Ferrovie della Sardegna (FdS)
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)
The 950mm-gauge network: FdS operate ordinary passenger services over five lines:
* Cagliari Piazza Repubblica - Cagliari Monserrato - Mandas - Isili (77km)
* Macomer - Nuoro (58km)
* Sassari - Nulvi (35km)
* Sassari - Sorso (10km)
* Sassari - Alghero (30km)
Four more FdS lines are now used only by tourist trains, marketed as Il Trenino Verde della Sardegna (= the little green train of Sardinia):
* Nulvi - Tempio Pausania - Palau Marina (116km)
* Macomer - Bosa Marina (46km)
* Mandas - Arbatax (159km)
* Isili - Sorgono (83km)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 180ยบ 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.
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.
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