Ferrovie dello Stato

Italian railway

Also known as: Ente Ferrovie dello Stato, FS, Ferrovie Italiane, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiano, Italian Railways, Azienda Autonoma delle Ferrovie dello Stato, State Railways

Written and fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Updated: Nov. 14, 2026

The Ferrovie dello Stato station in Trieste, Italy.

Dantadd

Also Known As:: Ferrovie dello Stato Italiano; Ente Ferrovie dello Stato; Azienda Autonoma delle Ferrovie dello Stato; Italian Railways; State Railways; Ferrovie Italiane; FS

Date:: 1905 - present

Ferrovie dello Stato, largest railway system of Italy. FS operates lines on the mainland and also on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, which are linked to the mainland by train ferries. The Italian railway system was nationalized in 1905. In 1986 its status was changed from a government department to a state corporation, but since 1991 portions of the high-speed network have been privatized.

The FS system controls about four-fifths of Italy’s rail network. All the main routes, constituting half the system, have been electrified. The most heavily traveled line in the system is from Milan in the north to Naples in the south, extending down the peninsula through the important rail junction of Bologna and then through Florence and Rome. Other heavily traveled lines run through the industrial north from Turin to Milan to Venice and from Milan to Genoa. A high-speed passenger route opened between Rome and Florence in the 1970s, and by 1989 high-speed service was available to most major Italian cities. International routes run northward from Turin through the Fréjus Tunnel into France, from Milan through the Simplon and St. Gotthard tunnels to Switzerland, from Verona to Austria and Germany by way of the Brenner Pass, and from Venice to Vienna and eastern Europe. Milan is the southern terminus for container traffic from Rotterdam, Neth.