The railways of Sardinia
This page was updated on 25 November 2003.
1] Ferrovie della Sardegna (FdS)
1.1] It is a queer railway. I would like to know who made it. It pelts up hill and down dale and round sudden bends in the most unconcerned fashion, not as proper big railways do, grunting inside deep cuttings and stinking their way through tunnels, but running up the hill like a panting small dog, and having a look round, and starting off in another direction, whisking us behind unconcernedly. (D H Lawrence, writing of his journey to Sorgono, in Sea and Sardinia, 1921)
1.2] The 950mm-gauge network: FdS operate ordinary passenger services over five lines:
1.3] Ordinary passenger services: FdS lines have typical Italian branch-line timetables, with a few early morning trains, a long gap mid-morning to lunchtime and then a rather more regular service during the afternoon. Only the Sassari - Alghero line has trains on Sundays, and services to Nulvi and Isili are particularly sparse. A reasonably frequent service operates on the 7km Cagliari Piazza Repubblica - Cagliari Monserrato section to the edge of the city. Some trains from Cagliari run only as far as Dolianova, Senorbi or Mandas.
1.4] Infrastructure: The FdS lines used by ordinary services have seen quite extensive realignments, removing many of the sharper curves, while introducing heavier earthworks and/or steeper gradients. A number of major viaducts have been built on the Sassari - Sorso line. FdS stations remain mainly unmodernised.
1.5] Rolling-stock: Most FdS trains are formed of diesel railcars, but a few, particularly those used by schoolchildren, are locomotive-hauled. A small number of railcars were built in 1995-96 and are air-conditioned, but the majority date from 1957-59 and accommodation is somewhat basic. The diesel locomotives also date from the 1950s, and their carriages are even older. Most rolling-stock is covered in heavy graffiti.
1.6] Sassari metro: The Sassari - Sorso branch is to be electrified to form part of the Sassari Metropolitana, a light-rail scheme. Little progress is apparent since the report in 2002 (R.2258), but a track (not yet in use) links the FdS railway at Sassari with the tramway in the station forecourt. The southern terminus of the Metropolitana will be at Tratta Emiciclo Garibaldi. The light-rail vehicles will be maintained in the former railcar shed at Sassari FdS depot, so a short section of the Nulvi line is being electrified to access that.
1.7] Unusual track: Timetables imply that some trains continue from Alghero to Alghero Porto, but the service is in fact a connecting bus. The line to the port has entirely gone, except at the former level-crossing by Alghero station, where rails remain in the roadway. At Macomer, some trains run beyond the FdS station via a 180º curve to a bay platform at the FS station. However, trains advertised to run to the FS station may do so only if they are conveying any passengers booked through beyond Macomer.
1.8] Tourist trains: Traffic is growing in a most encouraging way. The Trenino Verde tourist trains carried 23,100 passengers in 1996 and 84,000 in 2002. Advertised Trenino Verde workings are all diesel-operated (due to the risk of fire in summer, but see Charters below). Station posters, brochures and the website http://www.treninoverde.com all vary as to exactly what trains operate, between which dates and on what days of the week during 2003. However, the following appear to have run:
1.9] Charters: FdS encourage charter traffic over their tourist lines and, unusually, publish a tariff for hiring trains. Railcars may be hired, but various historic carriages are also available for hire. These are securely stored and are therefore free of graffiti. Steam traction is available only for charters between November and March.
1.10] Attractions: Having threaded hills near Sassari, the Alghero line crosses a coastal plain, but otherwise the FdS lines run through scenic hilly countryside. At Riu Piatu the Palau line used by the Trenino Verde has been significantly realigned off the original masonry viaduct on to a new concrete one. Otherwise, the tourist-train lines appear unchanged. Those to Arbatax and Sorgono are particularly scenic, but extremely sinuous as they climb through the mountains. The Arbatax and Palau lines both have spirals. Sardegna is dotted with stone towers (rather like Scottish brochs) and other remains from the Nuraghic period c.1500BC. The tourist trains make special stops near Macomer, so passengers can visit a tower by the line, and near Nulvi to view the remains of a temple. At Tempio Pausania it is possible to visit the historic engine-shed, where the attraction is not the rolling-stock, but the machine-shop. This retains lathes, drills and other equipment, probably 100 years old and all belt-driven. The equipment is operated for the benefit of visitors, despite the complete lack of safety-guards.
1.11] Closed lines: Remains can be seen of some of the closed narrow-gauge lines. What appears to be the narrow-gauge station building stands on the north side of the FS line at Monti-Telti. This was the terminus of the original line to Tempio Pausania. An FS freight branch at Sanluri appears to be on the formation of the narrow-gauge line to Villacidro. At Tirso, on the line to Nuoro, a triangular junction and a stub of the branch to Chilivani remain. These are used for storage of withdrawn rolling stock. Embankments and bridges of the Ferrovie Meridionali Sarde can be seen from the FS train at Siliqua and Barbusi. The closed station at Bosa survives and the yard is full of withdrawn rolling stock. The building is still used by FdS staff.
1.12] Seven-day tourist pass: The Treno e Sardegna Carta Turistica Settimanale gives unlimited travel for seven days on FdS and FS trains (but probably not FdS Trenino Verde trips). Price is EUR50 (EUR40 for those of age 65 or over).
2] FS lines in Sardegna
2.1] Abortive electrification: The 17km of route between Cagliari and Decimomannu is a double-track line, with extensive sidings and a rolling-stock depot at Cagliari and loops at Cagliari Elmas. All is, apparently, electrified. Departing northwards, one could be deceived into thinking that this was the start of an important main line and that an Electrostar Italia might appear at any moment. Then the wires end at Decimomannu, the branch to Iglesias diverges and the main line has suddenly become single-track and non-electrified. Indeed, despite the presence of catenary, none of the line is electrified. FS electrification of the Sardinian network was cancelled at quite an early stage - though not before 25 electric locomotives had been built. As the 25kV 50Hz system was specified for Sardegna, the locomotives cannot be used on the mainland 3000V dc lines. Sardegna does not seem suitable territory for electrification, for except in the immediate area of Cagliari the traffic is not at all heavy. Talk of completing electrification from Cagliari to Oristano seems to have come to nothing. Catenary is in place from Villasor, which has a feeder station, to Sanluri, but this may well have been an initial trial length, for at the passing loops only one track has been electrified.
2.2] Cagliari - Decimomannu - Oristano - Macomer and Decimomannu - Iglesias: Cagliari - Oristano passenger trains are approximately hourly, with greater frequency into Cagliari in the morning and out in the evening. A less frequent service runs beyond Oristano to Macomer. An approximately hourly service also runs from Cagliari to Iglesias, but with longer gaps in the morning. Many of the trains from Cagliari to Iglesias, Oristano and Macomer are diesel-powered push-pull sets, but elsewhere on the island diesel railbuses suffice. The only locomotive-worked passenger trains north of Macomer are two round-trips from Cagliari to Sassari or Porto Torres.
2.3] Villamassargia-Domusnovas - Carbonia Stato: The short Carbonia branch off the Iglesias line is of interest. Carbonia was a new town developed at the initiative of Italy’s Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in 1938 in connection with development of coal mines there. Sardinian coal proved to be of poor quality and the mines lasted less than 30 years, but the pit-heads still stand. Generous sidings were provided at Carbonia to handle the coal traffic. In 2003 a railbus shuttles up and down, connecting with some of the Iglesias trains. One through train runs from and to Cagliari in the afternoon, this being a locomotive and push-pull set. The only other through train from Carbonia is in the morning, returning the railbus to the depot, before the long pause in service until lunchtime.
2.4] Macomer - Ozieri-Chilivani: The passenger service between Macomer and Ozieri-Chilivani, junction for Sassari and Olbia, is extremely sparse. It appears to cater for day-trips between Olbia or Sassari and Cagliari, and trains are timed to connect Cagliari with Porto Torres - Genova overnight ferries. For the most part, two or three railbuses in multiple are adequate for the traffic, and that is not entirely surprising. Cagliari - Sassari is 261km by rail, with the fastest train taking 3h20min. By road it is 210km, all dual-carriageway once outside Cagliari and Sassari. However, despite the limited use of the line, a lengthy tunnel has recently been brought into use south of Bonorva. It has been built to accommodate double track, but only one line has been laid. This is not a summit tunnel, but one that shortens, and steepens, the climb through the hills to Macomer.
2.5] Sassari - Ozieri-Chilivani - Olbia: Services are quite infrequent. Some are through Sassari - Olbia trains, but many are provided by means of connections with Cagliari trains at Ozieri-Chilivani. Some Ozieri-Chilivani - Olbia services are provided by bus. Ozieri-Chilivani is a station where nothing happens for hours at a time, then a flurry of activity begins as trains arrive and depart on all three lines, before peace descends. The town of Ozieri is some 10km from the station, and Chilivani would be a classic railway village in the middle of nowhere, but for the fact that it is also the site of Sardegna’s principal racecourse and stud. The back cover of the FS timetable booklet for Sardegna features a full-colour advertisement for the races, featuring the Derby Sardo, perhaps in the hope of encouraging traffic to this out-of-the-way place
2.6] Sassari - Porto Torres: This section has an extremely erratic service, some trains being a shuttle from Sassari and others coming from further afield. Apart from the Cagliari - Porto Torres (- Genova) boat-trains the timetable appears to be geared to the needs of scholars and people working in Sassari. Porto Torres has two stations, one called plain ‘Porto Torres’ and, a short distance beyond, the terminus ‘Porto Torres Piazza Cristoforo Colombo’. The latter was intended as the harbour station, but is used much more than ‘Porto Torres’, which is slightly further from the town-centre. Genova ferries used to leave from the harbour, just a short walk from Piazza Cristoforo Colombo, but now the vessels are too large and use a jetty in an industrial area almost 3km away. Buses link Cristoforo Colombo station and the ferry-berth.
2.7] Olbia - Golfo Aranci: This section is served almost exclusively by shuttle workings from and to Olbia, with very few through workings. The train-ferry at Golfo Aranci is reached via sidings beyond the passenger station, where trains reverse down to the harbour. Of the two train-ferry berths, only one appears to be in regular use. Passenger trains no longer serve the Marittima stations at Olbia or Golfo Aranci. Buses run from Olbia station to connect with ferries at both ports.
2.8] Freight: All rail freight reaches Sardegna via Golfo Aranci, but probably little of the traffic to and from the island is handled on rail. Most freight is likely to arrive through Cagliari’s large maritime container terminal, which has no rail connection, being on the other side of the estuary from the railway. Sidings and goods yards all over Sardegna are full of wagons, mostly vans, but these are almost all stored, their wheel-rims red with rust. Several container terminals exist, but only that at Sassari appears to see any significant traffic. Quarried stone blocks were noted on wagons at Monti-Telti and there was some evidence of wagon-load freight being handled at Sassari and Olbia.