The Length: 165 km(map) 79 km(TSW2) From Wikipedia of the whole line: The Pisa-Genoa railway line is one of the main lines of the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane in Italy. The railway line runs along the Tyrrhenian Sea. From Genoa it crosses the entire Ligurian Levant, i.e. the section of Liguria to the east of Genoa, and reaches the city of Pisa via the Tuscan coastal landscape of Versilia. It is double-tracked throughout and connects Genoa, Pisa and the provincial capitals of Massa-Carrara and La Spezia. Further south, it connects to the Pisa-Rome railway line. The railway traffic is operated and controlled by the Sistema di Comando e Controllo (SCC) of the railway company Rete Ferroviaria Italiana. From its location in Pisa, the system organizes traffic on the section from Rome (Maccarese) to Sestri Levante, a rail network with a total length of 420 kilometers. From another location in Genoa (Teglia), SCC controls the Sestri Levante-Genoa line. The railway line was built in several sections between 1861 and 1874 and has a length of 165 kilometers.
I would love this one as well! Even more the former extended route to Ventimiglia and crossing the border to Monaco/Nice! That would make nice changes to the trains as well. At the border it needs to change engine, SNCF one for FS and v.v.!
Absolutely this would the be the route in Italy I would most want to see! (With a close second and third being any route that enters Venice Station, or Florence Station). As the route between Genoa and Pisa is still too long for current TSW2 route standards at 185km it would have to be narrowed down. A lot of the route is lots and lots twisting tunnels jumping in and out of valleys and so theoretically the distance still needn't be so intimidating as it first appears. I would choose somewhere within, or all of the section between La Spezia and Genoa to represent. In total that comes in at 86km (32 stations). It could be narrowed down further to between La Spezia and Rapallo* at 57km (18 stations), or La Spezia and Sestri Levante at 41km (13 stations). Allow me to explain why: The chosen section would absolutely have to include the famous Cinque Terra coastal towns just west of La Spezia. The area is the jewel of the route with each of the 5 iconic towns having their own stations. Vernazza Station perhaps being the most dramatic, as it has to be partly inside two separate tunnels because the valley the town sits in is so tight. It would be best to use La Spezia as the point at which the route is divided, because for both local and fast regional services the route is split into two separate operational sections in real life; Genoa-La Spezia, and La Spezia-Pisa. To further granularise this more specifically; the regional service patterns consist of Genoa-Genova Nervi, Genoa-Recco, Genoa-Sestri Levante, Sestri Levante-La Spezia, Genoa-La Spezia (local), and Genoa-La Spezia (fast). This is also mixed with freight, intercity and long distance trains from Pisa or Genoa serving places like Milan, Florence, Rome etc. For how picturesque the line is; its is hardly quiet. Timetable of just the trains that stop at Cinque Terra stations: (Note: Its from 2020 so the pandemic may have effected the frequency) *The reason I give Rapallo an asterisk is because you could potentially have the last station in that section not be Rapallo Station, but instead Santa Margherita Ligure-Portofino Station which is one stop/3.1 km up the line. It is Portofino and Cinque Terra that is a huge reason for many people visiting the the area. They will then use the trains to day trip out to the tiny, tight towns as staying the towns themselves is often out of the budget range for many. Rapallo is the biggest population centre and station in that area and is a popular place for those visiting the area to stay. Now I won't lie; Santa Margherita Ligure-Portofino Station is simply the closest station to Portofino, and not actually in the town itself (unlike the Cinque Terra towns). It is the most convenient station to get off and then catch a boat or hike to the town (hence the inclusion of the name in its title). So it is still totally optional to include it as an extra station, although I personally would. If I had to rank those three initial options I would choose: La Spezia to Rapallo* - 57km (18 stations) La Spezia to Genoa - 86km (32 stations) La Spezia to Sestri Levante - 41km (13 stations) The reason I don't simply list them in order of longest to shortest is because I really want detail and attention paid to the locations that are included, rather than pushing the limits of what is possible. Ruhr-Sieg Nord is a good example of the level of detail and extra effort I would like to see with the route. I also wouldn't want it as the first Italian route to be made. This is something where the time investment really should be on the beauty of the location and exhibiting it successfully.
I'm 100% supportive of this idea, this line is one the most beautiful here in Italy and has whatever kind of service you like, however a lot of different locos and rolling stock run there. There is quite a lot of freight, hauled mainly by E652 and TRAXX locomotives (E494) E652 in the "new" Mercitalia livery Cab [video showcasing the interior] About freight wagons there is intermodal freight, tankers (one of which was involved in the tragic Viareggio incident) and also Habbiins and Shimms can be seen. It could be possible for freights to be handled by a TRAXX model (keep in mind electrification is 3000V DC) so that the two "original" locomotives can be passenger only. The E464 needs to be included in almost every italian DLC you can think of, there are more than 720 hauling every loco hauled regional train. E464 in the "new" DTR livery Cab About rolling stock, we use a lot of different coaches for regional trains, if you are interested you can google them, MDVE, MDVC, Piano Ribassato, ViValto, 2 Piani Casaralta (tipo 1979) Because every regional train in Italy is either a push-pull or an EMU, a cab car is mandatory for every italian DLC featuring regional trains, and every set of coaches has it's own variant, of course I would only expect one type of coach and cab car combination to be represented. For inter city services I will write another post to be able to post more pictures
Oh I like the looks of those mountainous coastal lines. I've been playing a bit of Euro Truck Simulator and the area around Genova has quite some amazing views. Such a coastal route would be pretty epic.
Since tilting trains are possible to create, this was one of the routes where the famous ETR450 used to run Cab It has also seen services from the successive generations of Pendolino (ETR 460, 470, 480 and even Almstom's "New Pendolino" ETR600), first under the Trenitalia Branding (and the white/red livery), then under "Frecciabianca" and "Frecciargento": FS' medium/high speed offering. ETR485 with the old Frecciargento livery Of course all of these trains have active tilting. More recently I think only the Frecciabianca ETR460s run on this route E402b (and the similar E403) with the old livery E401 in the new "IC sun" livery Also the E444R was heavily used and is the loco represented in the OP's post but they have been scrapped since the begging of this year. For IC coaches FS uses the UIC-Z and Grand Confort coaches.
