FOGGIA – Today we remember the 160th anniversary of the arrival of the railway in Puglia, precisely in Foggia, where the splendid Art Nouveau station was inaugurated (destroyed by the bombings of ’43) and the railway section of the Adriatic from Ortona to Foggia to presence of the king of Italy Vittorio Emanuele.
For this occasion, the Fast Confsal Puglia and Basilicata has organized a sit-in which will be held from 10.30 to 11.30 in Piazza Vittorio Veneto. The aim is precisely to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the inauguration of the Foggia Station, inaugurated on 25 April 1864 with the opening of the Ortona-Foggia section of the Adriatic Railway. Today, after the reconstruction, users can admire the passenger building. It was rebuilt after the war destruction in 1951 based on a design by the architect. Roberto Narducci, re-proposing some architectural elements used by himself in the construction of the Roma Ostiense station.
“Today – highlights the regional secretary Vincenzo Cataneo, ed. – the TEN-T network has identified Foggia as a transport hub and urban hub at the crossroads of 2 multimodal corridors (Scandinavian-Mediterranean and Baltic-Adriatic). Useful for both pax and freight rail transport, with notable advantages in terms of notable reductions in travel times and CO2 emissions,” he explains. “Unfortunately, despite the railway infrastructure investments planned for the adaptations, there are significant delays on works such as the General Master Plan, Foggia AV station and technological systems such as the Multi-station Computerized Central Equipment useful and necessary to increase safety standards and improve rail circulation”, says the trade unionist.
«In these 160 years the station has marked important moments in the history of the Foggia people. It has been, and we believe it still is, an integral and important part of history, a driving force for the economic, industrial, technological, commercial, agricultural and cultural take-off of our city”, writes in a note the provincial secretariat of the Organization of Autonomous Trade Unions and Base (Orsa) which in addition to commemorating the inauguration of the station (where today 206 passenger trains pass, destined to increase in the summer with the reactivation of the line to Manfredonia), also recalls that in the same year the Rolling Stock Workshop was also built several sheds were built beyond the station tracks with a workforce of 290 units: mechanical adjusters, engine fitters, turners, painters, carpenters, panel makers, welders, upholsterers.
“Our station, which is so loved today and also mistreated many times, has been and will always be the symbol of a radical change in the lifestyle habits of the people of Foggia”, underlines Orsa again.
The leader of the southern Italian group in the city council, Pasquale Cataneo, is more polemical: «We express our full blame and harshly criticize the failure to carry out a worthy celebration of the 160th anniversary of the Foggia railway station. The citizens of Foggia and the entire Capitanata deserved it and, in particular, the railway workers for their dedication and activity. The very high sacrifice suffered by citizens and railway workers in terms of human lives lost during the last world war would have been enough to motivate the organization of a celebratory event. And instead nothing except the commendable sit in in front of Piazzale Vittorio Veneto, by the FAST-CONFSAL of Puglia and Basilicata.”
