FERROVIA TURISTICA DELLA VAL D'ORCIA
In collaboration with "Terre di Siena"
The Asciano to Monte Antico railway was closed in september 1994 because it was considered as a "dead branch". The reduceced passenger traffic couldn't justify the normal service.
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Still the line is surrounded by an amazing environment and landscape; indeed it runs through the region of the Siena Clays and the Orcia river valley at the feet of the Amiata Mount. The esteemed wine Brunello is produced in this place and the Natural and cultural Artistic Park of the Orcia Valley has been established here. The Park today is directly involved in the operating of the railway. The Asciano to Monte Antico line has therefore been re-opened in a few holydays as a "tourist railway" thanks to the project Treno Natura which is economically supported by the province administration and it follows the example of many "tourist railways" already existing in other european countries and in North America.
The volunteers of the association "Ferrovia Val d'Orcia" keep the costs under control by devoting themeselves to the ticket sale, the client service and the exploitation of the line attractions. The project is intended to demonstrate that the re-use of branch lines can be made possible through an innovative management; in fact those stretches running through areas uninvolved in the industrialisation and urbanisation play a basic role from the naturalist point of view. Furthermore the project means to contribute to the preservation of the "industrial archeology" heritage.
The historical value of the "Tourist Railway" is stressed by the appropriatly renovated veteran rail cars carrying out the service and by the steam locomitives and "centoporte" waggons - "hundred-doors" waggons, the name is due to the fact that this waggons have as many doors as compartments - which sometimes operate as well. Completing the trip in the past, in Asciano you can even travel by a horse-drawn carriage. At Siena station, a beautiful crib with over 160 statues in motion, prepared by volunteers of the FVO, is in permanent display.