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The Maria Antonia railway (Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

: Ferrovia Maria Antonia) is a line built between 1848 and 1859 connecting the Tuscan

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

 cities of Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Prato

Prato

Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is situated at the foot of Monte Retaia , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest altitude in the comune is 32 m, near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo...

, Pistoia

Pistoia

Pistoia is a city and comune in the Tuscany region of Italy, the capital of a province of the same name, located about 30 km west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno.-History:...

 and Lucca

Lucca

Lucca is a city and comune in Tuscany, central Italy, situated on the river Serchio in a fertile plainnear the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Lucca...

. The first section from Florence to Pistoia (which was in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence...

 at the time) was named in honour of Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies

Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies

Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies was Grand Duchess of Tuscany from 1833 to 1859 as the consort of Leopold II...

, wife of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Leopold II of Tuscany was the last reigning grand duke of Tuscany ....

, who had already been honoured in the naming of the Leopolda railway from Florence to Livorno

Livorno

Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...

. It is fully electrified

Railway electrification system

A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...

 at 3,000 V DC

Direct current

Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...

. Passenger traffic is managed 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:...

.

History

The young Duke Leopold II was a liberal and interested in developments in technology, so while leaving the initiative to the private sector, favored the birth of the first Italian railways. In the same period as the line Leopolda railway was being developed between Livorno and Florence, he developed the design and implementation of the Maria Antonia railway. In 1845 the memorandum and articles of association for a company to build the Maria Antonia railway from Florence to Pistoia and Prato were published.

On 3 February 1848 the line was opened to traffic between Florence and Prato, together with the Maria Antonia station, which eventually developed into Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. In 1851 it reached Pistoia. On 3 February 1859 a section of the line being built from Lucca connected with the line from Pistoia at the Serravalle

Serravalle Pistoiese

Serravalle Pistoiese is a comune in the Province of Pistoia in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 35 km northwest of Florence and about 8 km southwest of Pistoia.-History:...

 tunnel. This connected with the Pisa–Lucca railway, which had been opened by another company on 20 September 1846, opening up a new route from Florence to Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

 via Pistoia and Lucca. The Maria Antonia and Leopolda lines were separate in Florence until 1860, despite their stations being only a kilometre apart. They were in fact first connected via Lucca and Pisa.

The engineering works were very simple and devoid of significant structures as it was the least important of the lines in the grand duchy. It gained much importance in 1864 when, with the opening of the Porrettana railway

Porrettana railway

The Porrettana Railway is an Italian railway connecting Bologna to Pistoia and was the first line through the Apennines between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. It is also known in Italian as the Transappenninica...

, the section east of Pistoia became an integral part of the Bologna

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

-Florence main line. In 1934 the opening of the Bologna–Florence Direttissima, leaving the Maria Antonia line at Prato, relegated the line from Prato to Pistoia and its continuation to Lucca to a secondary role; similarly the Porrettana line’s role was also much reduced.

Current situation

The line between Florence and Prato has been quadrupled in recent years. In December 2009 the new Bologna–Florence high-speed line opened from a new junction with the Maria Antonia railway near Firenze Castello railway station, reducing traffic between Castello and Prato.

On 17 November 2008 the government approved a plan was to double the section between Lucca and Pistoia, estimated to cost €257 million. This will initially double the section between Pistoia and Montecatini Terme

Montecatini Terme

Montecatini Terme is an Italian district of 21,095 inhabitants within the province of Pistoia in Tuscany. The most important center in Valdinievole...

. Then the route through the Serravalle pass will be rebuilt with a new two-track tunnel with consequent abandonment of the current single-track tunnel. Finally then the section between Montecatini and Lucca would be doubled. Also planned is an underground station in Montecatini to allow the line to pass under the entire village. It is expected that work will be completed between 2012 and 2014 and that the line will then handle over 28 trains per day each way, including two fast trains per hour.