Ferrara railway station
Encyclopedia
Ferrara railway station is the main station
Central station
A central station usually designates the principal passenger railway station of cities which have multiple stations. The central station functions as the main transport hub for rail transport, normally with interchange with other modes of public transport...

 serving the city and comune
Comune
In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

of Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

, in the region
Regions of Italy
The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....

 of Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna
Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants....

, northern Italy
Northern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...

. Opened in 1862, it forms part of the Padua–Bologna railway, and is also a terminus of three secondary railways, linking Modena with Ravenna and Rimini, Suzzara, and Codigoro, respectively.

The station is currently managed by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana
Rete Ferroviaria Italiana
Rete Ferroviaria Italiana is an Italian company fully owned by Ferrovie dello Stato . RFI is the owner of Italy's railway network, it sets train paths, provides signalling, provides maintenance and other services for the railway network...

 (RFI). However, the commercial area of the passenger building
Station building
A station building, also known as a head house, is the main building of a passenger train station. It is typically used principally to provide services to passengers.A station building is not to be confused with the station itself...

 is managed by Centostazioni
Centostazioni
' is a member company of Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato group. It was created to rehabilitate, develop and manage 103 medium sized Italian railway stations.-History:...

. Train services on the main line, and on the line to Ravenna and Rimini, are operated by Trenitalia
Trenitalia
Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. Trenitalia is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato, itself owned by the Italian Government. It was created in 2000 following the EU directive on the deregulation of rail transport.-Passenger transport:...

. Each of these companies is a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato
Ferrovie dello Stato
Ferrovie dello Stato is a government-owned holding which manage infrastructure and service on the Italian rail network. The subsidiary Trenitalia is the main rail operator in Italy.-Organization:Ferrovie dello Stato subsidiaries are:...

 (FS), Italy's state-owned rail company.

Train services on the other two lines, to Suzzara and Codigoro, are operated by Ferrovie Emilia Romagna
Ferrovie Emilia Romagna
Ferrovie Emilia Romagna is a secondary bus and railway company of Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy.The company was formed in 1997 by acquisition by the Emilia-Romagna region of four previous state-owned railway companies:...

 (FER), which is owned by the region of Emilia-Romagna and most of its provinces.

Location

Ferrara railway station is situated at Piazzale della Stazione, at the northwestern edge of the city centre, between Via San Giacomo and Viale della Costituzione.

History

The station was opened on 26 January 1862, together with the rest of the Bologna–Ferrara section of the Padua–Bologna railway. Three months later, on 15 April 1862, Ferrara was transformed from a terminal station
Terminal Station
Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...

 into a through station, when the next section of that railway, from Ferrara to Pontelagoscuro, came into operation.

Features

Today's passenger building, renovated several times over the years, has a central hall with a ticket office and waiting room. In its two lateral wings, there are a bar, restaurant, newsagent and tobacconist, and a bicycle storage area.

The station also has two underground pedestrian underpasses that connect the first track with the remaining 5 served by three platforms.

Outside the building, there are a taxi stand, the large parking area for bicycles (300 places), car parking (60 spaces), motorcycle parking (40 spaces), a two lane bus station for urban buses and, across the street, four bus stops for suburban buses.


Redevelopment work

Currently, the comune of Ferrara is working on the redevelopment of the station, including the insertion of a new roundabout access from Viale della Costituzione, the construction of public parking for bikes and cars and the addition of special shelters for urban buses.

The station is also affected by work on the extension of the Bologna metropolitan rail service (SFM), as it is to be a terminus of an SFM Ferrara–Bologna–Imola line.

Additionally, the station will be a terminus of a metro service, to be introduced in the urban section (as far as Quartesana) of the FER line to Codicote.

Passenger and train movements

The station has about 5 million passenger movements each year.

The passenger trains calling at the station include regional
Regional rail
Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city center, and the middle to outer suburbs beyond 15km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis...

, express, InterCity
InterCity
InterCity is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe...

, and Eurostar
Eurostar Italia
Eurostar Italia is a network of Italian high-speed inter-city trains, operated by Trenitalia . Trenitalia states that there are 130 train journeys per day....

 trains.

A total of about 220 passenger trains serve the station each day.

See also

  • Ferrara Porta Reno railway station
  • Ferrara Aleotti railway station
  • Pontelagoscuro railway station

  • History of rail transport in Italy
  • List of railway stations in Emilia-Romagna
  • Rail transport in Italy
    Rail transport in Italy
    The Italian railway system is one of the most important infrastructure in the country, with a total length of . The network is recently growing with the construction of the new high speed rail network....

  • Railway stations in Italy
    Railway stations in Italy
    Railway stations in Italy are maintained and operated by the RFI division of Ferrovie dello Stato Group. A minor part of them is operated by private and regional companies, conceded by the state.-Classification:...


External links

This article is based upon a translation of the Italian language version as at January 2011.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK