Milan 1966: service order 6-1966 closes Ferrovienord Milano’s Grandate-Malnate line, sacrificed to the policy that was in vogue at the time of pruning away dead branches.
Unlike the Valmorea, another railway line that no longer appears in the official schedules, the line affectionately nicknamed “La Traversata” by the railway operators because of its route cutting across all the company’s other lines, was dismantled and forgotten in a hurry. Forgotten all too soon, and never sufficiently regretted, even by the local population; only now that their streets are overwhelmed with traffic do they fully realise the significance of the short-sighted rush to shut down the line.
The story of the railway line began in 1881 when the province of Como, which already included what is now the province of Varese, presented a plan by engineer Campiglio, who was already well-known for his plans for other Ferrovie Nord lines. The segment recalled here was inaugurated in 1885 to complete a broader project, a railway line to Laveno from both Saronno and Como.
The tormented route and greater traffic on the lines between the provincial capitals and the city of Milan relegated this fragment of railway line to very low traffic, which, with today’s overcrowded road network, once again testifies how, more often than we think, it is essential to consider a vision extending further into the future than the human eye can see, and to wipe the lenses of your binoculars so as to see beyond present-day convenience.