Milano Centrale railway station

Milano Centrale
An ornate and extensively detailed gray stone classical portico with four sets of twinned columns at the top of which the Italian and European Union flags hang limply; above is clear blue sky. In front is a more modern one-story pavilion with an elevator in front of it inside a circular wall. Some people can be seen walking around.
Main entrance portico on Piazza Duca d'Aosta, 2022
General information
LocationPiazza Duca d'Aosta
20124 Milan
Italy
Coordinates45°29′10″N 09°12′13″E / 45.48611°N 9.20361°E / 45.48611; 9.20361
Owned byRete Ferroviaria Italiana
Operated byGrandi Stazioni
Line(s)
Tracks24
Connections
Construction
ArchitectUlisse Stacchini
Other information
IATA codeXIK[1]
Fare zoneSTIBM: Mi1[2]
History
Opened1 July 1931 (1931-07-01)
Electrified1938 (1938)
Passengers
120 million per year
Location
Milano Centrale is located in Milan
Milano Centrale
Milano Centrale
Location in Milan Central
Milano Centrale is located in Lombardy
Milano Centrale
Milano Centrale
Location in Lombardy
Milano Centrale is located in Northern Italy
Milano Centrale
Milano Centrale
Location in Northern Italy
Milano Centrale is located in Italy
Milano Centrale
Milano Centrale
Location in Italy

Milano Centrale (Italian: Stazione di Milano Centrale) is the main railway station of the city of Milan, Italy, and is the second railway station in Italy for passenger flow[3] (after Roma Termini) and the largest railway station in Europe by volume.[4]

The station is a terminus and located at the northern end of central Milan. It was officially inaugurated in 1931 to replace the old central station (built 1864), which was a transit station that could not handle the increased traffic caused by the opening of the Simplon Tunnel in 1906 due to the old station's limited number of tracks and space.

Milano Centrale has high-speed connections to Turin in the west, Venice via Verona in the east and on the north–south mainline to Bologna, Rome, Naples and Salerno. The Simplon and Gotthard railway lines connect Milano Centrale to Basel and Geneva via Domodossola and Zürich via Chiasso in Switzerland.

Destinations of inter-city and regional railways radiate from Milano Centrale to Ventimiglia (border of France), Genova, Turin, Domodossola (border of Swiss Canton of Valais/Wallis), Tirano (border of Swiss Canton of Graubünden/Grisons), Bergamo, Verona, Mantova, Bologna and La Spezia.

The Milan suburban railway service, however, does not use Milano Centrale but the other mainline stations: Porta Garibaldi (northwest), Cadorna (west) and Rogoredo (east).

Architect Aldo Rossi declared in an interview of February 1995 to Cecilia Bolognesi:[5] "They told me that when Frank Lloyd Wright came to Milan, and he came only once, he was really impressed by it and said it was the most beautiful station in the world. For me it is also more beautiful than Grand Central Station in New York. I know few stations like this one".

  1. ^ "Airport codes Milano (Milan), Italy (IT) | ICAO, IATA codes, location of airports of Airport codes Milano (Milan), Italy (IT) | latitude, longitude airports of Airport codes Milano (Milan), Italy (IT) | coordinates of airports of Airport codes Milano (Milan), Italy (IT) | International codes and coordinates of all airports in the world | International codes and coordinates of all airports in Airport codes Milano (Milan), Italy (IT)". airportsbase.org. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Servizio Ferroviario Suburbano". Muoversi in Lombardia. Regione Lombardia. April 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  3. ^ Data from grandistazioni.it (July 2007)
  4. ^ "La Stazione Centrale di Milano: la più grande in Europa". Retrieved 1 October 2023.
  5. ^ Aldo Rossi, Luoghi Urbani, Unicopli 1999, p. 31