The Dolomites Railway (german: Dolomitenbahn, it, Ferrovia delle Dolomiti), originally the Ampezzaner Bahn or Ampezzaner Railway, was a railway in Northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

crossing the

Dolomites The Dolomites ( it, Dolomiti ; Ladin: ''Dolomites''; german: Dolomiten ; vec, Dołomiti : fur, Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form par ...

mountains. The long railway began in

Calalzo Calalzo di Cadore is a municipality of 2,400 inhabitants of the province of Belluno, in the Italian region of Veneto. The name ''Calalzo'' derives from the Latin ''altus callis,'' meaning "high place."Wikipedia Italia, Calalzo di Cadore The geo ...

and ended in

Toblach Toblach (; it, Dobbiaco ) is a ''comune''/''Gemeinde'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located in the Puster Valley about northeast of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Austria. Geography As of November 30, 2010, it had ...

. Its gauge was 950 mm — " Italian metre gauge". The

Cortina d'Ampezzo Cortina d'Ampezzo (; lld, Anpezo, ; historical de-AT, Hayden) is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomitic) Alps in the Province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the Boite river, in an alp ...

- Toblach part was closed in 1962 and the Cortina d'Ampezzo - Calalzo di Cadore in 1964. Two EMUs went to the Trento - Malè railway and are still in use. Other vehicles went to the .

Construction

The line was begun in 1916 to supply the military needs of the

White War The White War ( it, Guerra Bianca, german: Gebirgskrieg, hu, Fehér Háború) is the name given to the fighting in the high-altitude Alpine sector of the Italian front during the First World War, principally in the Dolomites, the Ortles-Cev ...

, when Italy attempted to annex the Austrian province of

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

. Both sides sought to construct railways to supply their troop operations among the peaks of the Dolomite range. On the Italian side a steam-operated 750mm

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

line was extended northwards from Calalzo towards Cortina, while in the north the Austrians built a 700mm gauge

feldbahn A , or , is the German term for a narrow-gauge field railway, usually not open to the public, which in its simplest form provides for the transportation of agricultural, forestry () and industrial raw materials such as wood, peat, stone, earth an ...

track southwards (with motive power from small

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic co ...

locomotives) from a military supply depot at Höhlenstein. After the general Italian retreat of 1917 the whole route came under Austrian administration but the situation was reversed at the end of the war, when Italy was handed the former Austrian province. The Italian government then completed the line using money provided as reparation by the Austrian side, where possible using the route of the respective military railways. The

ruling gradient The term ruling grade is usually used as a synonym for "steepest climb" between two points on a railroad. More simply, the steepest grade to be climbed dictates how powerful the motive power (or how light the train) must be in order for the run to ...

was 3.5% (1 in 29) with a

minimum curve radius The minimum railway curve radius is the shortest allowable design radius for the centerline of railway tracks under a particular set of conditions. It has an important bearing on construction costs and operating costs and, in combination with ...

of . Opening was on 15 June 1921. Electrification was achieved in 1929 at 2700V DC, with a single sub-station at Cortina.

Reopening

In February 2016 the regional governments of The Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige announced that they were to commission a feasibility study to build a new line between Calalzo, Cortina and Toblach but in May 2021 regional president

Luca Zaia Luca Zaia (born 27 March 1968) is a Venetian and Venetist politician, who has been President of Veneto since 2010. Prior to that, Zaia was President of the Province of Treviso from 1998 to 2005, Vice President of Veneto from 2005 to 2008 and M ...

announced that a line following the original route, while still under consideration, was not the most favoured solution. It is unlikely that the project will be completed in time for 2026, when the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

will return to Cortina.

Gallery

File:Treno al forte di landro.jpg, Northern end of the original military railway. The Austrian supply base is within the fort. File:Treno a carbonin.jpg, Carbonin station, between Cortina and Toblach File:Ponte sul Felizon2.jpg, Austrian military engineers' bridge over the Felizon river near Cortina File:Galleria di Pezovico.JPG, adjacent tunnel

References

{{Authority control Railway lines in Veneto Railway lines in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol Transport in South Tyrol 950 mm gauge railways in Italy 1921 establishments in Italy Railway lines opened in 1921