Our History
Towards the end of the 19th century, an administrator from Vico del Gargano, in an effort to persuade a Minister of Public Works to support a proposed Gargano railway project then under consideration, is said to have sent a cluster of eighteen oranges grown on a single branch, with a total weight of 8 kg, harvested from the citrus oasis that still produces high-quality PGI products today. The accompanying letter read: “…evidence of abundant production and wealth, which remains without value due to the lack of convenient and efficient transport routes.”
To tell the history of Ferrovie del Gargano, it is necessary to go back to those years, when the populations of the Gargano area began to call for a fast and reliable connection with the rest of the Capitanata and the country.
For centuries, the people of the “Mountain of the Sun” had been isolated from the rest of Italy, to the extent that Gargano could be reached only by sea. This represented a significant limitation for both travel and trade, further highlighted after the construction of the Bologna–Brindisi railway line, known as the Adriatic line.
Local committees were established to promote the construction of a railway line: they held public meetings and submitted several proposals, some of which were even approved, but all ultimately stalled due to the limited resources of the state budget. However, it was necessary to wait until the interwar period for something to start moving.
During the years of the First World War, the construction began of a military line intended to connect a seaplane base at “San Nicola Imbuti” on Lake Varano with the Bologna–Brindisi Adriatic railway line; this route was later incorporated into the San Severo–Peschici line.
On 17 September 1925, Mussolini signed the concession granted to the Sindacato per le Strade Ferrate, providing for the construction of a 75.7 km railway line connecting San Severo to Peschici, consisting of a 950 mm narrow-gauge railway with steam traction from San Severo to San Menaio.
Subsequently, Eng. Nicola Romeo (a Neapolitan entrepreneur and politician, later owner of the Alfa Romeo car manufacturer) took over in 1926 the original concessionaire, the Sindacato per le Strade Ferrate del Gargano, which had found itself on the brink of bankruptcy due to various circumstances. He transformed it into “Ferrovie e Tramvie del Mezzogiorno” (FTM), which became “his” railway and into which he invested his greatest efforts.
Romeo requested and obtained authorization to modify the project: the line was converted to standard gauge (1,435 mm), the terminus was moved to the Calenella plain, and operation was set to electric traction at 3,000 V DC—a system that had been introduced that same year on the Foggia–Benevento line—resulting in a slightly longer route of 79 km.
Changes these aimed at creating continuity between the Adriatic and Garganic lines by allowing, as is still the case today, direct connections to Foggia without transshipment.
The laying of the first tracks began in 1930, partly using the remains of the military railway connection. The works, entrusted to the Pietro Cidonio company, were completed almost a year ahead of schedule, allowing the official inauguration to take place on 27 October 1931, with a ceremony at Rodi station.
The first official run left Rodi Garganico station for San Severo in the presence of one of the highest authorities of the time, Costanzo Ciano Count of Cortellazzo then Minister of Communications.
The inaugural run, however, took place with steam traction, as testing of the electric line had not yet been completed. On 15 November 1931, the railway was officially opened to the public and operated with electric traction.
After World War II, the company “Ferrovie e Tramvie del Mezzogiorno,” on the verge of bankruptcy, passed into the hands of the Scarcia family, which formed the present “Ferrovie del Gargano” in Bari by Dr. Sante Scarcia and his son Dr. Vincenzo Scarcia. The Ftm in the person of its president, Eraldo Ribourt, who succeeded Nicola Romeo, ceded the concession of the Gargano Railway to “Ferrovie del Gargano srl” in 1962.
From those years on, hands were set on the revitalization of the company with a series of initiatives aimed at giving a new impetus to rail transportation in the Promontory.
Today, the company is the most important public transport operator in the Capitanata area. It operates not only as the infrastructure manager of the San Severo–Peschici and Foggia–Lucera railway lines, but also as a railway undertaking, providing services on the RFI lines San Severo–Foggia–Bari under the service contract signed with the Apulia Region.
Since July 2009, it has also operated the Foggia–Lucera line.
Gargano Railways has also developed over the years a dense network of urban and intercity road connections, including nationwide services from the centers of the Gargano promontory to major Italian cities.
The road transport division is part of the Cotrap (Consortium of Transport Companies of Puglia) consortium.
