Ferrovie del Sud Est - Italian South East Railway

[davetheguard]

I've just finished reading Tim Park's excellent book "Italian Ways On & Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo"; not a railway book as such, more a book describing lots of journeys by train, and how Italian railways reflect Italian culture.

In the last chapter, he visits Lecce in the heel of the Italian boot, and comes across a local network of lines not run by Trenitalia; they are operated by the Ferrovie del Sud Est.

Neither he, nor I had heard of this railway company before; I've had a look at their website and they seem to run quite a few lines, but trains don't seem particularly frequent.

Does anyone have any pictures of this railway to share; or details of their rolling stock; history; which of their lines is the most scenic etc.?

We have been thinking about visiting this part of Italy by train next year; so it would be interesting to build at least one trip with this small local operator in to our itinerary.......

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

 

[Golghar]

I travelled extensively in Southern Italy back in 1991 and used the FSE for getting from Bari to Alberobello and thence via Martina Franca to Lecce. From Lecce I took an FSE train to Otranto and back. There are other regional railway systems in the region. I took the FAL from Bari to Matera and back and this line from Bari to Andria (for Castel del Monte) and back. Bari is a good base from which to explore all these lines.

 

[JB_B]

I'd never heard of these lines before either - The old Thomas Cook seemed to relegate the independent lines in this corner of Italy to a footnote even though, elsewhere, similar(ish) operations like the Circumvesuviana and Circumetnea had a table to themselves.

(This is a useful reminder to me to buy the new ERT ( http://www.europeanrailtimetable.eu/ ) now that it's been resurrected.)

By the way, I agree, 'Italian Ways' is an excellent read as are his other (surprisingly diverse) works- he's also very talented and peculiarly underrated novelist.

 

[W-on-Sea]

I first heard about this railway from reading the same book, too. And it does sound as though it might be an interesting way to get a flavour of life in a quite out-of-the-way and distinct part of the country.

I think the unfortunately acronymed FUC train (Ferroviale Udine-Civadale del Fruili), up near the border with Slovenia is probably my favourite private railway I've been on so far in Italy: it links two very interesting, and attractive,, and historic towns: and is rather cleaner, at least, than some of the branch lines on the national network. (The same can absolutely not be said of some of the hyper-vandalised private lines around Naples or Rome)

 

[johnnychips]

This is just another endorsement of Tim Parks' excellent book. Italy and trains and an intelligent, stylish writer...what more can you want?

 

[davetheguard]

I first heard about this railway from reading the same book, too. And it does sound as though it might be an interesting way to get a flavour of life in a quite out-of-the-way and distinct part of the country.

I think the unfortunately acronymed FUC train (Ferroviale Udine-Civadale del Fruili), up near the border with Slovenia is probably my favourite private railway I've been on so far in Italy: it links two very interesting, and attractive,, and historic towns: and is rather cleaner, at least, than some of the branch lines on the national network. (The same can absolutely not be said of some of the hyper-vandalised private lines around Naples or Rome)

We had a trip on the FUC back in March 2010. The weather on the coast in Venice was horrendous with snow & a really strong, biting cold wind.

So we escaped inland to Cividale via the FUC; as you say both towns are attractive. One surprise was that we bought our tickets for the FUC train at the station tobacconist's rather than the station ticket office.

 

[Trenitalia]

You can see many pictures about Ferrovie del Sud-Est at these links

Rolling stock
http://www.trenomania.org/fotogallery/thumbnails.php?album=70

Infrastructure
http://www.trenomania.org/fotogallery/thumbnails.php?album=71

miscellany about FSE, FG (Ferrovie del Gargano) and Ferrotramviaria, other local companies operating in Puglia.
http://www.trainzitaliafoto.com/showgallery.php?cat=3635

Ferrovie del Sud-Est is one of the most extended local railways network in Italy. The company operates in the centre-south Puglia and manages both trains and infrastructure. All trains are diesel.


FSE website

https://www.fseonline.it/default.aspx

I think that the most beautiful landscapes are in Salento, from Lecce to Gallipoli, Leuca and surroundings. But also from Bari to Lecce you can see beautiful landscapes. You have to pay attention at the timetable if you travel on Sunday or holidays, services are limited.

Bye

Fabrizio

 

[Photorail]

Hello everybody.

Check here some FSE pics:

http://www.photorail.com/phr2-le concesse/ferrovie_del_sud est.htm

On this forum there is also the fleet situation:

http://smf.photorail.com/index.php?topic=7962.0





Stefano