Ligure (train)

The Ligure was an international express train operated by the Italian Railways linking Milan with the Côte d'Azur. The train was named after the Italian region Liguria which was served by the train.TEE p. 20.

Trans Europ Express The Ligure was planned to be one of the initial TEE services at the start of the network at 2 June 1957. However the rolling stock was late itself and the service couldn't start before 12 August 1957.Das grosse TEE Buch p. 116 Initially the service linked Milan with Marseille calling at several cities, as Genoa, Monaco and Nice and tourist resorts along the Mediterranean coast. The Aln 442-448 diesel multiple units attracted more and more passengers over the years and by 1966 the train was coupled with an Ale-840 on the Italian stretch to cope with the raising number of travellers.Il TEE Breda p. 34.

In 1969 the route was prolonged further west to Avignon in order to provide a TEE link between Milan and Barcelona using the newly introduced TEE Catalan Talgo and the TEE Ligure. The timetable was changed in a way that passengers could change from the Catalan Talgo to the Ligure and vice versa in Avignon at around 3 p.m.Il TEE Breda p. 36. The formation was changed as well to two Aln 442-448 coupled between Milan and Nice.La Légende des TEE p. 199.

Timetable in 1971 Vorfahrt in Europa table. 20 (while France, Monaco and Italy are all in the Central European time zone, France did not observe Daylight Saving Time until 1976 whilst Italy did since 1966; the real travel time between Monaco and Ventimiglia is only 17 minutes). TEE 47/48 country station km TEE 45/46 15:30 Avignon 0 14:47 16:38 Marseille St Charles 121 13:34 17:16 Toulon 188 12:52 18:08 St. Raphael 282 12:02 18:30 Cannes 315 11:41 18:39 Antibes 326 11:32 18:55 Nice Ville 346 11:19 19:12 Monaco Monte Carlo 362 11:05 20:30 Ventimiglia 381 11:45 20:48 San Remo 397 11:33 21:10 Imperia 420 11:12 22:05 Savona 489 10:09 22:42 Genova Piazza Principe 532 09:32 00:20 Milano Centrale 683 07:55

On 1 October 1972 the rolling stock was replaced by Gran Conforto coaches hauled by an electric locomotive class E 444.

Intercity On 22 May 1982 the route was shortened to Milan - Nice.La Légende des TEE p. 198. At the same time 2nd-class coaches were introduced and the train was transformed into an Intercity service with 16 stops. It didn't met the EuroCity criteria and it lasted until 2005 before the EuroCity label was granted. In December 2009 the Ligure was withdrawn.

Ligure (train)

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