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The Adriatic Railroad (Ferrovia Adriatico) is the railroad from Ancona to Otranto that runs along the Adriatic Coast of Italy, following it almost all of the way. It is one of the main lines of the Italian rail system and links the northern cities with the most important productive areas of central and southern Italy.

The railroad was built by the Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali (Italian: Company for the Southern Railways, SFM), between 1863 and 1872. In 1906, management of the line was taken over by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. In 1933, the southernmost Lecce-Otranto segment of the line was turned over to the Ferrovie del Sud Est, which has maintained it to the present day.

History
Shortly after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, the new government took over the granting of railway concessions, which, in prior years, had been doled out in a haphazard manner by the different states and provisional dictatorial governments of the Italian Peninsula to various companies: canceling some, changing others and continually releasing new rights-of-way.

In November 1861 the Milan-Piacenza line began operation, with the connection of the Milan-Piacenza line to the Piacenza-Bologna via a bridge - initially of wood but later iron - across the river Po to the Bologna-Piacenza line. This allowed trains from Turin and France to travel directly to the Adriatic coast along the Ancona-Bologna line, built in November 1861 by Società per le strade ferrate romane (Roman Railways, or SFR), in what was then the Papal States.

The construction of an Adriatic line had long been desired, but had never some to pass: mainly because of the difficulty in reconciling the different needs of the different countries - the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - through whose territories the line would pass. The constitution of the kingdom of Italy in 1860 brought an end to this impasse, as entrepreneurs in Piedmont and Lombardy desired access to Adriatic ports for closer and easier trade with Asia through the Suez Canal.

As early as May 1861, a detailed and complex feasibility study was presented to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom for new railways in southern Italy that were considered of vital importance. In particular, the construction of a railway along the Adriatic coast from Ancona to Brindisi and Otranto was seen as essential, as these were considered by many to be on the verge of becoming Europe's "door to the East." . In fact, those years several European countries were competing for the privilege of transporting the Imperial Indian Mail train (refered to in Italy as the Valigie delle Indie), in hopes of profiting from the trade between England and its vast colonial empire. In July 1862 Count Pietro Bastogi, former Finance Minister of the Kingdom of Italy succeeded in putting together a consortium of 92 bankers with the huge sum (at that time) of 100 million gold Italian lira of capital from entriely Italian sources. The Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali (Italian: 'Company for the Southern Railways', SFM) moved quickly to build the rail line, completing the Brindisi-Lecce segment by 1866. The Lecce-Otranto segment was delayed by bitter controversies which prevented the choice of a path for many years. The last stretch of 19 miles from Maglie to Oltranto was not complete until September 20 of 1872.

The new Adriatic Railroad allowed, for the first time, relatively rapid travel between the south and the north-central regions of Italy. In 1866, in fact, there were no railways on the Tyrrhenian coast south of Eboli. Vittorio Emanuele II on November 9 1863 inaugurated the line with his train ride from Pescara to Foggia, following hurried work to finish the track. The public opening was postponed until 25 April 1864. In the proceedings of the first legislature of the Kingdom of Italy, the parliamentarian Leopoldo Galeotti wrote hopefully that "before long the port of Brindisi, reborn to new life, will bring within her womb the Indian Mail, a sure sign that the commerce of the world will be drawn a second time to our seas. In a few days, thatnks to the great industry of Southern Company, despite the obstacles of every kind that had to be overcome, locomotives will arrive at the port of Brindisi. In September 1871 the completion of the Fréjus Rail Tunnel allowed the luxury Peninsular Express (from the same company that operated the famous Orient Express to complete the London-Brindisi trip in 47 hours via Calais and  Paris.

The line was built in record time using the easiest and least demanding in terms of engineering (tunnels and viaducts), often near the coast. Weather was often a cause of work interruptions, due to the heavy storms that frequently batter the Adriatic littoral.

The line was reoriented in 2004, with double tracking, for the stretch from Lesina to Apricena (saving about 2.5 km), while at the end of 2005,the railway was reworked between Ortona and Vasto Casalbordino and between the Port of Vasto and Vasto / San Salvo for the dual purpose of eliminating the multiple curves in the old section, and reducing the danger posed by storm surges and coastal erosion.

Between 2002 and 2006 the track between Brindisi and Lecce was doubled, followed by the segment between Bari Centrale and Fasano. In 2007 the segment between San Severo and Apricena was also given double track.

The only stretch of the Adriatic line that remains single track is from Termoli to Lesina, which is the bottleneck of the line.

Features
A notable aspect of the Adriatic line is the almost total absence of tunnels, with the exception of the Pescara-Vasto segment, where there are seven; including three with a length greater than 5000 m. The railroad is almost entirely double track, and is DC electrified to 3000 V.