Ventimiglia railway station


Ventimiglia railway station is the main station of the Italian city of Ventimiglia. It is at the end of three rail routes: the Genoa–Ventimiglia line, the Cuneo–Ventimiglia line and the Marseille–Ventimiglia line. It plays an important role not only in rail transport in Liguria, but also in Italy. Despite being an important station, it is in some disrepair.
The station is currently managed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana. However, the commercial area of the passenger building is managed by Centostazioni. Italian train services to and from the station are operated by Trenitalia. Each of these companies is a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato, Italy's state-owned rail company.
French train services to and from Ventimiglia are operated by SNCF.

Location

Ventimiglia railway station is situated in Piazza Cesare Battisti, just north of the centre of the city.

History

The station was opened at the end of 1871 and renamed Ventimiglia International station in 1882, with the construction of a new passenger building, featuring a glass roof over the tracks. This roof was later superseded by the current building, designed by the architect Roberto Narducci, which reflects, like other public buildings in Ventimiglia, the typical lines of Italian rationalist architecture.

Overview

The station consists of seven through tracks for passenger services, all equipped with platforms and connections to an underpass. Also there are many sidings for storing passenger carriages and a locomotive shed.
Being a border station, passenger train operations have to be carefully managed, taking into account the handover of operations between the Italian and French railways. Trains depart from here to several different parts of Italy and France.
The station of Ventimiglia is electrified at 1.5 kV. This may seem surprising, because the Italian railway system is electrified at 3 kV DC, and the Marseille–Ventimiglia line is electrified at 25 kV 50 Hz AC. However, the locomotives operating on the line into France have to be multi-system anyway, because Marseille railway station is also electrified at 1.5 kV. The Italian trains operate in the station area at half power.

Train services

The station is served by the following service: