Pistoia–Bologna railway

In 1856 after a series of works had been carried out in a manner that was not consistent with the purpose of building the railway, the project was entrusted to a company with capital subscribed by French, English and Italian shareholders. It was directed by the French surveyor Jean Louis Protche, who oversaw the entire project and solved the problem of crossing the Apennines with a 2,727 metre long curved tunnel, often cited as an example of technique and daring and a prelude to the most famous application of spiral tunnels on the Gotthardbahn. The last stretch between Pracchia and Pistoia was inaugurated on 2 November 1864.[7]

The building of the Porrettana line represented a major step forward, but it was soon clear it was already inadequate for its task. The completion of the work confirmed Ciardi’s predictions that it would be long and expensive; it had 49 tunnels and grades of up to 26 per thousand. The total final cost was higher than that of the Fréjus line. Four years earlier, Austria had lost its hegemony over Italy, and therefore the military purposes for which the line had been intended had gone. Its use for the carriage of goods and passengers between north and south immediately showed that the line lacked capacity and had many other problems. Between Pistoia and Pracchia, among other things, the line was only able to handle 27 trains per day. A few years after its opening the best mountain climbing locomotives some could haul 160 tons over the line between Florence and Bologna in 3½ hours, but the line had a capacity of only 3,000 tons of freight each day. Initially the line was limited to two pairs of trains each day. The promotion of tourism in the mountains that Pistoia sought from the Porrettana line could not be achieved because of the increasing use of transit traffic for goods heading north and south did not allow the development of local passenger services, except at the spa town of Porretta Terme.

The line was absorbed by the Upper Italian Railways on its establishment on 1 July 1865. This was taken over by the Mediterranean Network on 1 July 1885.

The Porrettana railway is a single track line from Bologna to Pistoia, where it connected to the Pistoia–Prato–Florence line, a total of 131 km. The locomotive depot at Florence Santa Maria Novella station provided locomotives for the moderate climb to Pistoia, where an additional locomotive was attached to push trains up the section of maximum grade from Pistoia to Pracchia. The Apennines tunnel was very inconvenient for passengers and drivers because of the suffocating smoke of uphill trains that penetrated everywhere. Ventilation shafts and fans were installed subsequently, but did not solve the problem. In addition there were problems with braking on the grades and the weather also created difficulties. Despite the problems, traffic soon reached high levels. During World War I traffic reached its highest level, with 70 trains in 24 hours. Teams of drivers were stationed on horseback at the exit of the main tunnels, ready to jump on the trains as it crept up from Pistoia in order to take over from semi-asphyxiated drivers if necessary.

In 1927 finally came the move to three-phase electric traction (3,700V at 16.7 Hz).[8] Due to its heavy traffic, the first experiment in Italy on centralized train dispatching began on the Porrettana line in 1927. Traffic on the line had reached its limit. Work had started on the Bologna–Florence line, known as the Direttissima, in 1913. On 22 April 1934 after much effort, it was finally opened to traffic, so the Porrettana line was relegated to handle local traffic only, with five pairs of trains each day.

During the retreat from the Gothic Line in World War II, the German army systematically destroyed structures, buildings and everything that could be useful to the enemy. Between Bologna and Pracchia 29 bridges, eight tunnels, 10 stations, 45 signal boxes and 52 km of track were blown up. It also crashed two locomotives loaded with explosives in the main tunnel. The line was rebuilt in record time and was reopened from Bologna to Pracchia on 5 October 1947 and between Pracchia and Pistoia on 29 May 1949. The line is still maintained only for local traffic.

Pracchia station

San Mommè station

• Bologna–Vergato, 39 km, 18 August 1862
• Vergato–Pracchia, 35 km, 1 December 1863
• Pracchia–Pistoia, 25 km, 2 November 1864