Italy, a FS Trenitalia Class E444R locomotive (number E444 086) leaves its train at Lecce station after arriving on train ICN765, the overnight 1950 Milano Centrale to Lecce.
A bonus clip from 1:18 is included showing the onboard view behind the engine near the town of Grottaglie.
Clips recorded 6th October 2019.
The FS E.444 is a class of Italian railways electric locomotives. They were introduced in the course of the 1960 until 1975. Starting from 1995, all E.444s were upgraded as E.444R.
The locomotives are nicknamed Tartaruga (tortoise). The original E.444 class carried a cabside cartoon of a speeding tortoise.
The E.444 locomotive was designed in the 1960s as the first Italian electric locomotive capable to reach 200 km/h (120 mph) (in that period first high-speed trains like the Japanese Shinkansen and the French TGV were appearing). Italian railways could boast fast trains like the ETR 200, but they were getting old and the Pendolino project was just in its early phases.
The introduction of fast lines showed the age of the E.444. It was therefore commissioned a program to upgrade all units to a new standard. That stator groups and the braking system were adapted for high speed service, while later it was also decided to update the driving cabin, which had been always noisy at high speed. A new, profiled frontal was thus adopted, together with a pearl grey-red livery. The modified units (for a total of 97) were re-christened E.444R (“R” standing for riqualificazione, meaning “re-qualification”, but also known as “Ribollita” among personnel, meaning something like “Reheated soup”).
E.444R are in widespread service with FS-Trenitalia for fast Intercity and express services.
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Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A. (previously Ferrovie dello Stato), (English: Italian State Railways) is a state-owned holding company that manages infrastructure and services on the Italian rail network.
One of the subsidiaries of the company, Trenitalia, is the main rail operator in Italy.
Trenitalia is the most important subsidiary of the company, as it manages all the trains of the company group. Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. It was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail transport.
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Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. A subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, itself owned by the Italian government, it was established in 2000 following a European Union directive on the deregulation of rail transport.
Trenitalia offers national rail transport in Italy and international connections to Austria, France, Germany, and Switzerland. The company operates both regional and long-distance trains.
Regional trains travel within an Italian region or between neighboring Italian regions, and are subsidized by local government at the regional level by “Contratto di servizio”. Regional trains stop at more stations than other long-distance trains, and some stop at all stations. Regionale veloce (fast regional train) are trains stopping at about half of stations.
Long-distance trains are of mainly of two types: the Frecce (arrows) and Intercity trains.
Intercity trains also serve medium-sized cities besides the big cities, thus are generally slower but are cheaper than the Frecce.
Night trains (Intercity night) operate mainly between north and south of Italy and between Italy and its neighbouring countries and are comparable to Intercity level.
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Lecce is a historic city of around 95,766 inhabitants in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Lecce, the second province in the region by population, as well as one of the most important cities of Apulia. It is the main city of the Salentine Peninsula, a sub-peninsula at the heel of the Italian Peninsula and is over 2,000 years old.
Because of the rich Baroque architectural monuments found in the city, Lecce is commonly nicknamed “The Florence of the South”.
In terms of industry, the “Lecce stone”—a particular kind of limestone—is one of the city’s main exports, because it is very soft and workable, thus suitable for sculptures. Lecce is also an important agricultural centre, chiefly for its olive oil and wine production, as well as an industrial centre specializing in ceramic production.
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Grottaglie is a town and comune in the province of Taranto, Apulia, in southern Italy.
Grottaglie is located in the Salento peninsula, dividing the Adriatic sea from Ionian sea. The countryside around the city is scattered with vast and deep ravines in the limestone that underlies the peninsula.
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