Ferrovie del Sud Est

Ferrovie del Sud Est (FSE) is a railway company in Apulia region, Italy. The company operates in the comuni south of Lecce and in the provinces of Bari, Brindisi and Taranto. The company also operates bus lines. In August 2016 its network was taken over by Ferrovie dello stato due to financial problems at the company. The company is now wholly owned by the Italian Transport Ministry.

Geography
The interior of Salento is a relatively flat plateau, which, however, slopes steeply down to the coasts of the Adriatic Sea and the Gulf of Taranto. The coast itself was very marshy, malarial and uninhabitable. Except for a few port cities, such as Bari, Otranto, Gallipoli and Taranto, all settlements are therefore located inland. Thus, the FSE routes only lead to the sea in the seaports mentioned and otherwise run in the interior of Apulia. The draining of the marshy coast only started in the 1930s. In recent years, large-scale seaside tourism has developed there, for which the railway runs much too far inland.

Lines
FSE operates trains on the following routes:


 * Linea 1 Bari–Martina Franca–Taranto railway and Bari-Casamassima-Putignano railway
 * Linea 2 Martina Franca–Lecce railway
 * Linea 3 Novoli-Gagliano del Capo railway
 * Linea 4 Gallipoli–Casarano railway
 * Linea 5 Zollino–Gallipoli railway
 * Linea 6 Maglie–Gagliano del Capo railway
 * Linea 7 Lecce–Otranto railway