The S5 is a

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Downtown, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter r ...

way route forming part of the

Milan suburban railway service The Milan S Lines constitute the commuter rail system serving the metropolitan area of Milan, Italy. The system comprises 11 lines serving 124 stations, for a total length of 403 km. There are 415 trains per day with a daily ridership of a ...

( it, Servizio ferroviario suburbano di Milano), which converges on the city of

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 ...

, Italy. The route runs over the infrastructure of the Porto Ceresio–Milan, Milan Passante and Milan–Venice railways. Unlike all of the other Milan suburban railway service routes, which are operated by

Trenord Trenord is a railway company which is responsible for the operation of regional passenger trains in Lombardy. The company was established by the two main railway companies in Lombardy, Trenitalia and Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM), to manage train ope ...

, line S5 is operated by a joint venture comprising

Trenitalia Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, the company was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail tra ...

, Ferrovie Nord Milano Trasporti (FNM), and

Azienda Trasporti Milanesi The Azienda Trasporti Milanesi (ATM) is the municipal public transport company of Milan and 46 surrounding metropolitan municipalities. It operates 5 metro lines (see Milan Metro), 17 tram lines (see Trams in Milan), 121 bus lines and 4 trolle ...

(ATM), the public company responsible for public transport in the municipality of Milan and some of its surrounding municipalities.

Route

Varese Varese ( , , or ; lmo, label= Varesino, Varés ; la, Baretium; archaic german: Väris) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 has reached 80,559. It is the c ...

↔ Milano Passante ↔

Treviglio Treviglio (, Bergamasque: ) is a town and ''comune'' (i.e. municipality) in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, Northern Italy. It lies south of the province capital, in the lower territory called "Bassa Bergamasca". It's also part of the geo ...

Line S5, a

cross-city route A cross-city route is a public transport route linking one suburb (or satellite) of a city or town with another, usually relatively distant, suburb (or satellite). Such a route can be operated by various forms of public transport, including co ...

, heads initially in a southerly direction from

Gallarate Gallarate (; Lombard: ''Galaraa'') is a city and ''comune'' of Alto Milanese of Lombardy and of Milan metropolitan area, northern Italy, in the Province of Varese. It has a population of some 54,000 people. It is the junction of railways to ...

, and then southeasterly to Rho. From there, the line runs through the municipality of Milan, via the Milan Passante railway, to Milano Porta Vittoria, and finally in an easterly direction to

. The complete journey takes 2 hours and 7 minutes.Trenord timetable
/ref>

History

The S5 was activated on 12 December 2004, and operated initially between Varese and Pioltello-Limito. At that time, its operator was Trenitalia, under a two-year service contract with the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

of Lombardy. On 1 July 2008, responsibility for operating the line passed to a joint venture comprising Trenitalia, FNM and ATM. The joint venturers had won a tender that had been launched by the region in 2004, and had pledged to provide free transport of bicycles on public holidays. On the same date, 15 new TSR trains began to enter service. The regional administration had committed itself to offering these trains to the successful tenderer. On the occasion of the timetable change on 13 December 2009, the line was extended from Pioltello-Limito to Treviglio. In May 2011, as a result of the merger between the regional passenger division of Trenitalia and the FNM subsidiary LeNORD, the merged entity,

, took over the two railway companies' roles in the joint venture.

Stations

The stations on the S5 are as follows (stations with blue background are in the municipality of Milan):

Rolling stock

S5 trains are made up of a 3-car Treno Servizio Regionale (TSR) combined with a 5-car TSR, except on Saturdays and Sundays, when 3-car TSRs are used on some trains, and 5-car TSRs operate the remaining, more heavily patronised services.

Scheduling

, S5 trains ran every half-hour between 06:00 and 00:30 daily. Between 09:00 and 11:00, and between 21:00 and 00:30, some S5 services operated only between Gallarate and Treviglio.

References

schematic A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the key information the ...

depicting all stations on Line S5 ''This article is based upon a translation of the Italian language version as at November 2012.'' {{Urban rail transport in Milan Milan S Lines