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Bologna Centrale Italian national railways (Ferrovie dello Stato) |
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 View of the station building in 2006. |
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| Station statistics | |
| Address | Piazza Medaglie d'Oro, Bologna |
| Coordinates | 44°30′22″N 11°20′32″E / 44.506111°N 11.342222°ECoordinates: 44°30′22″N 11°20′32″E / 44.506111°N 11.342222°E |
| Lines | Milan-Bologna (high-speed) Milan-Bologna (traditional) Verona-Bologna Padua-Bologna Bologna–Ancona Bologna–Florence (high speed) Bologna–Florence (traditional) Bologna–Vignola Bologna–Portomaggiore Bologna–Pistoia |
| Structure | at-grade, crossing station |
| Tracks | 20 |
| Other information | |
| Opened | 1864 |
| Owned by | Rete Ferroviaria Italiana S.p.A |
| Traffic | |
| Passengers () | 58 million/year[1] |
Bologna Centrale is a railway station in Bologna, Italy. It is at the southern end of the Milan-Bologna high-speed line, which opened on 13 December 2008 and the northern end of the Bologna–Florence Direttissima, opened on 22 April 1934. A new high speed line to Florence opened on 13 December 2009.
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The first Bologna Centrale station was constructed in 1859, however there are sketchy and unclear testimonies regarding its history. A new station was built twelve years later on the same grounds.
The station as we know it today was designed and built by architect Gaetano Ratti, who had trained in the local Clementine Academy. Inspired by the neoclassical style, its distinctive fifteenth century façade opens in nine entrance doors, and is towered by the trademark clock tower with its marble pillars. The traveller building is reminiscent of renaissance Florentine architecture.
The original design called for a rectangular shaped two-faced building, with a marble external façade and steel internal one. Subsequent extension works, such as the 1926 building of the West-bound platforms, shaped the station into the “L” form typical of expanded transit stations. Later, the introduction of new platforms on the eastern half (1934) caused the station to again change its conformation.
Today, Bologna Central Station is the fifth-largest passengers traffic in Italy (about 58,000,000 passengers per year). It is, however, one of the first for traffic volume, being tied with Rome Termini Station for train traffic (about 800 trains/day) because it is the principal railway junction of Italy.[1]
A new three-level railway station for high-speed trains, 642 metres long and 56 metres wide, is being built under the current station to a design by Arata Isozaki, with parking at 7 metres below the surface, a shopping arcade at 15 m below and four high-speed train platforms at 23 m below. In July 2008 Arata Isozaki & Associates, Ove Arup & Partners and M + T & Partners won a competition to design the station. It is expected to be completed in 2014 at a cost of €340 million.[2]
On August 2, 1980 at 10.25 am, an improvised explosive device (IED) made with 20 kilograms of a TNT mixture, detonated inside Bologna's main train station. The IED was contained in a suitcase, which was placed near the wall inside a waiting lobby. The explosion killed 85 people and injured more than 200. The wing of the station in which the bomb detonated has been reconstructed but, as a testimony to the victims of the attack, the original pavement was maintained as well as a deep crack in the main wall. Moreover, the station main clock is forever stopped at the exact time of the explosion. The attack is also known in Italy as the Strage di Bologna, the Bologna massacre.
The Italian government immediately accused the Italian based militant group Red Brigades for the attack, however this was denied by the group, and no one ever claimed responsibility. Over the years, official investigation has determined that the attack was probably carried out by a small Neo-Fascist group. Many conspiracy theories regarding this event have been entertained, including a link between this act of terrorism and the Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 disaster.
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