ALn 668 (''Automotrice Leggera a nafta'', Light Diesel motor car) series is a family of diesel railcars built by Fiat Ferroviaria between the 1950s and the 1980s. The trains were built for the Italian public railway company Ferrovie dello ...

diesel railcar A railcar (not to be confused with a railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coach (carriage, car), with a drive ...

s are used. From 2015 on the Milano Centrale-Tirano route, ETR 425 trainsets are used.

References

{{Reflist Railway companies of Italy Railway lines in Lombardy