Vatican City railways question

[thenorthern]

Strange question but is the railway to Vatican City now open to a weekly passenger service? I think that I read somewhere that a new passenger service for tourists was introduced by the orders of Pope Francis but I am not sure where I read it.

Also is the line electrified as by the looks of it on Google Streetview that the viaduct leading to it is but that the station isn't?

Cheers to anyone who knows.

 

[deltic]

Some details of the train service are available on the Vatican website http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking&codiceTipoVisita=218&step=2

Apart from it leaving at 11am (each Sunday?) it is not possible to decipher many more details, the return service does not return to the Vatican

 

[30907]

Definitely not electrified in the Vatican (had a good look from the top of St Peter's last year) but looks to be electrified to just before the state boundary and used occasionally for FS purposes (see the unit on Googlemaps!).

 

[thenorthern]

By the looks of it the electrification does stop just before the wall with The Vatican probably because the Vatican Government thought that Catenary would look out of place and ugly within the Holy See. Maybe The Vatican is the ideal place for enthusiasts who don't like catenary.

Other than the "treno parlamentare" service introduced recently does any other regular traffic use the line to Vatican City such as freight traffic?

Isn't it strange how the 3 smallest Sovereign State in the world (Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru) all have working railways but countries such as Libya which is 7 times the size of the United Kingdom dosen't have any railways.

 

[ian959]

Isn't it strange how the 3 smallest Sovereign State in the world (Vatican City, Monaco and Nauru) all have working railways but countries such as Libya which is 7 times the size of the United Kingdom dosen't have any railways.

Does the mining railway on Nauru still run? Sorry for being OT...

 

[thenorthern]

Does the mining railway on Nauru still run? Sorry for being OT...

Yes it does although its not as busy as it used to be.

 

[duesselmartin]

what regular (freight?) traffic runs through the Vatican?

 

[30907]

what regular (freight?) traffic runs through the Vatican?

Pedant mode: none runs through as it's a terminus.

Seriously, apart from the special mentioned in post #2 there's no regular traffic at all.

 

[thenorthern]

what regular (freight?) traffic runs through the Vatican?

I know that the Clergy are allowed Duty Free so I think some of it might be Duty Free goods for them.

There is still freight traffic although as much as before cars became commonplace.