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History of the Piovene-Rocchette/Asiago railway line
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Up to the middle of the 19th century, the tableland of the seven municipalities was only linked to the valley by a cart track that made its way up to Cogollo del Cengio and by three stairways: the Calà del Sasso (4444 steps), the Piovega di Sopra (4480) and the Piovega di Sotto (5680), which acted as links with the Valsugana, Enego and Primolano.
To overcome the lack of adequate links with the valley, obliging the tableland to put up with counter-productive isolation, especially in the winter, in 1882 the wool industrialist, Alessandro Rossi proposed a rail link with the valley, charging the engineer Alfonso Crippa the with task of giving concrete form to the idea.
The first project (Arsiero via Pedelasca, Castelletto, Roana, Canove and arrival in Asiago after 32.35 km of track) was abandoned because of the length of the route and the high cost of the work.
Alessandro Rossi then called on the engineer Ferdinando Shacke, an export in mountain railways, who presented the project for the Piovene-Rocchette/Asiago line, 21.19 km long, with 5.76 km of cog railway track. The project was approved on 15/07/1907 and work began immediately afterwards.
On 10/01/1910 the line was officially inaugurated, thus ending the long isolation of the tableland. A fundamental role was played by the train during the two world wars, as it allowed troops and arms to be transported, but also the moving of evacuees.
In 1958 the definitive closure of the railway service was decreed, due to high management costs and competition from the "SITA" bus service. Subsequently, the whole track was dismantled and the locomotives were demolished; only the level-crossing lodges and the stations remained standing, with the exception of Cesuna station, which was knocked down.After 48 years this was thus the end of a praiseworthy service of very high social value, managed with skill and sacrifice by all staff of the railway. |
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