Rail transport in the Kingdom of Italy

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The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of the Kingdom of Italy, with a total length of 25,338 km of which active lines are 19,834 km. Italy is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for Italy is 83.

In Italy, the structure of the Italan railway network is characterized by the unity of the management of the railway infrastructure and the performance of the railway service. Both rail transport and administration of the railway network are entrusted to Azienda Autonoma delle Ferrovie dello Stato (Autonomous Company of State Railways), also simply known as Ferrovie dello Stato (State Railways), a State-owned enterprise. Despite the presence of private operators of the railway service, the State Railways favor public service.

Autonomous Company of State Railways

Although Ferrovie dello Stato is formally an autonomous company, in reality it has limited autonomy, as it is subordinate to the Ministry of Posts, Transport and Communications, which appoints and chairs the board of directors, issues all the guidelines, controls the programmes and issues decrees implementing the decisions taken centrally.

The organization of the Autonomous Company of the FS foresees a Director General and ten Services, divided into administrative and technical services:

  • Service I - General Affairs: carries out activities related to general planning and programming, carried out statistical analyzes, draws up periodic reports on the progress of the Company and also takes care of the propaganda, in addition to managing the Railway Museum of Rome.
  • Service II - Personnel: deals with human resources (operating personnel, office staff and management staff);
  • Service III - Movement: deals with the movement of trains and the preparation of timetables; summarizing the requests of the other services, it plans network developments;
  • Service IV - Traffic: deals with the management of the commercial part of freight and passenger traffic, including the definition of tariffs;
  • Service V - Research, Production and Management: deals with the design, construction and maintenance of vehicles;
  • Service VI - Infrastructure: deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure (including stations);
  • Service VII - Plant: takes care of all the plant engineering, including signalling, security and telecommunication systems.
  • Service VIII - Health: with its own medical and paramedical staff, it dealt with the physical and psychological fitness of the staff and the prevention of accidents;
  • Service IX - Accounting: for management and economic control;
  • Service X - Procurement: purchases and manages new materials and manages supplies of consumables, maintenance and spare parts; it also provides for the elimination, by sale or demolition, of what is no longer useful;

In addition there are organs with special skills, such as the Experimental Railway Institute, which carries out testing, applied technological research, consultancy and regulations both in the laboratory and in the external sector, also for third parties.

The general offices and production facilities, present throughout the national territory and the commercial representatives of the company abroad, depend on the central management. The territorial organization is divided into 20 Regional Compartments.