Milano Centrale railway station


Milano Centrale is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Northern Italy, and is the second busiest railway station in Italy for passenger flow and the largest railway station in Europe by volume.
The station is a terminus and located at the northern end of central Milan. It was officially inaugurated in 1931 to replace the old central station, which was a transit station that could not handle the increased traffic caused by the opening of the Simplon Tunnel in 1906 due to the old station's limited number of tracks and space.
Milano Centrale has high-speed connections to Turin in the west, Venice via Verona in the east and on the north–south mainline to Bologna, Rome, Naples and Salerno. The Simplon and Gotthard railway lines connect Milano Centrale to Basel and Geneva via Domodossola and Zürich via Chiasso in Switzerland.
Destinations of inter-city and regional railways radiate from Milano Centrale to Ventimiglia, Genova, Turin, Domodossola, Tirano, Bergamo, Verona, Mantua, Bologna and La Spezia.
The Milan suburban railway service, however, does not use Milano Centrale but the other mainline stations: Porta Garibaldi, Cadorna and Rogoredo.
Architect Aldo Rossi declared in an interview of February 1995 to Cecilia Bolognesi: "They told me that when Frank Lloyd Wright came to Milan, and he came only once, he was really impressed by it and said it was the most beautiful station in the world. For me it is also more beautiful than Grand Central Station in New York. I know few stations like this one".

History

The first Milano Centrale station opened in 1864 in the area now occupied by the Piazza della Repubblica, south of the modern station. It was designed by French architect Louis-Jules Bouchot and its architectural style was reminiscent of Parisian buildings of that period. The station was designed to replace Porta Tosa station and Porta Nuova station and was interconnected with all lines, either existing or under construction, surrounding Milan. It remained in operation until 30 June 1931, when the current station was opened. There is now no trace of the old station left.
King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy laid the cornerstone of the new station on 28 April 1906, before a blueprint for the station had even been chosen. The last, real, contest for its construction was won in 1912 by architect Ulisse Stacchini, who titled his project "In Motu Vita," meaning "Life in Motion" in Latin. His proposal was given unanimous approval by the commission gathered to judge the competition. The purported style was an eclectic mix called "Assyrian-Lombard."
Due to the Italian economic crisis during World War I, construction proceeded very slowly. Stacchini made multiple revisions to the project, mainly to quell concerns by the Milan city government about high construction costs. Benito Mussolini's ascension to the position of Prime Minister was the catalyst behind the resumption of work in 1925, as multiple public works projects were accelerated in order to bolster the reception of the Fascist government's ability to effectively manage national projects. The major changes were the new platform types and the introduction of the great steel canopies by Alberto Fava; long and covering an area of.
Construction resumed in 1925, and on 1 July 1931 the station was officially opened in the presence of Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano.
The station played a major role during the Holocaust in Italy, when Jewish inmates from the San Vittore Prison, previously captured in northern Italy, would be taken to a secret track, Binario 21, underneath the station to be deported to extermination camps. Altogether, 15 deportation trains with 1,200 prisoners left the station from Binario 21. A Memoriale della Shoah was opened at the former platform in January 2013 to commemorate these events.
Its façade is wide and its vault is high, a record when it was built. It has 24 platforms. Each day about 330,000 passengers use the station, totaling about 120 million per year.
The station has no definite architectural style, but is a blend of many different styles, especially Liberty and Art Deco, but not limited to those. It is adorned with numerous sculptures. "The 'incongruous envelope of stone' of this gigantic and monumental building dominates Piazza Duca d'Aosta."
On 25 September 2006 officials announced a €100 million project, already in progress, to refurbish the station. Of the total cost, €20 million has been allocated to restore "certain areas of high artistic value" while the remaining €80 million will be used for more general improvements to the station to make it more functional with the current railway services. The project includes moving the ticket office and installing new elevators and escalators for increased accessibility.
There remain unrestored and inaccessible areas to the public within the station, including a waiting room with swastikas on the floor designed to receive Adolf Hitler.

Train services

The station has 24 tracks. Every day about 320,000 passengers pass through the station using about 500 trains, for an annual total of 120 million passengers.
The station is served by national and international routes, with both long-distance and regional lines. Daily international destinations include Basel, Lugano, Geneva, Zürich, Paris, Vienna, Marseille and Munich. The station is also connected to Milan-Malpensa Airport through the Malpensa Express airport train.
The following services call at the station :

Domestic (High-speed)

  • High-speed train – Turin–Salerno
  • High-speed train – Milan–Bari
  • High-speed train – Milan–Venice
  • High-speed train – Turin–Salerno
  • High-speed train – Turin–Venice
  • High-speed train – Milan–Lecce
  • High-speed train – '''Milan–Bari/Taranto'''

    Domestic

For regional trains to Monza and Como from Milano Centrale, refer to the cross-border services. There is no train of the Milan suburban railway service at Milano Centrale station, except for two late-night S8 trains bound for Lecco, which serve the last passengers arriving with long-distance trains.
  • Airport train – Milan–Malpensa Airport
  • Intercity train – Milan–Lecce
  • Intercity train – Milan–Taranto
  • Intercity train – Milan–Livorno
  • Intercity train – Milan–Ventimiglia
  • Night train – Milan–Lecce
  • Regional train : Turin–Milan: Turin – Vercelli – Novara – Milan
  • Regional train : Bologna - Milan: Bologna - Parma - Piacenza - Lodi - Milan
  • Regional express train – Milan–Alessandria/Novi Ligure
  • Regional express train – Milan–Verona
  • Regional express train – Milan–Tirano
  • Regional express train – Milan–Mantua
  • Regional express train – Milan–Bergamo
  • Historic train : several routes, to Paratico-Sarnico, Verona, Laveno-Mombello, Mortara, Cremona etc...

    Cross-border (Night train)

The following night train was rerouted in 2020 to include stops at Milano Lambrate railway station and Milano Porta Garibaldi railway station:
  • Night train – Milan–Munich/Vienna
† At Verona, this train connects with the ÖBB Nightjet / EuroNight Rome–Vienna service. The combined formation is split as follows:
  • One half couples with the ÖBB Rome–Vienna and continues toward Vienna or Rome.
  • The other half proceeds to Munich or Milan.
The Vienna–Rome direction operates similarly, with one half continuing toward Rome or Vienna, while the other couples with the service to Milan or Munich.

Cross-border

After the opening of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in December 2016, train services between Milan and Switzerland increased in frequency. All SBB-CFF-FSS EuroCity trains now save approximately 35 minutes in total journey time between Bellinzona and Arth-Goldau.
Since December 2017, a new cross-border service, the Milan–Frankfurt EuroCity via Zürich has been operational.
On 18 December 2021, a new Paris–Milan high-speed service was introduced, operated by Frecciarossa.
Current major international train connections include:
  • Regional express train – Milan–Locarno
  • EuroCity – Geneva–Milan/Venice
  • EuroCity – Basel–Milan
  • EuroCity – Zürich–Milan
  • EuroCity – Lucerne–Milan
The station is the terminus of the Milan–Paris Frecciarossa, which was inaugurated on 18 December 2021.

Platforms

The station, along with Roma Termini and Firenze Santa Maria Novella, has security gates, normally free flowing, though supervised by agents.
Each platform is usually dedicated to a specific route. The current organization is as follows :
  • Platforms 1–3: Chiasso / Domodossola / Milan–Turin, Milan–Malpensa airport train
  • Platforms 4–6: Turin / Milan–Como–Arth Goldau–Basel / Zürich
  • Platforms 7–13: Venice / Udine
  • Platforms 14–17: Bologna–Florence–Rome–Naples
  • Platforms 18–23: Genoa–Livorno / Ventimiglia / Parma / Cremona–Mantua / Milan–Treviglio–Bergamo
  • Platform 24: Operations

    Unusual track layout

On the northern side of the railway yard, there used to be a loop curve so that trains could turn around and reverse back into the station. The trains could so be displaced from the left side of the station to the right side and vice versa without crossing all the tracks. The tracks on the loop curve are now partially broken up.

Images