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The Porrettana Railway (named after the spa town of Porretta Terme) is an Italian railway connecting Bologna to Pistoia and was the first line through the Apennines between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. It is also known in Italian as the Transappenninica ("trans-Apennines"). It was officially called the Strada ferrata dell'Italia Centrale (“ Central Italy Railway”) and was officially inaugurated by King Victor Emmanuel II in 1864. At the time it was an enormous engineering project with its 47 tunnels and 35 bridges and viaducts, with a total length of 99 km. The most difficult section was the 14 km stretch between Pracchia and Pistoia, which had a drop of 500 metres. The project was put in the charge of the French engineer Jean Louis Protche who solved the problem by designing a spiral tunnel between Piteccio and Corbezzi. This solution was then used for the construction of the Gotthard Tunnel. In Porretta Terme a square was dedicated to Protche and Victor Emmanuel II, who opened the line. It was electrified on the three-phase system (3,700 V at 16.7 Hz) in 1927 and re-electrified with 3,000 V DC in 1934. == History== In the second half of nineteenth century the Grand Duchy of Tuscany had an extensive rail network that had grown to 225 km: the Leopolda railway between Florence, Pisa and Livorno, the Maria Antonia railway connecting Florence, Prato and Pistoia, the Pisa–Lucca railway and the Central Tuscany railway between Empoli and Siena. In this period construction began on the line from Pistoia to Lucca and studies for lines linking and Chiusi and Florence and Bologna through a pass over the Apennines to connect Florence with the north-south railways of Italy. In 1845 Cini, an engineer of San Marcello Pistoiese and Ciardi an engineer of Prato, each presented project proposals for the crossing of the Apennines. The line proposed by Cini started from Pistoia, up the Ombrone at a gradient of up to 20 per thousand to the district of San Felice. From there it would climb the foothills of the Apennines for 16 km with grades of 12 to 25 per thousand and a 2,700 metre long tunnel through the mountains to Pracchia. From Pracchia to Bologna the line would follow the course of the Reno river. The proposed route would have been tortuous but Cini was mainly interested in promoting the interests of Pistoia by connecting Pracchia with Pistoia. Ciardi challenged Cini’s proposal and contended that a railway through the Apennines should be designed to be part of the Italian national rail network that was forming at the time and this meant making the carriage of freight cheaper and transport travelers heading north faster. To do this, the line should have low grades and be as short as possible between Florence and Bologna. Ciardi, abandoned his first proposal for a route across the Apennines along the valleys of the Bisenzio, Setta and Reno rivers, in places with grades over 12 per thousand. He proposed a second route with lower grades and 14 km shorter than the proposed Porrettana. The new route would pass through the Apennines at Gravigno, near Cantagallo at 480 meters above mean sea level with a 4 km long tunnel and a maximum gradient of 12 per thousand. This route was similar to the Bologna–Florence Direttissima route finally opened in 1934. The prospect of a choice of routes that would lead to the increased importance for Pistoia or Prato triggered a competition between the two cities. Tilting the balance, however, was Austria’s military interest in a fast connection with the port of Livorno and its belief that Pistoia was a militarily strategic point. Austria therefore preferred Porrettana and lobbied Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany who was obliged support Austrian interests. In 1849 Leopold II was restored to power by Austrian troops and they occupied Tuscany until 1855. The first agreement on the railway was signed in Rome in 1851. The contract for the Porrettana line was concluded on 26 January 1852 in Modena. In the following years the Bologna–Pistoia railway was delayed by the argument between the supporters of the two routes. On 14 March 1856, an agreement was signed in Vienna between the Austrian Empire, the Duchy of Parma and Modena, The Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States for the construction of the ''Central Italian Railway'' (Italian: ''Strada Ferrata dell'Italia Centrale'') from Piacenza to Pistoia, with a branch to Mantua and anticipating strategic links with the existing lines of Lombardy and Veneto and extensions to Rome. This was a strategic plan specifically intended to promote military interests. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Porrettana railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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