Adriatic railway Adriatic railway The Adriatic railway (Italian: "Ferrovia Adriatica") is the railroad from Ancona to Lecce that runs along the Adriatic Coast of Italy, following it almost all of the way. It is one of the main lines of the Italian rail system and links the northern cities with the most important productive areas of central and southern Italy. The railroad was built by the Società per le Strade Ferrate Meridionali (Italian: "Company for the Southern Railways", "SFM"), between 1863 and 1872. In 1906, management of the line was taken over by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. In 1933, the southernmost Lecce-Otranto
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane The workforce was reduced to half: from 216,310 employees in 1988 to 112,018 in 1999. Divisions were created to rationalize the management. The company was privatized in 1992 with the creation of the new Ferrovie dello Stato SpA, a joint-stock company, following a European guideline. However, the privatization was only formal, since shares were still owned by the Italian Government. On 1 June 2000, the company's two main divisions, service and infrastructure, were separated and two different independent companies were created: Trenitalia, responsible for transport service, and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, responsible for the management of the rail infrastructure. Both companies