The Ferrovia Alta Valtellina (FAV) is a railway line in Italy which connects Sondrio, in

Valtellina Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; rm, Vuclina (); lmo, Valtelina or ; german: Veltlin; it, Valtellina) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Toda ...

, to

Tirano Tirano ( lmo, Tiràn, german: Thiran) is a town in Valtellina, located in the province of Sondrio in northern Italy. It has 9,053 inhabitants (2016) and is adjacent to the Switzerland-Italy border. The river Adda flows through the town. Main s ...

in Alta Valtellina (Upper Tellina Valley). The railway company was established in 1899 and the line opened in 1902. Many railways in Italy were nationalized in 1905 but the Ferrovia Alta Valtellina escaped and was not nationalized until 1970.

History

In 1899 a company was established for the Alta Valtellina Railway (FAV) with the aim of connecting Sondrio with Tirano. It obtained the concession in August of the same year and started construction work. The line, called the Alta Valtellina, was a natural continuation of the Valtellina Line ( Sondrio-

Lecco Lecco (, , ; lmo, label= Lecchese, Lècch ) is a city of 48,131 inhabitants in Lombardy, northern Italy, north of Milan. It lies at the end of the south-eastern branch of Lake Como (the branch is named ''Branch of Lecco'' / ''Ramo di Lecco''). ...

) and the service was inaugurated on 29 June 1902. Initially it was operated by steam traction using four

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting v ...

steam locomotives. Numbers 1-3 were 0-4-0T and number 4 was a 0-6-0T of the Prussian T 3 type. Three more Prussian T 3s, numbers 5-7, arrived later. FAV No.6 is preserved. On 1 July 1908, the Tirano-St.Moritz line was activated by the Swiss private company Berninabahn (now part of the

Rhaetian Railway The Rhaetian Railway (german: Rhätische Bahn; it, Ferrovia retica; rm, Viafier retica), abbreviated RhB, is a Swiss transport company that owns the largest network of all private railway operators in Switzerland. Headquartered in Chur, the Rh ...

) which allowed the connection of the Upper Tellina Valley with the Swiss slopes of the region.

Electrification

In 1932 the line was electrified using the same three-phase system as the Ferrovia della Valtellina. Four

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or g ...

s were used and they became FAV Class E.440. Numbers 1-3 were built by Costruzioni Elettro Meccaniche di Saronno (CEMSA). Number 4 was built by Tecnomasio Italiano Brown Boveri (TIBB). In 1967, due to the declining popularity of three-phase traction, the line was de-electrified and operated by diesel-powered trains of type ALn 556 chartered from

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. ( "Italian Railways of the State"; previously only Ferrovie dello Stato, hence the abbreviation FS) is Italy's national state-owned railway holding company that manages transport, infrastructure, real estat ...

(FS). In 1970, the line was nationalized and became part of the FS network. On 29 May 1980, electric traction was re-introduced using the 3 kV

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or eve ...

system. From 1981 the first direct trains from

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

were established.

Upgrade programme

In the mid-1980s, the line was the subject of a larger programme to upgrade the route from Milan for a cost of about 100 billion lire, which involved the activation of Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) between Sondrio and

, with a Central Manager in

Colico Colico ( Comasque: or ; la, Colicum) is a city in the province of Lecco, Lombardy, Italy. It is situated on the northern arm of Lake Como, where the river Adda enters the lake. Colico is the most important city in the northern part of Lake ...

. As part of this plan, in 1986 the stations of

Chiuro Chiuro ( Lombard: ''Ciür'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sondrio in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about east of Sondrio, on the border with Switzerland. As of 31 December 2004, it had a ...

, San Giacomo di Teglio, Bianzone and

Villa di Tirano Villa di Tirano is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sondrio in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about east of Sondrio, on the border with Switzerland. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of ...

were downgraded to halts.

Service reduction

Since 2008, train services have been progressively reduced from 19 to 13, and in June 2014 there was a further reduction. Currently, there are 9 daily services.

References

{{reflist Railway companies of Italy Railway lines in Lombardy