In the first article about the line from Cuneo to the sea we covered the length from Cuneo to Vernante. The article can be found here. [9]
The Line South from Vernante to Limone
A schematic drawing showing the main locations on the line from Vernante to Limone. [17]
Banaudo et al write that “It was only in 1886, after the creation of the Rete Mediterranea, that the work on the fourth tranche from Vernante to Limone was awarded. It was 8,831 m long and had a gradient of 203 m, which was to be compensated for by a continuous ramp of up to 26 mm/m. This value would not be exceeded at any other point on the line. On this section, the rail remained constantly on a ledge on the steep slope on the right bank of the Vermenagna, where it was anchored by eleven bridges and viaducts totaling sixty-three masonry arches, as well as nine tunnels with a combined length of 4,416 m, or just over half the route:” [1: p28]
the Tetti-Chiesa tunnel which is 122 m long;
the Elicoidale tunnel (the Vernante Spiral tunnel) is 1,502 m long;
the Rivoira viaduct has fourteen 15 m arches and one 23 m arch;
the Rivoira tunnel is 251 m long;
the Santa Lucia viaduct has three 12 m arches;
a short span masonry arch over a minor road;
the Santa Lucia-Noceto tunnel is 348 m long with two openings;
the Noceto viaduct has six 8 m arches;
the Marino viaduct has two 8 m arches and two 12.50 m arches;
the Marino tunnel is 202 m long;
the Mezzavia viaduct, three 11 m arches;
the Mezzavia tunnel is 444 m long;
the bridge over the Ceresole valley has two 10 m arches;
the Boglia tunnel is 1,086 m long;
the San Bernardo viaduct over the Sottana valley has two 6 m arches and three 10 m arches;
the Cresta-Molino tunnel is 335 m long;
the Boschiera viaduct has twelve 10 m arches;
the Rocciaia tunnel is 126 m long;
the Rocciaia bridge is a single arch;
the first Rocciaia viaduct has four 8 m arches;
the second Rocciaia viaduct has eight 8 m arches.
We start this next length of the journey at Vernante Railway Station and head Southeast.
A plan of Vernante Railway Station. [10]Vernante Railway Station: the route to Limone leaves at the bottom-right of this image. [Google Streetview, July 2025]The view Southeast from the station car park, after demolition of the old goods shed. The main station building features at the centre of the image. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The main station building at Vernante seen from the West. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Photographs showing the station building and the goods shed prior to its demolition can be seen here. [58] “Inaugurated in 1889, the station served as the terminus for the Cuneo-Ventimiglia line for nearly two years, until it was extended to Limone Piemonte. The passenger building features classic Italian architecture, with two levels. It is square, medium-sized, and well-maintained. Its distinctive feature is the two murals depicting scenes from the Pinocchio fairy tale, adorning its façade. The lower level houses the waiting room and self-service ticket machine, while the upper level is closed.” [58]
A photograph from the cab of a Cuneo-bound train arriving at Vernante. The passenger building is on the left with the goods shed beyond. [8]
The view from Via Frederi Mistral which passes over the tunnel mouth at the Southeast end of Vernante Railway Station. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The very short tunnel (Tette-Chiesa, 122 metres in length) at the Southeast end of Vernante Railway Station. [Google Maps, July 2025]
The southern portal of the Tette-Chiesa Tunnel seen from a Cuneo-bound train. Immediately beyond the far portal trains would have to stop to manually engage a point for the running line or the train would end up on the safety siding provided for runaways on the steep downward gradient. [8]
The large retaining wall on the left of this image supports the railway as it runs immediately adjacent to the E74/SS20 but at a higher level. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The height of the retaining wall decreases as the E74/SS20 gains height. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Banaudo et al comment: “Leaving Vernante, the track describes a complete spiral loop at Rivoira, which allows it to rise about fifty metres over a circular length of two kilometres. This loop includes the 1,502 m long ‘Elicoidale’ tunnel, which was completed on 30th December 1889, and the imposing viaduct over the Salet torrent. With its fifteen arches, from the top of which the rail dominates the lower level of the loop by 45 m, this structure can be considered by its proportions as the most imposing of the whole of line. [25] It is built entirely of cut stone, with the exception of the intrados of the arches which are of brick, and its seven central arches are reinforced at their base by a series of arcades forming an additional level, following a technique very popular in the 19th century.” [1: p30] The lower arcades are seen clearly in the 1929 postcard below.
This photograph is taken from the road at the point that the E74/SS20 begins to turn away from the lower railway (which can be glimpsed through the undergrowth) the viaduct high above both the road and the railway comes into view. This view looks North from the E74/SS20. A spiral tunnel allows the railway to gain height at this location. [Google Streetview, June 2025]This satellite image shows the portals of the Spiral tunnel to the East of Vernante. The line leaves Vernante Station and passes through a short tunnel before running alongside the E74 ‘Corso Torino’ to another tunnel mouth to the West of the side road. The line then climbs as it circles under that road twice and reappears high above the first length of line towards the top-left of this image. The height gained then means that the line needs to pass over a high viaduct before once again entering a tunnel (the Rivoira Tunnel) and then, at the bottom-right of the image, crossing another side valley on a bridge. [Google Maps, July 2025]OpenStreetMap shows the same location and illustrates the spiral tunnel quite well. [44]The lower portal of the spiral tunnel with the high viaduct (Rivoira Viaduct) visible to the left. [11]
The portal of the spiral tunnel at the top-left of the satellite image above, seen from a Cuneo,-bound train. Trains heading for Tende and beyond gained height while turning through 360 from the tunnel portal shown in the image immediately above. [8]
The Southeast portal of the short tunnel at the bottom-right of the satellite image above. This is the Rivoira Tunnel. [8]
The Santa Lucia viaduct just to the Southwest of Rivoira Tunnel. [8]
Between the Rivoira Tunnel and the Santa Lucia & Noceto Tunnel, the line crosses a minor road serving a few small hamlets. [Google Streetview,
The Santa Lucia & Noceto Tunnel runs diagonally across this extract from Google’s satellite imagery. [Google Maps, July 2025]
The Southeast Portal of the Santa Lucia & Noceto Tunnel seen from the cab of a Cuneo-bound train. [8]
The Noceto Viaduct to the Southeast of the Santa Lucia & Noceto Tunnel spans a local stream. [8]
This bridge is a short distance further Southeast. [8]
The Marino Viaduct further to the Southeast. All these views look towards Vernante and are taken from the cab o a Cuneo-bound train. [8]
The Southeast portal of the Marino Tunnel. [8]
Another viaduct over a short side valley to the Southeast of the Marino Tunnel, this is known as the Mezzavia Viaduct. [8]
The East portal of the Mezzavia Tunnel. [8]
Immediately to the East of the Mezzavia Tunnel the line bridges a stream before entering the Boglia Tunnel. The bridge spans the Ceresole valley. [8]
The view of the line looking West from Frazione Ceresole, above the West portal of the Boglia Tunnel. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The Boglia Tunnel carries the line around a significant curve. This is the South-southwest portal of the tunnel from the cab of a train which has recently left Limone. Trains from Cuneo enter the tunnel traveling East and leave in a south-southwesterly direction. Just beyond the South-southwest portal the line bridges another side road serving a number of hamlets. It is the San Bernardo viaduct over the Sottana valley. [8]
The bridge shown in the image immediately above is at the centre of this satellite image. The tunnel to the North-northeast is Boglia Tunnel, that to the South-southwest is Cresta Molino Tunnel. [Google Maps, July 2025]
Looking East along the Sottana Valley, it is difficult to believe that the San Bernardo Viaduct has two 6 m arches and three 10 m arches, it is so well camouflaged by vegetation. [Google Streetview, June 2025]Looking West along the road through the structure, it is possible to see three of the five arches. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The Cresta Molino Tunnel curves throughout its length (see below). Towards the South portal, it has an open gallery facing out into the valley. [8]
The Cresta Molino Tunnel curves form a South-southwest bearing to just to the East of South along its length. The gallery shown above is at its southern end. [Google Maps, July 2025]
The South portal of the Cresta Molino Tunnel is the South end of the gallery. [8]
After a very short length of track open to the elements, the line enters another short tunnel, the Rocciaia Tunnel. This tunnel is also on a curve with the line leaving the tunnel heading Southeast. [Google Maps, July 2025]
The Southeast portal of the Rocciaia Tunnel. After this tunnel the line crosses a bridge and two viaduct on its way into the station at Limone. [8]
The length of the line from Rocciaia Tunnel to the station throat at Limone is shown on the satellite image below. The parapet railings associated with the Rocciaia Bridge can be seen on the image of the South portal of the tunnel above. There are then two viaducts, as shown on the satellite image below. They cast shadows onto the valley side to the east of the line.
The bridge mentioned above, seen Looking Northwest from the cab of a Cuneo-bound train. [8]The viaduct immediately to the North of Limone Railway Station, also seen looking Northwest. [8]
Limone Piemonte as shown on OpenStreetMap. Note the bridge at the South end of the station site and the tunnel that trains enter soon after crossing that bridge. [18]
The good shed at Limone Station with the passenger facilities beyond. This image is a still from a video taken from a train heading for Breil-sur-Roya. [31]
Limone Railway Station as it appears on Google’s satellite imagery. [Google Maps, July 2025]
Looking North from the end of Via Colonello Domenico Rosetto.The goods shed is close to the centre of this image. [Google Streetview, June 2025]Limone Railway Station building and forecourt. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
A few more photographs of Limone Railway Station can be found here, [22] here, [23] and here. [24]
Express services took 1 hour 30 minutes to travel from Cuneo to Limone, mixed goods and passenger trains were scheduled to take 2 hours. Services from Limone to Cuneo were scheduled for 1 hour 20 minutes and 1 hour 50 minutes respectively [1: p31]
Banaudo et al tell us that a single third class ticket between Cuneo and Limone cost 1.65 lire. The service was deemed to be a local service and as a result the RM allocated older stock to the line, “consisting mainly of single-axle coaches, side door stock, and brake vans acquired from other companies. Traction was provided by 030 [in the UK these would be 0-6-0] locomotives coupled to two- or three-axle tenders, from the RM 3201 to 3550 series (future 215 FS Class),” [1: p31] out-stationed to the Cuneo shed by the Turin Shed. These locos had a range of different manufacturers in Italy, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Austria and Germany. [1: p31]
The construction costs for the length of line from Cuneo to Limone “did not exceed 10 million lire, a remarkable figure given the difficulty of the work and the number of engineering structures completed over nine years: nineteen bridges and viaducts, fourteen tunnels, and a large number of culverts, aqueducts, road overpasses and underpasses, and level crossings. The buildings of the seven stations are of classical design, conforming to the standard plans with hipped roofs used in Italy, as are the twenty-four ‘caselli’, roadside houses, distributed along the line near the level crossings and the main underpasses to house the track maintenance workers and their families. The bridges and viaducts, with the exception of two brick structures, are made of stone masonry with brick arch vaults and metal angle railings. The single track tunnels are lined with brick vaults and dressed stone portals, except where the solidity of the ground allows the exposed natural rock to be preserved.” [1: p32]
Banaudo et al note that “the first years of operation were not easy, … snow and falling rocks sometimes hampered train traffic. On 2nd October 1898, following torrential rains in the high valleys of Piedmont, the Gesso overflowed and the bridge between Boves and Borgo-San-Dalmazzo was destroyed. By December, the installation of a temporary wooden bridge by contractor Salvatore Vignolo of Genova-Sampierdarena allowed service to be restored. A permanent structure would be rebuilt the following year in the form of a single-span 74-metre steel truss bridge.” [1: p32]
Limone to Vievola: Crossing the Col de Tende
The next length/tranche running South from Limone was 10.5 kilometres long and extended the line from Limone to Vievola(in the valley of the River Roya).
Looking into Limone Railway Station from the tunnel mouth South of the Station. A short two-span bridge
At the South end of the Limone Station site the railway bridged Piazza Risorgimento/Viale Valleggia at the East end of Piazza Risorgimento and the River San Giovanni (Valleggia Torrent) on two adjoining bridges. [Google Maps, July 2025]The two bridges carrying the railway over both the road and the river. [Google Streetview, August 2011]
Omitting mention of the section of the bridge over the road, Banaudo et al tell us that, leaving Limone Station, “the line crosses the San Giovanni valley … on a 13-metre masonry single-arch bridge, then enters the 423-metre-long Limone Tunnel which passes under the San Secondo hill. A 26 mm/m gradient leads to the tunnel under the ‘Colle do Tenda’ … where the gradient eases to 2 mm/m as far as the highest point on the line, 1040 [metres above sea level, in the tunnel]. From this point a 14mm/m gradient extends to the South portal of the tunnel … at 990 [metres above sea level]. At the Southern end of the tunnel, … a single-span 19.90 m steel truss bridge crosses the Roya River. … A short 25 mm/m slope then leads to Vievola Station.” [1: p34]
The railway is protected by two galleries at the South end of Limone Tunnel. The first effectively extends Limone Tunnel southwards. This is the South portal seen from a train approaching Limone Railway Station. [8]
Also seen from the South from the cab of the same train, this is the South portal of the Short second gallery. The gallery entrance to the tunnel above can be seen only a very short distance beyond this gallery to the North. [8]
A level-crossing on the line just to the South of the galleries illustrated above and also seen from a Limone-bound train. [8]
The northern approach to the tunnel under the Col de Tende as it appears on Google’s satellite imagery. Sadly, the tunnel mouth, in the top-left quadrant of this image, is in shade. [Google Earth 3D, July 2025]
Open Streetmap shows the line heading South into the tunnel. [32]
This image shows the North Portal of the tunnel under the Col de Tende. It is taken from the cab of a train heading for Breil-sur-Roya in the late 20th century. [31]
Interestingly, the two tunnels on this length of the line are large enough to accommodate two tracks – this facilitates ventilation but also allows room for expansion should traffic levels later require it. [1: p34]
Another schematic drawing which this time shows the main locations on the line from Limone to Vievola. [17]
While all the previous construction tranches ended up in populated locations, Vievola was just a place name in the commune of Tende with a few farms and a chapel dedicated to the Visitation of the Madonna scattered in a small green area at the confluence of the Roya and the Dente rivers. Nowhere was available to house workers on the railway. So before works began at the southern end of the tunnel under the Col de Tende, the contractor had to construct a temporary village.
After initial surveys were completed late in 1889, tunneling under the Col de Tende began at both ends. Banaudo et al explain that the 8.1 kilometre tunnel passed through various different strata: “Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous limestone, Permian quartz, Liassic marly schists and Eocene sandstone. The work progressed normally until September 1893, when the works reached a dislocated gneiss bed interspersed with clayey layers made fluid by the infiltration of water from the Roya, whose bed passes three times above the axis of the tunnel. Soon, mud floods invaded the approach tunnel with each attempt to advance over the course of ten months. The working face advanced only a dozen meters, while some forty flows of various materials obstructed the tunnel, sometimes over a length of 40 metres, while the vault suffered as much as 1.7 metres subsidence in places.” [1: p32][33]
The works from the South were suspended in July 1894 about 1.6 km from the tunnel mouth. Attempts were made to divert ground water from the route of the tunnel with little success and a further collapse occurred in October 1894. [33]
Meanwhile, work progressed from the North until at about 2.7 km from the tunnel mouth ground water started entering the tunnel at a rate of 60,000 litres/minute. The bed of the River Royal above the tunnel began to collapse. The contractor admitted defeat and refused to continue work on the line. [1: p34][33]
After a few months delay and with the work now being undertaken by the state a renewed effort was made to take the work-faces forward. The solution was to bore the tunnel using compressed air drills inside a metal shield and with water being removed by a parallel collector channel. It took 470 days to progress the works beyond the difficult strata. Banaudo et al say that once work was 43 metres beyond the critical zone, the contract was handed back to the original contractor on 31st March 1896. The total delay was 34 months at a cost of 300,000 lire! [1: p34][33]
On 15th February 1898 at 1pm, the team working from the North end of the tunnel broke through the remaining rock to meet the team working from the South.Remaining contract works would mean that opening of the line between Limone and Vievola would not take place until 1st October 1900. [33][34: p116][1: p35]
When trains left the confines of the 8 kilometre tunnel their crews were probably grateful for the fresh air. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for the crews of steam engines on the line. Electrification could not come soon enough. “The tunnel was equipped with a two-wire contact line when the electrification of Cuneo Gesso – San Dalmazzo di Tenda line in three-phase alternating current 3.6 kV – 16⅔ Hz took place with electric traction starting from 15th May 1931.” [33][35: p171-172]
South of the tunnel, the railway crosses the River Roya before entering Vievola Railway Station.
This satellite image shows the line leaving the tunnel (at the very top of the image) and crossing La Roya (towards the bottom of the image). [Google Maps, July 2025]
It is not possible to see the tunnel mouth in this panoramic photograph taken from the E74 (D6204), nor is it possible to see the railway bridge over La Roya. The railway can be seen, as can the buildings close to the tunnel mouth on the East side of the line. The railway bridge over the river is behind the trees in blossom one a line from the camera to the red-roofed buildings. [Google Streetview, April 2008]As the E74 (D6204) descends along the valley of the Rya, the railway bridges it, adjacent to a road (off to the right of the picture) which serves Vievola Railway Station. [Google Streetview, October 2008]
The completion of the fifth contract still required the development of Vievola station. It was to be built on a large platform created using spoil from the tunnel works on a vast embankment formed from the tunnel spoil, with an underpass provided for the then SS20 (now E74/D6204) and shown above.
The approach to Vievola Railway Station from the South, as seen from the cab of a Northbound train. [8]
Banaudo et al tell us that, at the station, “The two platform tracks for passenger service were supplemented by two sidings and a dead-end track running alongside the goods shed and the military platform. At the western end of this section, a small wooden shed, an 8.50 m temporary turntable, a water tower, and two hydraulic cranes allowed locomotives to use this temporary terminus as they would at any terminus. In the same area, a wooden buffet building was built, which a shrewd manager, no doubt hoping to take advantage of the cosmopolitan movement of connecting passengers, dubbed a ‘restaurant’ in French.” [1: p40]
Vievola was a railway terminal for traffic to and from Piedmont and a hub for road connections onwards to Nice and Liguria. Banaudo et al point us to a magazine published in 1899, which mentions a trial of a steam-powered road vehicle which it was hoped would provide a service to Nice and the coast until such time as a railway was built. [1: p40][37] The service was a trial organised by the House of Ascenso et Cie, and ran from Vievola to Ventimiglia. The journey, lasted a total of six hours, including a 43-kilometre climb. The vehicles used were Scotte trains. The car wagon carries a 27-horsepower engine and seated 14 passengers; it also towed a second 24-seater wagon. [1: p40][38]
“Due to their slowness, the difficulties of driving cars on the narrow roads of the time and the damage caused to the cobbled and cylindered roads,” [1: p40] the ‘Trains Scotte’ were not a success, they probably did not circulate for more than a few months or weeks. ….
The next length of the line can be found here. [46]
RM 3201-3519 (FS 215)Locomotives
Banaudo et al tell us that throughout the 19th century and on into the 20th century passenger stock and freight wagons were unchanged. Improved 0-6-0 tender locomotives came available as they were delivered by the Breda and Mavag companies, these were more powerful and faster locomotives than the RM Nos. 3201 to 3519 (which became group 215.001 to 215.398 at the FS). They were given RM Nos. 3801-3868 (which became the FS 310 series).
Banaudo et al also comment that “genuine mountain locomotives made occasional appearances: these were 040s [ in UK annotation 0-8-0s] with a three-axle separate tender, series RM 4201 to 4487 (future series 420 FS), built from 1873 to 1905 based on an Austrian model by a dozen Italian, Belgian, German and Austro-Hungarian firms. These machines, reserved primarily for the main lines of the Alps and the Apennines, occasionally intervened on the Col de Tende line, during bridge tests for example. At this time, Cuneo still had no allocation of machines and those going up to Limone and Vievola were attached to the Torino depot and the Moretta shed, on the Cuneo Airasca line.” [1: p41]
An FS Class 420 locomotive. [41]
“In the early 1870s, the SFAI needed a locomotive suitable for heavy work on the most important mountain lines, such as the Giovi railway and the Turin-Modane railway, for which the 0-6-0 locomotives were becoming increasingly inadequate. The Ufficio d’Arte di Torino chose a 0-8-0 locomotive of the Wiener Neustädter Lokomotivfabrik (then known as “Sigl”), very similar to the Südbahn Class 35 a that it already produced.” [41][42: p190][43: p31]]
“The Class 420 was a typical long-boiler, inside-frame 0-8-0 locomotive of the era, that showed its Austrian derivation with its two-shutters smokebox door, and its outside Stephenson valve gear. The locomotives built before 1884 had the distinction of having curved foot plating over the wheels, while later units had straight foot plating and small splashers. Some of the locomotives were given a replacement boiler before 1914, but their performance remained mostly unchanged.” [41][43: p31]
“The first 60 locomotives were built by Sigl (from which they derived the nickname with which they were known for their whole career) for the SFAI. Production continued until 1890, from both foreign (such as Maffei) and Italian firms (such as Ansaldo and Breda), for a total of 189 locomotives; all these were divided in 1885 between the Rete Adriatica and the Rete Mediterranea. Building of further locomotives for the RM resumed in 1897, and continued until 1905, bringing the total of the Class to 293.” [41][42: p190-192]
References
Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 1: 1858-1928; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 2: 1929-1974; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 3: 1975-1986; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
Structures on the french side of the border would, when built, compete with the dimensions of the Rivoira Viaduct. The Eboulis Viaduct is 270 metres long and the bridge at Saorge is 60 metres high. However, the combination of these two dimensions (length and height) makes Rivoira Viaduct the most imposing on the line.
Franco Collidà; 1845-1979: the Cuneo-Nice line year by year; in Rassegna – Quarterly magazine of the Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo , No. 7, September 1979; p12-18.
Franco Collidà, Max Gallo & Aldo A. Mola; “Cuneo-Nizza: History of a Railway; , Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, Cuneo (CN), July 1982.
Industrialist Joanny Scotte, originally from Epernay in the Marne department, began his business in the mid-1880s producing steam-powered cars. From 1897, he offered road trains consisting of a tractor or a steam-powered car, pulling one or more trailers designed for the transport of passengers or goods. These vehicles travelled on roads using solid tyres. They never really went beyond the experimental stage due to their slowness, the difficulties of driving the vehicles on the narrow roads of the time and the damage caused to the cobbled and cylindered roads. [1: p40] Scotte road train services were reported in the last decade of the 19th century in the Île-de-France region (Fontainebleau, Pont-de-Neuilly, Courbevoie), in the Aube region (Arcis-sur-Aube – Brienne-le-Château), in the Manche region (Pont-l’Abbé-Picauville – Chef-du-Pont), in the Drôme region (Valence – Crest), and for military use. Scotte partnered with the Lyon-based car manufacturers Buire and Audibert-Lavirotte to produce some of its vehicles. [1: p41]
Giovanni Cornolò; Locomotive a vapore; in TuttoTreno (in Italian), May 2014.
P. M. Kalla-Bishop; Italian state railways steam locomotives: together with low-voltage direct current and three-phase motive power; Tourret, Abingdon, 1986.
The railway from Nice PLM Station to Tende was completed in 1928. It was long in the gestation and in construction. The story stretches back more than a century and a half. ‘Le Chemin de fer du Col de Tende’ is historically a significant local and international line. Its inverted Y-shaped layout and its crossing of international borders means that it is known by a number of different names:
in Nice it is known as the Nice – Coni Line;
generally in Italy it is officially Ferrovia Cuneo Ventimiglia
in the Piedmont city of Cuneo’s economic/political circles, sitting at the top of the inverted ‘Y’, it is often referred to as the Cuneo – Nizza line in recognition of good relations with the community of Nice.
Its story is a saga of significant technical achievement: gaining 1000 metres in height ; having a dozen tunnels longer than 1 kilometre (including those of the Col de Tende (8098 m), the Col de Braus (5939 m) and the Mont Grazian tunnel (3882 m), which are among the longest structures on the French and Italian networks); having four complete helical loops, several S-shaped loops and a multitude of bridges and viaducts (some of which, such as those of Scarassouï or Bévéra, are architecturally significant railway structures. Of a total route of 143.5 km, 6.5 km are on bridges or viaducts and over 60 km are in tunnels. This means that close to 42% of the journey along the line(s) is on or within structures.
The line warrants a comprehensive detailed treatment and Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos have provided just such a work. The 3 volumes of their work cover three distinct periods in the life of the line:
Volume 1: 1858 until the completion of construction in 1928; [1]
Volume 2: 1929 through to 1974 [2]
Volume 3: 1975 to 1986. [3]
The line’s construction spanned over 40 years and as a result a variety of different structural techniques were used. The first length built in Italy in the 19th century has some substantial stone and brick structures. Later work on the length from Nice to Fontane which was built between the two world wars employs much lighter design techniques. Then even later, after sections of the line were destroyed in the second world war, prestressed concrete construction techniques were used in the rebuilding of the line. [1]
The history of the area through which the line has been built has been tumultuous. This meant that the process of developing the line was tortuous. It took more than 75 years for the line(s) to be completed and then after a few short years of operation, the lines usage was disturbed by the machinations of dictatorships and then the second world war literally destroyed the region. Post war recovery was slow but nowhere more so than the length of the line between Ventimiglia and Breil-sur-Roya which was not fully reopened until 35 years after the end of the second world war. [1]
The reopening of the line after the second world war was vital for the economic development of Piedmont, the Riviera dei Fiori, and the Côte d’Azur – between which there was no efficient road connection and where the difficult terrain favored rail access. [1]
The immediate area offered tremendous tourism potential, both the train itself and the region it served. Ski resorts became accessible, particularly Limone, excursion trains came from all over Europe. But, after just a few decades of development the approach of the 21st century saw increased bureaucracy, financial disputes between the increasing number of partners, contradictory regulations and increased journey times. The result was that the line’s value and existence was called into question and that too sparked further conflict. “Paradoxically, European unification, which should have fully promoted this symbolic communication route, marginalized it!” [1: p5]
In 2014, my wife and I stayed in the village of Saorge in the valley of La Roya for the first time. We had travelled by train from Nice to Tende in an earlier year. In 2014, we had a hire car and on one occasion we followed the old road to the Col de Tende. In subsequent years it was not possible to drive up the old road as works on the much more modern tunnel seemed to have blocked access to the old road. On a more recent visit, we stayed in Saorge a year after serious flooding had destroyed much infrastructure in the valley. Travel towards the Col de Tende from Tende was not possible.
Early attempts to create a route from Cuneo toTende
In 2014, we drove up a road which was constructed by le duc Charles-Emmanuel 1er de Savoie (Duke Charles Emmanuel 1st of Savoy). It seems that he constructed a road over the pass between 1592 and 1616. Of this road, Banaudo et al say that, “the northern road [up to the pass] has about twenty hairpin bends, while access from the south requires an extraordinary … sixty hairpin bends.” [1: p9]
Our hire car was a very small vehicle, but nonetheless needed some careful manoeuvring at each hairpin bend. Once at the top, we were able to walk quite a distance between the different forts that stood on the ridge.
Banuado et al, tell us that since that route was constructed, a series of attempts were made to tunnel from lower points on the pass. Attempts from the North were made: in 1612 (achieved just 75m of tunnel before being halted); in 1781 which was abandoned 3 years later (164m of tunnel was achieved). [1]
In 1784, a carriage managed to traverse the pass for the first time.
Banaudo et al. Tell us that “the public works engineer Deglioli submitted an initial report on 3rd June 1852, supported by the diplomat Francesco Sauli (1807-1893), on the extension of the Marseille-Var railway, then planned in France, to Nice, Ventimiglia, the Roya Valley, and Piedmont, namely Cuneo or Mondovì.” [1: p11]
In 1854, the first train of the Società della Ferrovia Torino Cuneo arrived in Cuneo from Turin (via Trofarello, Savigliano, and Fossano). The first terminus was built in the Cuneo suburb of “Madonna-dell’Olmo, on the left bank of the Stura below the city. Ten months later, the time required for the completion of the viaduct over the Stura, Cavour and the Minister of Public Works, Pietro Paleocapa (1788-1869), presided over the inauguration of the new Cuneo platform/station on 5th August 1855, established in a temporary location at Basse-di-San-Sebastiano. The permanent station would not be built until 1870 on the plateau preceding the confluence of the Stura and Gesso rivers.” [1: p11]
In 1856, “Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia, Cyprus and Jerusalem, Duke of Savoy and Aosta, Prince of Piedmont, Count of Nice and Tende, visited [Nice and] personally promised [a] railway to the people of Nice and distributed a lithograph depicting him, ostentatiously bearing a map bearing the dedication ‘Ferrovia da Cuneo a Nizza. Ai Fedeli Nizzardi’. … The Minister of Public Works commissioned a Roman military engineer, Filippo Cerrotti (1819-1892), to conduct a more in-depth study. On 29th May 1856, Cerrotti submitted a preliminary design for a standard-gauge line from Cuneo, ascending the Gesso and Vermegnana valleys, crossing the Col de Tende through a 6.5 km tunnel accessible by inclined planes powered by hydraulic funiculars, to emerge in the Roya River, which it followed to Airole. From there, two tunnels successively would take it through the Bévéra Valley and then into the Latte Valley, through which it reached the coast, which it then followed to Menton, Monaco, and Nice.” [1: p11]
The Nicois authorities accepted the proposed scheme in September 1856, their counterparts in Cuneo quickly endorsed the plans in principle but asked that an alternative route via the Col des Fenestres and the Vésubie, be explored and that a modification to the initial proposal should be explored, specifically a locomotive-powered line without the use of inclined planes. The municipality of Nice then commissioned another survey of alternative routes by Louis Petit-Nispel, but proposals were rejected by the Ministry of Public Works on 4th March 1858. [1: p11, p14]
Nothing happened, so the Nice authorities sent a petition to the Sardinian parliament (16th July 1858) but the request got lost in the midst of political machinations which surrounded the cession of Savoy and the County of Nice to France which was eventually confirmed on 22nd April 1860.
“During his first visit to the new border department in September 1860, the French Emperor promised the people of Nice a rapid connection to Marseille and the rest of the country via the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean Railway Company (PLM) line, whose construction was then well advanced beyond Toulon.” [1: p14]
Nice got its connection to Marseille by 18th October 1864, but hopes for a Nice to Cuneo link were overshadowed by the desire to have a direct link between Marseille and Turin via Sisteron, Gap, Briançon, the Col de l’Echelle, and Bardonecchia – a plan was eventually shelved (even though it was favoured by the French government and the PLM company) as a result of the deal-making associated with the Saint-Gothard line.
In the mid-1860s the Piedmontese railway network became part of the Società per le Ferrovie dell’Alta Italia (SFAI). Its focus became developing internal infrastructure in Italy, with the exception of a very large project … a 13.7 km (8.5 mile) long tunnel, carrying the Turin-Modane railway line under Mont Cenis, linking Bardonecchia in Italy to Modane in France under the Fréjus. [1: p17][8]
Despite this, economic and political groups in Cuneo remained committed to having a rail link and in 1868 proposed a joint commission of French and Italian engineers. The following year, “the provincial authorities granted a loan of 500,000 lire to the Lombard engineer Tommaso Agudio (1827-1893), who sought to develop the possibilities offered by funicular traction. He, in collaboration with the engineer Arnaud, recommended the construction of a narrow-gauge railway alongside the SS 20 national road, along its entire route from Cuneo to Ventimiglia. This hypothesis suggested curves with a radius of less than 50 m and gradients of 45 mm/m. The Tende Pass was to be crossed by the planned road tunnel, with two access ramps sloping at 87.5 mm/m, on which traction would be provided by a hydraulically counterweighted cable.” [1: p17]
His project was approved by the Italian parliament in 1862 but no progress was made on the French side of the border. The project failed and Tommaso Agudio moved on to other things, “experimenting with his cable traction system in 1874 in Lanslebourg, then by applying it in 1884 to the railway linking the Turin suburb of Sassi to the famous Basilica of Superga.” [1: p17]
With little progress being made on a rail link, road links became paramount, a commission chaired by the civil engineering inspector Sebastiano Grandis (1817-1892) renewed interest in 1870 in a road tunnel under the Col de Tende which Grandis imagined would obviate the need for a railway.
“Following the fall of the Empire, France and Italy were finally connected by rail, first through the Fréjus Tunnel, opened between Modane and Bardonecchia on 17th September 1871, and then through the Menton and Ventimiglia on the coast on 23rd February 1872. At the same time, traffic between Piedmont and the former County of Nice was growing at an encouraging pace: the Fontan customs post recorded an annual transit of 22,000 tons of goods and 76,447 head of cattle. Under these rather favorable conditions, Nice’s business community sought to revive discussions with a view to attracting to their port a share of the benefits of the upcoming opening of the Saint-Gothard line, whose traffic, they feared, would exclusively benefit Genoa via the Via Giovi, or Marseille in the event of the construction of the Col de l’Echelle route. In April 1871, a group of industrialists and politicians from the region, including the mayor of Nice, Auguste Raynaud (1829-1896) and his counterpart from Toulon, Vincent Allègre (1835-1899), founded a Syndicate for the Nice Cuneo Line with the support of the Alpes-Maritimes Chamber of Commerce. On 7th November, the municipal council sent a personal letter to Adolphe Thiers, the new President of the French Republic, to express the desire of the people of Nice to see this project, which had been on hold for some twenty years, realized. On 29th November, the syndicate appointed a study commission headed by engineer Joseph Durandy (1834-1912), … to establish contacts with interested Italian parties and determine the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed route.” [1: p19]
“In March 1872, the engineer Henry Lefèvre (1825-1877), a public works contractor and member of parliament for the Alpes-Maritimes, published an ambitious programme comprising two railway lines, Nice – Digne and Nice – Cuneo. They would run as a common trunk up the Var valley to the confluence of the Vésubie; from there, the branch towards Piedmont would follow this river to its source, crossing the Pagari pass under a 7000 m tunnel drilled at an altitude of 1300 m, to then reach Cuneo via the Gesso valley. The gradients would not exceed 35 mm/m, which would however require several reversals from Venanson, as well as the use of articulated Fairlie locomotives.” [1: p19][9]
Lefèvre’s project was based on poor maps and went through areas with a high risk of avalanches and heavy snowfall. Durandy suggested that a longer tunnel (almost 15km long) could be employed, Delestrac suggested following the undulations/contours on the left bank of the Vésubie as much as possible to reduce the number of engineering structures and limit the gradients to 25 mm/m.” [1: p19] Both these suggestions significantly increased the costs of Lefèvre’s 120 km project.
Other projects were proposed:
In 1872, Séraphin Piccon proposed a “103 km long narrow-gauge route, crossing the Col de Tende through a 5100 m tunnel at a height of 1150 m. Descending the valley of la Roya to Piena, reaching the Bévéra basin and Sospel through a 1300 m tunnel under the Col de Vèscavo, then heading up the Merlanson valley to pass under Mont Méras through a new tunnel leading to Peille, and thence to Nice through down the valley of the Paillon. Access to the Col de Tende would be via two inclined planes with inclinations of 40 to 85 mm/m totaling a length of 6100 m, while a 60 mm/m gradient over 4700 m would allow the line to gain altitude north of Peille.” [10] On these steep gradients, traction would be assisted by a rack or an auxiliary central rail (the Fell System). [11][1: p20]
Also in 1872, Baron A. Cachiardy de Montfleury of Breil submitted a renewed proposal to the Conseil General, based on the Narrow-Gauge route between Cuneo and Ventimiglia funicular sections developed by engineers Agudio and Arnaud. [12][1: p20]
Then in April 1873, Baron Marius de Vautheleret. presented a proposal for a narrow-gauge Cuneo-Ventimiglia line using the planned Col de Tende road tunnel, passing through Briga, then through a 13,000 m tunnel under the Marta peak and then along the Nervia valley to its mouth near Ventimiglia. This route aimed to simplify administrative procedures by bypassing French territory, even if it meant creating a costly underground tunnel to connect the Roya to the Nervia river valleys. Gradients would not exceed 35 mm/m except for 22 km on either side of the Col de Tende, where gradients of 38 to 40 mm/m would require the adoption of a rack or hydraulic funicular. [13][14][1: p20]
These last two projects were discarded, partly because they were narrow gauge and required steep gradients, neither of which would suit the anticipated important international traffic and partly because they only linked two Italian cities while passing through French territory and not serving Nice. Both the protagonists continued to push their case until the end of the 19th century.
The first project proposal by Piccon was also deemed incompatible with heavy traffic flows but in its favour was the intent to link the railway to Nice. The “Durandy Commission preferred this option, subject to significant technical adjustments, such as adopting the standard gauge and replacing the inclined planes with longer base tunnels. On this route, the syndicate hoped for annual freight traffic of 90,000 tons despite a higher cost per kilometre than the routes via the Tinée or the Careï, as well as a revival of passenger traffic.” [1: p20]
The PLM had little enthusiasm for the proposed line as their experience of lines in the Alps encountered technical difficulties and had profitability problems
In 1878, the Minister of Public Works, Charles de Freycinet (1828-1923), asked regional authorities to consider possible lines to become part of a network of secondary lines across the country. The Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes submitted the line ‘from Nice to the Italian border’, running from Nice to Turin via the Paillon Valley, the Col de Nice, L’Escarène, the Col de Braus, Sospel, the Col de Brouis, Breil, the Roya Valley, and the Col de Tende. This route was registered No. 142 in the network in the law of 17th July 1879, where it appeared alongside the Nice – Digne via Saint-André and Nice – Draguignan via Grasse lines. [1: p21]
While the Cuneo-Nice line was a low priority for the national government in Italy, but Piedmont and Liguria did not give up, encouraged by the interest on the French side of the border. A number of different schemes were considered (from Baron de Vautheleret, Giacomo Pisani and Domenico Santelli).
Renewed interest at a national level led, in April 1876, the ‘conseil superieur des Travaux Publics’ approved the principle of a Cuneo – Ventimiglia railway, following the Roya along its entire course, including crossing French territory. The estimated cost for the 86 km on Italian soil was 38 million lire.
Two years later, while France was preparing its “Freycinet plan”, Italy had its ‘loi Baccarini’ (law 5002) which was passed in parliament on 25th July 1879 and included for a secondary line ‘from Cuneo to the sea’, “leaving all options open South of the Col de Tende so as not to prematurely offend any interests.” [1: p23]
By the end of July 1879, the process seemed well underway but no one allowed for the political machinations that would follow.
“The first disappointments emerged in France in 1880 during the budget debates, where the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Léon Gambetta (1838-1882), postponed the vote on construction funding. On 22nd July, the General Council of Bridges and Roads rejected an initial project, which included 30 mm/m gradients and 300 m radius curves, as too costly. In November 1881, the Ministry of War was even more categorical, formally opposing the extension of the railway beyond Sospel, and demanding that it serve the village of Lucéram from L’Escarène, the supply base for the defensive sector of L’Authion, Turini and Peïra-Cava. In this case, the line would have to adopt even more severe characteristics: 40 mm/m gradients, 150 m radius curves, switchbacks to cross the Col de Nice and helical loops to reach Lucéram…” [1: p24]
“In 1882, an important step towards opening up the Haute Roya region was taken with the commissioning of the Col de Tende road tunnel. … This structure, remarkable for its time, was designed for the movement of carts, horses, pedestrians and. cannons, because the defense of the Tenda and Briga area was a major concern for the Italian general staff! The journey now avoided the countless hairpin bends of the pass and the risk of snowstorms and avalanches.” [1: p24]
The Col de Tende Road Tunnel and the border between France and Italy. [17]
But while economic and emotional ties remained strong between Cuneo and Nice, they were weakening between Rome and Paris due to political, commercial, and colonial rivalries that would poison relations … for about fifteen years. The attitude of the city of Marseille was also difficult. The business community in Marseille was hostile to a new rail link between Nice and Italy. Fearing the expansion of the port of Nice at their expense. They lobbied against any possible expansion of the port of Nice, even to the extent of thwarting standard-gauge lines from Nice to Digne and Draguignan, ensuring that the lines were built to metre-gauge (with less transport capacity and obligatory double-handling of loads). [1: p24]
Locally, in Nice, some pushed for the line to be metre-gauge, thinking that might iron out the technical difficulties and strategic objections. [1: p24] Faced by the administrative impasse which stalled the project in France , the French Ministry of Public Works decided to close its Nice design office on 1st September 1887. Italy, however, worked unilaterally with the intention of opening up the Haute Roya without prejudging the continuation of the route towards France. [1: p24]
From 1882 until 1900 it was the Italians that took the initiative. A delegation from Cuneo secured 29.5 million lire from the Italian Minister of Public Works. The first length of the scheme received local approval on 25th March 1882. Work on site started in April 1882 on the length of the line from Cuneo to Vernante.
The present railway station in Cuneo dates from the late 1930s the older station is known as Cuneo Gesso Statzione. At the time of the building of the Line from Cuneo towards Nice and Ventimiglia, Cuneo’s railway station sat alongside the Gesso River across the town from the present station.
The original Cuneo Railway Station from which the line to Nice and Ventimiglia left in a southerly direction. This image was taken in 1903. It was shared on the Facebook Nel dipartimento della Stura – Cuneo – pagina. [19]This second photograph of Cuneo’s original railway station which was on the banks of the River Gesso shows both the station building and the bridge which carried the railway over the river. This image was taken in 1905. It was shared on the Facebook Nel dipartimento della Stura – Cuneo – pagina on 16th November 2017. [20]Although dated 6th October 1979 this postcard image originated in the early years of the 20th century. It shows the Cuneo Gesso Station as it was at the turn of the 20th century. The postcard was made to commemorate the reopening of the international railway line that connects the city of Cuneo with the city of Nice. This image was shared on the Facebook Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza page on 11th December 2017. [21]
The railway initially arrived from Turin, via Fossano. It came as far as Madonna dell’Olmo opposite Cuneo across the Sturia River on 16th October 1854 where a small building was built to serve as a temporary station. On 5th August 1855 the inaugural train from Cuneo left for Turin. In the same year the municipality built a bridge over the Sturia (at its own expense). After the construction of the bridge over the Stura, a second temporary station was built on an embankment in the San Sebastiano plain (where Giuseppe Garibaldi had arrived to visit his “Alpine Hunters” in 1856). Only in 1870 was a significant edifice completed which became Cuneo’s railway station. It was alongside the Gesso River and it was again built entirely at the town’s expense. [19]
The complete opening of the Cuneo-Ventimiglia line, which took place on 30th October 1928, caused significant logistical problems for both travellers and rolling stock at Cuneo station. The old depot, dating back to 1864, soon became insufficient to house the locomotives of the new line, [23: p41] a hastily built locomotive depot was provided (because of delays creating the new line and new railway station, and in the construction of the large mixed-use viaduct over the Stura di Demonte. [24][25]
The Locomotive Depot at Cuneo Gesso Station which was used until the new depot close to Cuneo Altipiano Railway Station was opened. The site was repurposed – it became a sawmill. This plan comes from From the December 1929 Technical Magazine of Italiane Ferrovie., It was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group on 13th February 2024 by Francesco Ciarlini Koerner. [62]
The new depot was placed beyond the embankment of the road to Mondovì. A double track arched bridge took the tracks under the road. [26][27] On 7th November 1937[24] the new Cuneo Altipiano station was opened, located to the west of the city centre and connected to the new locomotive depot built on the right side of the Stura River. [24][25]
Cuneo Gesso quickly lost importance, remaining active only as a stopping point for the lines to Mondovì and Boves , the latter closed to traffic in 1960. [23: p55-57][25]
Near the station was the terminus of the Cuneo-Dronero, [28] Cuneo-Saluzzo [29] and Cuneo-Boves [30] tramways, active for different years between 1879 and 1948 [25][31: p120]. The Cuneo Boves line opened in 1903 and closed in 1935.
Ex Stazione Ferrovia Di Cuneo Gesso as it appears on Google Maps satellite imagery. he river is the Gesso Torrent and a modern concrete bridge now spans the river. The line heading South from the station originally served a temporary Locomotive depot but now serves the sawmill that replaced the depot. [Google Maps, July 2025]The old station buildings seen from the Southwest. The building is in use as a cafe/bar. Tracks remain in place beyond the building. [Google Streetview, May 2025]The bridge which now carries the railway over the River Gesso. [Google Streetview, 2022]
Construction of the new line started in 1882, it left the station to the South curving sharply to the left to cross the Gesso River on a 3-arch brick viaduct (each span was 24.8 metres) shared with the line from Cuneo to Mondovi which was under construction at the same time. [1: p25]
The line to Mondovi remains today, but no passenger trains use the line any longer. The line we are following from Cuneo to Vernante, left the line to Mondovi heading Southwest and passing through the villages of Boves and Fontanelle-di-Boves. Provision for freight and passengers was made at Boves, just for passengers at Fontanelle-di-Boves.
Preparing for this article, I found a document from 1904 which included the plans and profiles of the line on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group. It was shared as a series of photographs by Davide Franchini on 2nd March 2022.
The 1904 document cover. [47]The first plan shows the bridge crossing the River Gesso with the line heading for Nice and Ventimiglia bearing away from the line to Moldovi. [47]The line heading South. [47]The route of the old railway from Cuneo Gesso to Borgo-San-Dalmazzo, (c) Ale Sasso and licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence, (CC BY-SA 4.0). [32]
As far as I can tell, the line to Boves has been built over. It seems to have followed the route of Via del Borgo Gesso South from the river bridge, then Via Bisalta, then Highway SP21 to Boves where the line curved back towards the River Gesso. Boves station was on a relatively sharp curve in the line. [33]
Boves Railway Station building. [35]A similar view of Boves Railway Station in the 21st century. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The altered station building as seen from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, 2012]The goods shed/warehouse seen from the East. [Google Streetview, 2012]The goods shed at Boves, seen from the West on the SP21. The original station building can be seen on the left of this image. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The location of Boves Railway Station in the 21st century. Via Gastalato (SP21) runs along the old railway line. The main station building has a silver coloured roof and sits at the centre of this satellite image. The goods warehouse costs to the West of the main station building and has a red roof. [Google Maps, July 2025]
Boves station had a passing loop and two sidings. The passenger building, converted into residential housing several years ago, was adjacent to a goods warehouse, now used as a provincial warehouse. [35]
Boyes Railway Station plan. [47]The line beyond Boves Railway Station ran through Fontanelle di Boves and then crossed the River Gesso again. [47]
The hamlet of Fontanelle di Boves was just a short distance beyond Boves Railway Station. It had its own passenger station which opened in 1942 after the line from here back to Cuneo was replaced by a new line on the other side of the River Gesso which ran into the new station at Cuneo. Just a short distance further down the line was the viaduct which took the line back over the River Gesso. Originally, this was a masonry structure of three 24.8 metre arched spans. [1: p25] The viaduct was overwhelmed and destroyed by a flood of the Gesso on the afternoon of 2nd October 1898. It was then replaced with the current 74 m metal truss girder bridge. [34]
This photograph shows the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the bridge between Fontanelle-di-Boves and Borgo San-Dalmazzo. It was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Mario Zauli on 29th February 2024. As well as appearing on the Facebook Group, Banaudo et al include the picture in their book. They comment: “On 2nd October 1898, the Southern Alps suffered violent floods that swept away the three-arched masonry viaduct over the Gesso between Boves and Borgo San-Dalmazzo, built in 1883. It was rebuilt as a metal truss bridge, but initially trains used a temporary structure on wooden beams. In December 1898, this was tested by the passage of locomotive No. 4333 of type 040, series 4201 to 4493 of the Rete Mediterranea. (Photo Giacinto Garaffi – Diego Garel collection).” [37][1: p26]
The bridge is known as Ponte di Sant’Andrea, a second truss was positioned alongside the railway bridge and together the two bridges now carry the SP21.
After crossing the River Gesso and at about 12 km from Cuneo the line arrived at Borgo-San-Dalmazzo.
This schematic map shows the two rail routes. The solid line shows the original alignment that we have just been following. The dotted line shows the route built at the end of the 1930s. The two lines met to the West of Pont Sant’Andre. The 1937-built station is on the banks of the Stura River on the West side of Cuneo and on the dotted line. [34]The bridge (Ponte di Sant’Andrea) is flagged in the bottom-right, the newer line from Cuneo enters this image middle-top and runs down to the bottom-left. The older line curved round from the SP21 and its route is marked by the curved field boundary. [Google Maps, July 2025]
Returning to the 1937-built Cuneo Railway Station, the line from that station leaves Cuneo in a South-southwest direction. It is easiest to see the route of the line on a sequence of extracts from global mapping provided by OpenStreetMap. …
Cuneo’s Railway Station in the 21st century. [OpenStreetMap, July 2025][38]
A twilight view of Cuneo railway station taken from the cab of a multiple unit entering the station from the Southwest. [45]
The line runs alongside the locomotive depot to the South of the passenger facilities at Cuneo Railway Station and then enters a tunnel which turns South under the city. [39]The tunnel mouth to the South of Cuneo Railway Station can be made out at the centre-top of this image. [Google Earth 3D, July 2025]This time looking North, the Southern portal of the tunnel to the South of Cuneo Railway Station can be made out below the roundabout at the centre-top of this image. [Google Earth 3D, July 2025]
A rain-spattered cab view from the South, taken in the late evening, of the Southern portal of the tunnel which sits to the South of Cuneo Railway Station. [45]
After leaving the tunnel, the line began to curve round to the Southwest passing under Via Fontanelle and then under the roundabout at the junction of Via Mellana and Viale Federico Mistral. [40]
Looking North in the evening light under a footbridge close to Via Giuseppe Scagliosi through the cab widow of a multiple unit on the line. [45]
The view North from the bridge carrying Via Fontanelle across the line. [Google Streetview, 2019]Looking South from the bridge carrying Via Fontanelle over the line. The bridge in the distance sits underneath a roundabout at the junction between Via Mellana and Viale Federico Mistral. [Google Streetview, 2019]
A three arch bridge carries Via Fontanelle over the railway, seen again in the evening light from the South through the rail-spattered cab widow of a multiple unit. [45]
A short tunnel carries the roundabout at the meeting of Via Mellana and Viale Federico Mistral over the railway, seen again from the South through the rail-spattered cab widow of a multiple unit. [45]
Vegetation around the roundabout means that it it not possible to see into the cutting from the road.
The line continues in a Southwesterly direction running alongside Viale Federico Mistral. [41]
A brick-ringed arch bridge carries the railway over a side road off Viale Federico Mistral. This view is from the Southeast. The structure is at the top-right of the map extract immediately above. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
A very similar arch bridge carries the railway over a further side road off Viale Federico Mistral. The bridge is located in the bottom-left quadrant of the map extract above. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Now on a more Southwesterly course the line passes under a footbridge, obscured on the map extract by the words Tetto Bidetti in the top-right corne of the extract.
Silhouetted in the evening light, this bridge crosses the line carrying a footpath over the railway. The image, again comes from the cab of a multiple unit heading for Cuneo. [45]
Close to Cascina Tallone, the line crosses Lungo Gesso by means of another brick ringed arch. This view looks under the railway from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Near Cascina David another brick-arched bridge pierces the railway embankment where Via David passes beneath the railway. Again this view is from the Southeast on Via Sant’Andre. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Near Cascina Landra another brick-arched bridge pierces the railway embankment. Again this view is from the Southeast on Via Sant’Andre. Thestructure appeasr bottom-left on the map extract above and top-right on the extract below. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
And close to where the line of the older route meets the newer route the line is heading South-southwest and turns towards the Southwest. [43]Now in Borgo San-Dalmazzo we have reached the point where the older line curved in from the East having crossed the River Gesso. [44]
Via Sant’Andrea passes over the line. This view looks Northeast towards Cuneo. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Also taken from the bridge carrying Via Sant’Andrea over the railway, this view looks across the road SP21 towards Borgo San-Dalmazzo. [Goog;e Streetview, May 2022]
The view Southwest from the bridge carrying the SP21 over the railway. The route of the older line is marked by the field boundary visible to the left of the line. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The older line curved round to the Southwest and followed a straight course towards Borgo-San-Dalmazzo Railway Station. The newer line has taken its place on the approach to the Station from the Northeast.
San-Dalmazzo is a very old trading town located at the crossroads of three valleys: the Stura, the Gesso and the Vermenagna. The station had three platforms, a goods yard, a 5.50 m turntable and a large overflow yard that could be used for the embarkation and disembarkation of military units deployed in the area. “When the railway arrived in Borgo-San-Dalmazzo, this small town had already had a rail service for several years. In fact, private entrepreneurs Ercole Belloli and Carlo Chiapello opened a 1.445 m gauge horse-drawn tramway between Cuneo and Borgo in 1877, passing through the San-Rocco-Castagnaretta district on the left bank of the Gesso. Horse-drawn traction was replaced by steam locomotives on this modest 8-km line in 1878.” [1: p27][48]
The Cuneo-Borgo San-Dalmazzo-Demonte tramway linked the cities of Cuneo, Borgo San Dalmazzo and Demonte from 1877 to 1948. In the late 1870s, following the success of similar initiatives in the Turin area, the construction of tramways was pursued in the province of Cuneo. [48] As we have already noted, this was just one of a number of such tramways in the area.
The Cuneo Borgo-San-Dalmazzo tramway was extended in 1914 to Demonte (26.4 km) and converted on this occasion to a 1.10 m gauge to facilitate the exchange of goods with the Compagnia Generale dei Tramways Piemontesi (CGTP) which operated the Cuneo Boves line (8.3 km) from 1903. The Boves steam tramway disappeared in 1935 and that of Borgo and Demonte in 1948. [1: p28] The story of these tramways seems worth investigating, but their histories are a matter for a different article!
The station had an ignominious place in history. During the Second World War two convoys of Jewish deportees departed from the Borgo San Dalmazzo railway station bound for Auschwitz , coming from the adjacent Borgo San Dalmazzo concentration camp. The first convoy, on 21st November 1943, completed its journey via Nizza Drancy with 329 people on board. Only 19 survived. The second convoy, on 15th February 1944, with 29 people on board, headed instead for the Fossoli transit camp where it was combined with transport no. 8 bound for Germany. Only 2 survived. [49][50]
The Deportation Memorial , with a row of cattle wagons similar to those used then (the wagons are from 1953) commemorates the names of the deportees, their age and nationality and their family relationships. [50][51]
Burgo San-Dalmazzo to Robilante: The second construction contract covered the length from Borgo San-Dalmazzo to Robilante. Work began in late 1883. From Burgo San-Dalmazzo the line leaves the plain and begins its ascent up the Vermenagna Valley, heading towards the Tende Pass. The route, was designed to accommodate heavy traffic, so the line does “not include any curves with a radius less than 300 m, with two exceptions: one at the southern end of Cuneo station and one at the exit from Borgo station, where the route curves sharply to the left in a 257-meter curve to reach the left bank of the Gesso River. There, a 21 m three-arched masonry viaduct, shared by the railway and the SS20 road, crosses this Alpine torrent for the third and final time.” [1: p27]
This satellite image shows the sharp curve from the Railway Station at Borgo San-Dalmazzo to the viaduct across the River Gesso. [Google Maps, July 2025]
As the railway curves round towards the river its embankments are pierced twice to allow local roads to pass beneath the line.
This is the first structure. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The second structure, closer to the River Gesso. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The southern approach to Borgo San-Dalmazzo Railway Station, seen from the cab of a multiple unit. The line to the right of the image is a siding which terminates close to the River Gesso. [45]
The 3-span viaduct across the River Gesso carries both the railway and the SS20. [Google Streetview, June 2025]Looking South along the SS20 as it crosses the Gesso. The railway cantenary is on the left with the tracks hidden behind the dividing fence. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
A view from the South showing the road on the left. This is a view from the cab of the multiple unit again. [45]
Once over the river the road and railway remain at a high level with an access road to the SS20 passing under both the railway and the road. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
After crossing the river the line ran on through Roccavione. …
Roccavione Station is a simple station with two public platforms and one track serving a military platform. Another level crossing sits beyond the South end of the station site.
Looking back from the level-crossing at Via Piano Sottano towards Roccavione Railway Station. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
A similar view looking North into Roccavione Railway Station from the cab of the multiple unit. The station has no passing loop. [45]
The view Southwest across the level-crossing. [Google Streetview, June 2025]Looking South-southeast as the line continues up the Vermenagna valley. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The line follows an easy gradient between the SP259 (which used to be the SS20) and the left bank of the River Vermenagna to Robilante Railway Station. [1: p27]
The line runs Northwest to Southeast across this extract from Google Maps satellite imagery. It runs close to the SP259 between Roccavione and Robilante. [Google Maps, July 2025]A link road under the railway and under the SP259 beyond. It provides access from Via Piano Sottano to the SP259. [Google Streetview, June 2025]What in the UK we might choose to call an underpass or cattle-creep under the railway. Apologies for the slight distortion of the image which comes from the way in which Google’s algorithm merges the 360° camera photographs. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Robilante Railway Station had three platform tracks, a small goods yard, a water feed, a 8.50m turntable and an engine shed. Beyond the station track gradients increased significantly and provision needed to be made for banking engines in steam days. [1: p27]
Robilante Railway Station. [Google Maps, July 2025]The station building sat on the Southwest side of the line, This view looks through the station to the Southeast, (c) Gum Gum. [Google Maps: July 2023]Robilante Station building and forecourt seen from the Northeast on Via Roma. [Google Streetview, June 2025]This view looks Northwest through the station towards Cuneo, (c) Mattia Vigano. [Google Maps: April 2019]
A similar view to that immediately above but taken from the driver’s cab on a multiple unit. In the distance in this image the old goods shed can be seen to the left of the line. The shed is no longer present in the more modern image above. [45]
A station plan for the station at Robilante. The line is oriented Northwest to Southeast. The turntable is located at the Northwest end of the yard. The engine shed is opposite the passenger building. The goods shed was Northwest of the passenger facilities and is shown here with a single siding passing through the building. The bridge, shown in images below crosses the station throat at the Southeast end of the station site. Not shown on this early plan are five sidings added for clinker wagons from the Buzzi Unicem cement plant nearby. [47][53]
Robilante Goods Shed seem from the cab of a multiple unit. As noted above, the shed has now been demolished. [45]
This image taken from the Southeast of the station from the cab of an approaching Cuneo service gives a broader view of the station site. [45]
A broader view of Robilante Station taken from a road at the Southeast corner of the station site. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The road overbridge at the Southeast end of the station site. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The view Northwest from the road bridge which carries Via Luigi Emina over the line. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The view Southeast from the same road bridge. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The bridge which carries Via Luigi Emina over the line, seen from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The second phase of the construction work on the line terminated in Robilante. “The preliminary design for the third phase from Robilante to Vernante was submitted to the Ministry of Public Works on 11th January 1884, and work began the following summer. On this 6,419-meter-long section, the railway crosses the mountain with gradients of 25 mm/m.” [1: p27]
This extract from Google Maps satellite imagery shows the length of the line from Robilante to VernanteVia Ferrovieri runs immediately adjacent to the railway for some distance, passing under a road over bridge along with the railway. This view looks ahead up the Vermenaga valley. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The same bridge seen from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The two images immediately above were taken at the end of a road serving a small industrial area. The first looks Northeast, the second, Southeast. [Google Streetview, September 2023]
After passing under the SS20, the line runs alongside the road for a kilometre or so.
Trains can be seen passing immediately adjacent to the road. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
A short distance further South a side road from the SS20, Via Tetto Pettavino, bridges the line. The two photographs below were taken from the bridge.
Looking North towards Robilante. [Google Streetview, June 2025]Looking ahead along the line towards the viaduct over the River Vermenagna. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The railway crossed the Vermenagna River by means of a viaduct of 5 arched spans – three of 21 metres flanked at each end by an 8 metre span. [Google Maps, July 2025][1: p27]
A photograph of the viaduct over the Vermenagna surrounded by trees can be found here on Flickr. [54]
Banaudo et al tell us that seven further significant structures were included in the contract which covered the line as far as Vernante [1: p27] all of which sit within approximately 3 kilometres along the line:
the Rio Vermanera masonry viaduct, with three 8-metre arches;
the Ponte Nuovo Tunnel, 425 metres long;
the Brunet Tunnel, 161 metres long;
the Corte-Soprano Tunnel, 95 metres long;
the San Giovanni masonry viaduct, with six arches measuring 7.90 m, three measuring 13.75 m, and one measuring 6 m;
the San Giovanni Tunnel, 138 metres long; and
the Costa Tunnel, 147 metres long. [1: p27]
The first of these – the Rio Vermanera Viaduct is pictured below.
The Rio Vermanera masonry viaduct, seen from the West, one span of which crosses the Strada Vermanera, another spans the Vermaners stream. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The same viaduct seen from the East. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Strada Vermanera provides road access to a number of small hamlets to the East of the railway line. [Google Maps, July 2025]
The Ponte Nuovo Tunnel: this extract from OpenStreetMap shows the tunnel curving significantly. It ran from just to the South of the Rio Vermanera Viaduct to open out immediately adjacent to the SS20/E74 but at a higher level. [55]
Immediately beyond the southern portal of the Ponte Nuovo Tunnel, a masonry retaining wall supports the railway above the SS20/E74.
Looking back towards the South portal of the Ponte Nuevo Tunnel the parapet railings of the retaining wall can be seen on the left of this image. [45]
The southern portal of the Ponte Nuovo Tunnel is at the far end of this retaining wall. Immediately at the Southeast end of the retaining wall is the short Brunet Tunnel (161 metres long) [Google Streetview, June 2025]
The Brunet Tunnel is shown dotted on this extract from OpenStreetMap. [56]
The South Portal of the Brunet Tunnel. [45]
The next tunnel is only 200 metres or so along the line, the Corte-Soprano Tunnel is even shorter at only 95 metres in length. [57]
The South Portal of the Corte-Soprano Tunnel. [45]
Just to the Southeast of the tunnel portal is the next structure, the San Giovanni Viaduct. masonry viaduct, with six arches measuring 7.90 metres, three measuring 13.75 metres, and one measuring 6 metres. [Google Maps, July 2025]
It is not feasible to get a photograph of the full length of the viaduct. The three images below give a good impression of its length and height.
Two further short tunnels, the San Giovanni Tunnel (138 metres long) and the Costa Tunnel (147 metres long) follow in the next few hundred metres.
The two tunnels are only separated by a short length of the line. [Google Maps, July 2025]
The South portal of the San Giovanni Tunnel. [45]
The South portal of the Costa Tunnel. [45]
The railway continues to climb higher on the eastern slope of the Vermenagna Valley and reaches Vernante, about 23 km from Cuneo.
Another of the plans and profiles that we encountered earlier in this article. This one shows the final approaches to Vernante Railway Station. Some of the structures described above can be seen on this plan. [47]
On the final approaches to Vernante Railway Station two further structures can be seen on the plan above. They carry the line over minor roads. The first spans Via La Tina, the second spans Vicolo Castello/Strada da Castello.
Looking East through the underpass which takes Via La Tina under the railway. [Google Streetview, June 2025]Looking East through the structure that carries the railway over Strada da Castello. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Vernante Railway Station was the end of the third tranche of works on the railway. Vernante is “a busy centre of livestock breeding and craftsmanship where renowned knives are produced. Vernante station … has two platform faces with a passing loop, … [a goods shed] and platform for goods traffic, a 5.50 m turntable and a curious installation, unique on the line, the “binario di salvamento”. This is a counter-slope safety [line which leaves the main running line close to the station throat] on the Limone side. The switch is permanently positioned to provide access to the safety line, so that any vehicle drifting down the 26 mm/m gradient south of the station can enter it, be slowed down by the opposite gradient and then come to a stop. Each descending train must stop before the switch, so that it can be maneuvered on site to allow normal entry into the station. This simple but effective precautionary measure applies to other steep-gradient lines on the Italian network, in the Alps and the Apennines.” [1: p27]
A plan of Vernante Railway Station. [47]Vernante Railway Station. [Google Streetview, July 2025]The view Southeast from the station car park, after demolition of the old goods shed. The main station building features at the centre of the image. [Google Streetview, June 2025]The main station building at Vernante seen from the West. [Google Streetview, June 2025]
Photographs showing the station building and the goods shed prior to its demolition can be seen here. [58] “Inaugurated in 1889, the station served as the terminus for the Cuneo-Ventimiglia line for nearly two years, until it was extended to Limone Piemonte. The passenger building features classic Italian architecture, with two levels. It is square, medium-sized, and well-maintained. Its distinctive feature is the two murals depicting scenes from the Pinocchio fairy tale, adorning its façade. The lower level houses the waiting room and self-service ticket machine, while the upper level is closed.” [58]
A photograph from the cab of a Cuneo-bound train arriving at Vernante. The passenger building is on the left with the goods shed beyond. [45]
While construction work was underway on the first three tranches (Cuneo to Vernante), the Italian rail network was undergoing a major reorganization. The Law passed on 27th April 1885, placed control of the railways into the hands of “the new Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo, more commonly known as Rete Mediterranea (RM), … including the route ‘from Cuneo to the sea’.” [1: p28]
In 1887, the time had come for the first trains! “The Cuneo-Robilante section was inaugurated on Saturday, 16th July 1887, and opened for service on Monday 18th. Less than two weeks later, Francesco Crispi became President of the Council of Ministers, and relations between Italy and France would soon be strengthened. Then came the beginning of the future Cuneo-Mondovi line, which opened on 2nd October 1887, as far as Roccadebaldi. The Roccadebaldi and Robilante lines thus formed a common section for 359 meters, starting from Cuneo [Gesso] station and crossing the Gesso River on the same viaduct. … Two years later, the Robilante-Vernante section was … opened on 1st September 1889.” [1: p28]
As footnotes to this article we note that:
Banaudo et al comment: “construction of the Ceva Ormea branch line began in the upper Tanaro Valley. With a terminus about 30 km from Vernante or 25 km from Tenda and Briga, this line would play an important role in the battle of interests that would unfold in the final years of the century to confirm a definitive route to the sea.” [1: p28]
They also give details of the locomotives used on the line in these very early years, by Rete Mediterranea (RM). The locomotives were 030s (in the UK 0-6-0s) with tenders and came from the roster of the Turin depot and loaned to the Cuneo-Gesso Locomotive depot. They belonged to just one series: “Nos. 3201 to 3519 RM, which became group 215.001 to 398 at the FS. [The series was built] between 1864 and 1892 based on a model derived from the French “Bourbonnais” locomotives of the PLM. These 450 hp engines were equipped with saturated steam, single expansion, and Stephenson internal distribution. The [later] Cuneo depot, established in 1907, still had five type 215 locomotives in 1922, mainly operating service trains.” [1: p86] It is also worth noting that some of the locos used on the line after 1899 came from a second series of locomotives (“Nos. 3801 to 3869 RM, later 3101 to 3169, then group 310.001 to 069 at the FS, built from 1894 to 1901 [1: p86]). While these locomotives were old enough to have served in the period from 1887 to 1891, they only arrived on the line during 1901. … I anticipate there being a separate article about motive power on the line in due course.
We finish this first part of the journey from Cuneo to the sea at Vernante. The next article about the line will begin at Vernante and head South towards Limone and Vievola. It can be found here. [61]
References
Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 1: 1858-1928; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 2: 1929-1974; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 3: 1975-1986; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
“The locomotive developed by the Scottish engineer Robert Francis Fairlie (1831-1885) from 1869 on the Ffestiniog narrow gauge railway in Wales, had two boilers connected by a single central firebox. Each boiler supplies steam to a pair of cylinders driving an independent group of axles. This system was developed in France from 1888 by artillery captain Prosper Péchot (1849-1928) and engineer Charles Bourdon (1847-1933), creators of an articulated narrow gauge locomotive widely used by the French army.” [1: p21]
Séraphin Piccon; Etude Comparative de Deux Lignes de Chemin de Fer Entre Nice et Coni; 1872.
The Fell System which created “additional adhesion using a raised central rail, patented by British engineer John Barraclough Fell (1815-1902), was first applied in the Alps in 1868 on the railway running along the Mont Cenis route between St. Michel-de-Maurienne and Susa, pending the completion of the Fréjus Tunnel in 1871.” [1: p21]
A. Cachiardy de Montfleury; Chemin de Fer de Nice a Coni; Imprimerie Cauvan, Nice, 1872.
Marius de Vautheleret; Chemin de Fer Cuneo Ventimiglia – Nice Traversant le Col de Tende; Editions Giletta, Nice, 1874.
Marius de Vautheleret; Chemin de Fer Cuneo – Nice par Ventimiglia et le Col de Tende; Kugelmann, Paris, 1883; Trajet direct de Londres à Brindisi par le Col de Tende; Kugelmann, Paris, 1884; Ligne directe Londres – Brindisi par le Col de Tende; Retaux, Abbeville, 1890; Le Grand Saint-Bernard et le Col de Tende Ligne Ferrée Directe de Londres à Brindisi avec Jonction à la Méditerranée; Malvano & Mignon, Nice, 1897.
Stefano Garzaro & Nico Molino; La Ferrovia Di Tends Da Cuneoba Nizza, L’ultima Grande Traversata Alpina, Colleferro (RM); E.S.T. – Editrice di Storia dei Trasporti, Luglio, 1982, (Italian text)
Ferrovie dello Stato; Circolare Compartimentale del Compartimento di Torino 54/1937, (Italian text).
Franco Collidà, Max Gallo & Aldo A. Mola; Cuneo-Nizza: Storia di una ferrovia, Cuneo (CN); Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, Luglio, 1982, (Italian text).
The locomotive depot area, left vacant after the opening of the new Cuneo station, was later reused by a sawmill connected by a siding to the Gesso station. [25]
Roger Farnworth 
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