The Victor Emmanuel Railway (VER) was created on 25 May 1853 by decree of

Victor Emmanuel II Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title o ...

King of Sardinia The following is a list of rulers of Sardinia, in particular, of the monarchs of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica from 1323 and then of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1479 to 1861. Early history Owing to the absence of written sources, little ...

. After 1865 it took the name of Società per le Strade Ferrate Calabro-Sicule (SFCS). In 1867, the Savoy part of the system was transferred to the PLM. Between 1871 and 1873 the Italian part was incorporated into the

Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali The Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali ( Italian: ''Company for the Southern Railways'', ''SFM'') was an Italian railway company established in 1862. In 1885 it took the control of the so-called "Rete Adriatica" (''Adriatic Network'', '' ...

Overview

The Victor Emmanuel Railway (VER) was created on 25 May 1853 by decree of

. It was authorised to run through Savoy from

Culoz Culoz ( or ) is a former commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. On 1 January 2023, it was merged into the new commune of Culoz-Béon. Geography The town, which is situated on the right bank of the River ...

, at the boundary with

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, via

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chamb ...

and then through

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, from Susa to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

and onward to Buffalora at the boundary with Austrian territory. The Piedmont section was built by the VER itself. The Savoy section was built by

Thomas Brassey Thomas Brassey (7 November 18058 December 1870) was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about o ...

and various partners but quickly purchased by the VER. At the time both Savoy and Piedmont were ruled by Victor Emmanuel who was also

Duke of Savoy The titles of count, then of duke of Savoy are titles of nobility attached to the historical territory of Savoy. Since its creation, in the 11th century, the county was held by the House of Savoy. The County of Savoy was elevated to a duchy at ...

and soon to be

King of Italy King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader ...

. Victor Emmanuel was a

constitutional monarch A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

. He and his prime minister Count Camille Cavour were both keen to introduce railways in the interests of modernising and unifying

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 ...

. At the time Italy consisted of small states and many of these were under Austrian control but the King and his Prime Minister hoped to change this. The

section of the railway was completed in 1854. The Savoy section was completed to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in 1856. In between these two sections lay the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

. Work on a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

began in 1857 and the first traffic ran through it in 1871. In stages between 1859 and 1861, most of Italy was united under Victor Emmanuel but Savoy and

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

were ceded to France in return for her help. In 1862 the Savoy line was extended to

Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne (, literally ''Saint-Michel of Maurienne''; frp, Sin Mestyé) is a commune in the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. Geography Climate Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne has a ocea ...

and in 1867 the Savoy part of the system was transferred to the PLM. On the Italian side the line was transferred to the Piedmont State Railway. The Victor Emmanuel Railway Company had served its purpose and the work on the line was continued in partnership between France and Italy.

The Calabrian-Sicilian lines

The Victor Emmanuel Company obtained the concession for the Calabria-Sicilian lines by transferring to the State, under an agreement of 9 July 1863, its

- Susa and

Novara Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...

railway lines on payment of an annual income of Lire 2,226,000. The company, chaired by Carlo Laffitte, had been established with entirely French capital. When he obtained the concession for the construction and operation of the Calabrian-Sicilian railway lines, he replaced the Adami and Lemmi Company of the bankers Pietro Augusto Adami and Adriano Lemmi of Livorno. Adami and Lemmi had obtained the concession for the construction of the railways of southern and insular Italy by decree of the provisional government of

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

on 25 September 1860 but later met with opposition from the new Italian government. On 27 August 1863 he entrusted the construction of the new railway lines to Messrs Parent, Schaken and Co. which, on 25 September, subcontracted them to a further limited partnership formed by Messrs Vitali, Picard, Charles and Co. which had been established in Paris on 24 August 1862 and whose parenting partners were Parent, Schaken and Co. and the general partners Vitali, Picard, Charles, and Oscar Stevens. The latter company further subcontracted the construction of the railway trunk lines Alcantara - Catania and Catania - Syracuse, and the works of the Catania Central Station to the company Beltrami Gallone and Co. In 1866, unable to carry on the work for financial reasons, the Victor Emmanuel Company put the Company Vitali, Picard, Charles and Co. into liquidation. On 29 November 1866, the Victor Emmanuel Company made a new agreement with the General Enterprise for the construction of the Calabrian-Sicilian railway lines to continue the works of the Messina - Syracuse and the Palermo - Catania (40 km of the Termini - Lercara trunk line). At the same time the construction of the various sections of the Ionian line (from

Taranto Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...

to Reggio Calabria via

Metaponto Metaponto is a small town of about 1,000 people in the province of Matera, Basilicata, Italy. Administratively it is a frazione of Bernalda. History The town was built by the ancient Greeks to defend Sybaris from the growth of Taranto. A 1 ...

) was also carried out, which began in 1866 but ended in 1875 after the assignment to the

and direct financing by the state.

The economic collapse

The Victor Emmanel company, for various reasons related to the placement of shares on the Parisian market and in a liquidity crisis declared itself unable to continue the work undertaken on the Calabria-Sicilian lines in a further convention of 17 November 1867 with the Government of the Kingdom. The reason why foreign entrepreneurs (the capital was mostly French) were so interested in new infrastructure was determined by the fact that they could connect to sulphur-rich mining centres. At that time,

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

was the largest producer in the world of the mineral (a record that was to pass to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

a few decades later) and it was important to be able to transport it to the ports of embarkation in Palermo,

Porto Empedocle Porto Empedocle ( scn, 'a Marina) is a town and '' comune'' in Italy on the coast of the Strait of Sicily, administratively part of the province of Agrigento. It was named after Empedocles, a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of th ...

Licata Licata (, ; grc, Φιντίας, whence la, Phintias or ''Plintis''), formerly also Alicata (), is a city and ''comune'' located on the south coast of Sicily, at the mouth of the Salso River (the ancient ''Himera''), about midway between Ag ...

and Catania. Catering for the sulphur traffic sometimes led to tortuous routes and lengthening of the overall layout with negative long-term effects. At the turn of the 1870s, the construction of the lines had halted, owing to the economic difficulties of the company, and the State had to intervene, with its own capital allocations, and entrusted the works to the

Routes

;Lines granted initially Vittorio Emanuele railway track: concession for a line from Modane to Chambéry with fork to Saint-Genis-d'Aoste / French border and to Aix-les-Bains and Annecy to the border with the canton of Geneva. Built routes: * Aix-les-Bains-Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, October 20, 1856 * Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne-Saint-Innocent, 1857 * Saint-Innocent- Rhône (Chanaz), 1858. ;Lines acquired prior to the Unification of Italy * from Turin to Ticino (via Vercelli), 110 km. * from Turin to Susa, 53 km * Chivasso-Ivrea, 34 km * Santhià-Biella, 30 km * from Turin P.N to Turin P. Susa, 5 km * Vercelli-Valenza (via Casale), 42 km Overall, the network operated by the company was 274 km long ;Calabrian-Sicilian network: Lines built by Victor Emmanuel Lines of Sicily. The Palermo-Bagheria trunk, inaugurated on 28 April 1863, was the first trunk of the Calabrian-Sicilian network. * Messina-Catania, 96 km (inauguration 1866-1867) * Catania-Syracuse, 87 km (inauguration 1869-1871) * (Palermo) -Termini-Lercara Bassa, 76 km (opened.1863-1870) * Catania-Leonforte, 70 km (inauguration 1869-1870) Total Km. 329, built by the Victor Emmanuel company. ;Calabria lines Taranto-Metaponto-Crotone-Reggio Calabria. The works started in 1866 ended in 1875 after the State financed the completion and entrusted it to the

. ;Calabrian-Sicilian network (lines completed or built by the state) In total 220 km, built in Sicily with state funding (completed after the failure of the Victor Emmanuel company) by the Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali. * Palermo-Porto station, 6 km * Lercara-Girgenti-Porto Empedocle, 67 km * Leonforte-Caltanissetta-Canicattì-Licata, 118 km * Campofranco-Serradifalco, kilometers 29 * Section Caltanissetta Centrale-Canicattì Station, 26 September 1876 * Route Santa Caterina - Santa Caterina Xirbi (Station of Caltanissetta Xirbi from 1927 onwards), 8 April 1878 * Section Canicattì - Favarotta, 23 May 1880 * Section Canicattì - Aragona Caldare, 3 November 1880 * Section Favarotta -Licata, 24 February 1881 * Marianopoli Gallery between Roccapalumba and Xirbi, 1 August 1885

Rolling stock

At the time of the inauguration of the first Sicilian trunk line, Palermo-Bagheria (28 April 1863), there were three

steam locomotives A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

named Archimede, Diodoro and Novelli, built by Ansaldo. These machines, numbered SFCS 1-3 were, in 1885, sold to the

Rete Mediterranea Rete Mediterranea (RM) defines that part of the Italian railway network that, under the law of 27 April 1885 no. 3048, was assigned to the Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo for operation and development. These were mainly lines fro ...

which numbered them RM 2764–2766. They finally became part of FS Class 113 of the

Ferrovie dello Stato 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 ...

Recent information

For more recent information see the articles on the

Culoz–Modane railway The Culoz–Modane railway (sometimes called Ligne de la Maurienne) is a long railway running from Culoz, near Chambéry, through Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Modane in France. Together with the Italian Turin–Modane railway it is often called "F ...

and the

Turin–Modane railway The Turin–Modane railway is the international rail connection from Turin, Italy to Modane, France. It passes through the Susa Valley and the Fréjus Rail Tunnel. Together with the French Culoz–Modane railway it is often called "Fréjus Rail ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Mountain railways Standard gauge railways in France Railway lines in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Railway companies established in 1853 Railway companies disestablished in 1867 History of rail transport in Italy