96+908 Bologna Centrale 90+4906+433 Bologna San Ruffillo | 96+578 To Ancona) 5+205 Old line to Florence | |
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93+461 Bivio Crociali(Bologna ring railway) 83+763 Pianoro tunnel(10,841 m) | ||
The Bologna–Florence high-speed railway is a link in the Italian high-speed rail network. It is part of Corridor 1 of the European Union's Trans-European high-speed rail network, which connects Berlin and Palermo. Full commercial operations commenced on 5 December 2009. High-speed passenger trains take 37 minutes over the route compared to about 59 minutes previously.
The line's northern end is at Bologna Centrale railway station and it connects with the Milan–Bologna high-speed line and lines to Venice and Verona. Its southern end is at Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station and it connects with the Florence–Rome high-speed line. It is used by high-speed passenger trains, while some goods trains will continue to use the old Bologna–Florence railway, completed in 1934 and known as the Direttissima.
The line is 78.5 km long and includes 73.8 km of tunnels, 3.6 km on embankment or in cutting and 1.1 km on viaduct. From Bologna to Florence, the tunnels are:
Maximum rock coverage over tunnels is about 600 to 700 m. All tunnels are double track. Each tunnel has an intermediate access from the surface about every 5 km, except the Vaglia tunnel, which instead has a parallel service tunnel for about half of its length.
The construction of the line, including electrification, was completed in 2008 and testing of the line commenced in December 2008. The line was handed over to the rail network on 30 June 2009. The first commercial service occurred on 4 December 2009 and it was officially opened next day.
The line was estimated to cost €1 billion (1991 values in lire converted to euros), but ended up costing €5.2 billion (€67 million per km).