Blog Post 17
Blog Post 17 slug The-horror-rides
The horror rides
Posted on by Marko Fiume
Today i want to talk about the railway i ride everyday: the Circumflegrea railway, which connects the historic centre of Naples with the urban districts and other municipalities.
We riders commonly (wrongly) call it "Cumana" because that's the name of it's older, still active cousin, the Cumana railway, which ends at the same point (Torregaveta (but the Circum railway has closed the Torregaveta-Licola tract)) which passes through the seaside and into other seaside municipalities.
Problem: this railway has been poorly maintained ever since it's conception between 1961 and the 70s - when the holding company wasn't EAV but the legendary SEPSA -, almost 100% due to lack of proper funding (same thing is happening with every other railway owned by EAV or other private entities, look at the Roma-Viterbo and Metromare railways in the Rome region.
So today i want to showcase you what i call "the horror rides", different small parts of this railway that are at high risk of derailing.
But hey atleast there's the Train of Peace (well it's been here since May 30th but i only recently found out about it), which is a train dedicated to some peace party at Nabilah beach resort in Bacoli that happened that day, and the organizers got in contact with EAV to make a dedicated train service for the event which would grant free access to it.
We riders commonly (wrongly) call it "Cumana" because that's the name of it's older, still active cousin, the Cumana railway, which ends at the same point (Torregaveta (but the Circum railway has closed the Torregaveta-Licola tract)) which passes through the seaside and into other seaside municipalities.
Problem: this railway has been poorly maintained ever since it's conception between 1961 and the 70s - when the holding company wasn't EAV but the legendary SEPSA -, almost 100% due to lack of proper funding (same thing is happening with every other railway owned by EAV or other private entities, look at the Roma-Viterbo and Metromare railways in the Rome region.
So today i want to showcase you what i call "the horror rides", different small parts of this railway that are at high risk of derailing.
This image is taken on the railway in the section passing through Quarto, which is mostly held up in the air with a tall bridge (Quarto is a valley basically).
Here we have not one but 2 curves that the trains must pass through.
Problem is that, well, the curves rattle. A lot. I myself don't know the reason (either rail corrugation or a problem with the train wheels) but whenever the train has to make any curve it starts to make very loud noises and vibrations that debilitate my legs for a few seconds. Crazy
Here we have not one but 2 curves that the trains must pass through.
Problem is that, well, the curves rattle. A lot. I myself don't know the reason (either rail corrugation or a problem with the train wheels) but whenever the train has to make any curve it starts to make very loud noises and vibrations that debilitate my legs for a few seconds. Crazy
This image was taken on the same ride, a few kilometres farther in the Montesanto (Naples) direction.
This is Pisani, in the Naples urban territory. Here we have yet another one of those loud curves, but with the added bonus of being heavily banked relative to the train's speed (so much that the train bounces left and right a lot!!) and there is a quite short railway switch near the Pisani station: whenever the train, in Licola direction (the station at the other end of the active line) approach that at high speed it really does feel like we're all dying and going on the news in that very moment
This is Pisani, in the Naples urban territory. Here we have yet another one of those loud curves, but with the added bonus of being heavily banked relative to the train's speed (so much that the train bounces left and right a lot!!) and there is a quite short railway switch near the Pisani station: whenever the train, in Licola direction (the station at the other end of the active line) approach that at high speed it really does feel like we're all dying and going on the news in that very moment
This next one i haven't shot a photo but it's alright since it's under a dark tunnel, but it's basically at the end of the Flegrea tunnel near Montesanto station. Some train drivers get distracted or aren't really the best, and whenever they have to encounter the switch system that's at Montesanto station and go way too fast, that's what i call a true horror ride. I come out half traumatized.
But hey atleast there's the Train of Peace (well it's been here since May 30th but i only recently found out about it), which is a train dedicated to some peace party at Nabilah beach resort in Bacoli that happened that day, and the organizers got in contact with EAV to make a dedicated train service for the event which would grant free access to it.