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Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (previously Ferrovie dello Stato, FS)^[2] is a government-owned holding that manages infrastructure and services on the Italian rail network. The subsidiary Trenitalia is the main rail operator in Italy.

Organization[link]

Subsidiaries[link]

Ferrovie dello Stato subsidiaries are:^[3]

• Trenitalia: passenger and freight rail transport
• Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, (RFI): national rail infrastructure management
• Italferr: engineering services
• Ferservizi: non-core services
• FS Logistica: logistics
• FS Sistemi Urbani: mainly real estate management
• BUSITALIA Sita Nord: road transport services
• Fercredit: financial services
• Grandi Stazioni (59.99%): manages the 13 largest railway stations in Italy
• Centostazioni (59.99%): manages the 103 medium-sized railway stations in Italy

History[link]

Early years[link]

Ferrovie dello Stato (National Railway) were instituted by an act on 22 April 1905, taking control over the majority of the national railways, private until then. The president was nominated by the government.

With the rise of the fascism a centralization policy was carried out. The board of directors and chief administrator office were abolished at the end of 1922. The institution was administered by a commissioner appointed by the King until April 1924. Since then, Ferrovie dello Stato was managed by the newly born Ministry of Communications (including rail transport), under Costanzo Ciano. After the armistice, on 8 September 1943, Italy was divided and train operations were separately directed too, with headquarters in Salerno for the south and Verona for the north.

At the end of 1944 the Ministry of Communications was split and the new Ministry of Transport was created, including the General management of Ferrovie dello Stato, and in 1945 the company was renamed Azienda Autonoma delle Ferrovie dello Stato.

From World War II to 1985[link]

The period after the Second World War was particularly tough for Ferrovie dello Stato, since most of the Italian rail network was severely damaged and the rolling stock was obsolete. The network was rebuilt almost entirely by 1952. Since then, a period of renewal started. New trains were introduced, among them the ETR 300, and many sections of the national network were electrified and sometimes doubled.

In 1957 the new FS ALn 442 multiple unit was introduced, greatly reducing travel time on the Italian network. During these years the rolling stock was generally renewed and expanded with the mass construction of electrical and diesel multiple units, like the FS ALe 883, FS ALe 840 and FS ALn 772.

However, the real revolution was the introduction in 1956 of the new FS ALn 668 diesel multiple unit. In the following years, 3 MU out of 4 were 668, which replaced many older units. Many electrical locomotives were also introduced during this period, like the FS ALe 601, progenitor of the 801 and 803 EMU, still in use today on regional service.

During 1970s electronic cars were first introduced on the Italian network, starting with the G.A.I. trains for regional and metropolitan service. The new E.444 was the first attempt on high-speed rail, with top speed of 200 km/h (120 mph). The ETR 401 (1976) was the first prototype of the new Pendolino class. Following other network improvements, works for the first Italian High-speed rail line started in these years. The line, the Direttissima from Florence to Rome, was partially opened in 1986 and concluded in 1992. In 1986 trains were travelling the line at 200 km/h (120 mph), surpassing for the first time the previous maximum limit of 180 km/h on the Italian network. In 1988 the ETR 450 Pendolino were travelling regularly at 250 km/h (160 mph), today's top speed on the line. The line was the fastest in Europe after French TGV lines.

The old logo was renewed in 1982 and again in 1994, with the introduction of the XMPR^[4] livery.

The FS was left unchanged in its administrative structure until the end of 1985. From the following year, after 80 years, the Azienda Autonoma delle Ferrovie dello Stato was replaced by a new company, Ferrovie dello Stato.^[5]

Recent years[link]

The newly born Ferrovie dello Stato underwent major structural transformations between 1986 and 1992. Workforce was reduced to half: from 216,310 employees in 1988 to 112,018 in 1999.^[6] Divisions were created to rationalize the management. The company was denationalized in 1992 with the creation of the new Ferrovie dello Stato SpA, a join stock company, following a European guideline. However, the privatization was only formal, since shares were still owned by the Italian Government.^[7]

Only on 1 June 2000 the two main divisions, service and infrastructure, were separated and two different independent companies were created: Trenitalia, responsible for transport service, and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana, responsible for the management of the rail infrastructure. Both companies were still subsidiaries of Ferrovie dello Stato Holding SpA.^[8]

Management since 1989[link]

Chairmen[link]

• Lorenzo Necci (1989–1996)
• Giancarlo Cimoli (1996–1998)
• Claudio Dematté (1998–2001)
• Giancarlo Cimoli (2001–2004)
• Elio Catania (2004–2006)
• Innocenzo Cipolletta (2006–2010)
• Lamberto Cardia (2010-)

CEOs[link]

• Lorenzo Necci (1989–1996)
• Giancarlo Cimoli (1996–2004)
• Elio Catania (2004–2006)
• Mauro Moretti (2006-)

See also[link]

• Rail transport in Italy
• History of railways in Italy
• Transportation in Italy
• High-speed rail in Italy

Notes and References[link]

• Giovanni Cornolò, Martin Gut, Ferrovie trifasi nel mondo. 1895-2000, Parma, Ermanno Albertelli, 2000, ISBN 88-87372-10-1

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane

• Official website
• Corporate page (Italian)
• Rail transport in Toscana
• Brenner Line

v t e Grandi Stazioni S.p.A. Shareholders Ferrovie dello Stato Eurostazioni Italy Bari Centrale Bologna Centrale Firenze Santa Maria Novella Genova Brignole Genova Piazza Principe Milano Centrale Napoli Centrale Palermo Centrale Roma Termini Torino Porta Nuova Venezia Mestre Venezia Santa Lucia Verona Porta Nuova Czech Republic Praha hlavní nádraží Karlovy Vary Mariánské Lázně

Gioele Dix
Born	(1956-01-03)January 3, 1956 Milan, Italy
Other names	David Ottolenghi
Website
http://www.gioeledix.it/

Gioele Dix, a pseudonym of his name David Ottolenghi (born January 3, 1956) is an Italian actor and comedian of Jewish descent.

Life[link]

Gioele Dix began his theatrical career at the end of the 1970s, promoting and animating the Milan stage company Teatro degli Eguali. Among the numerous plays he took part in, are: A Midsummer Night's Dream, a rock musical from Shakespeare directed by Gabriele Salvatores; A Martian in Rome by Ennio Flaiano and directed by Antonio Salines; two stagings of Molière’s, Le Malade imaginaire and Tartuffe with veteran actor Franco Parenti. Intending to pursue a career as stand-up comedian, he appeared at the Derby Club and the Zelig, important historical Milan cabarets, reaching fame in 1988 in the TV variety show Cocco by RAI2 with the character of a permanently enraged car driver ("fucking raving mad!").

In the 1990s he confirms his popularity as a stage actor, as well as a playwright, in a number of works and on TV, but often also as a comedian sending up and imitating renowned soccer players in prime-time Sports shows.

In the last few years, Dix had various movie engagements and filmed for the national TV together with Giorgio Albertazzi in 2004. Among the many theatrical works, he interpreted Cuori pazzi (Crazy Hearts) by F.T Altan (2000), Il libertino (The Libertine) by E.E. Schmitt together with Ottavia Piccolo (2001) where he is the first Italian man playing naked, Corto Maltese from scripts by Hugo Pratt and music by Paolo Conte. Recently he returned to the stage with Edipo.com, directed by famous Italian star Sergio Fantoni (2003); then La Bibbia ha quasi sempre ragione (The Bible Is Almost Always Right) with Cesare Picco at the piano (2004), all of them pièces enhancing the narrative dimension of the story, thus exploiting Dix’s natural talent as a raconteur.

In 2007 he was engaged in the cast of Zelig (a popular comedy TV show) as one of the comedians, interpreting his now famous caricature of the "permanently enraged car driver".

In 2008 he staged Tutta colpa di Garibaldi (It’s All Garibaldi’s Fault) with scripts by Gioele Dix, Sergio Fantoni and Nicola Fano, directed by Sergio Fantoni; he followed with the play Dixplay by himself, with the participation of Bebo Best Baldan.

Quote[link]

Io sono un automobilista, ed essendo un automobilista sono sempre costantemente incazzato come un bestia!! (I’m a car driver, and being a car driver, I’m always totally furiously irrevocably pissed off!)

—Gioele Dix

Filmography[link]

• Crimini - Disegno di sangue, directed by Gianfranco Cabiddu per RAI2
• Tracce di vita amorosa, directed by Peter Del Monte (1990)
• Per non dimenticare, directed by Massimo Martelli (1992)
• Tre passi nel delitto, directed by Fabrizio Laurenti (1993)
• Bidoni, directed by Felice Farina (1995)
• Olimpo Lupo, cronista di nera, directed by Fabrizio Laurenti (1995)
• Uno di noi, (1996)
• Se fossi in te, directed by Giulio Manfredonia (2001)
• Cerco lavoro, directed by Fratelli Frazzi (2002)
• Marcinelle, directed by Vincenzo Verdecchi (2004)
• Ora e per sempre, directed by Vincenzo Verdecchi (2004)
• Ricomincio da me, directed by Rossella Izzo (2005)
• A voce alta, directed by Vincenzo Verdecchi (2006)
• Tutti i rumori del mondo, directed by Tiziana Aristarco (2007)

Theatre[link]

• La mia patente non scade mai, regia di Gioele Dix, (1988)(1989)
• Mai a stomaco vuoto, regia di Gioele Dix, (1990)
• Antologia di Edipo, regia di Gioele Dix, (1991)(1992)
• Anna, regia di Gioele Dix, (1992)(1993)
• Sto ristrutturando, regia di Gioele Dix, (1993)(1994)
• Questa estate, regia di Gioele Dix, (1994)
• Cinque Dix, regia di Gioele Dix, (1995)
• Mi sembra che andiamo bene, regia di Gioele Dix, (1997)(1998)
• L'uomo degli appuntamenti, regia di Gioele Dix, (1998)
• Recital, regia di Gioele Dix, (1999)
• Agamennone, regia di Giorgio Gallione, (2000)
• Cuori pazzi, regia di Giorgio Gallione, (2000)(2001)
• Il Libertino, regia di Sergio Fantoni, (2001)(2002)
• Mappa del nuovo mondo, lettura delle liriche di Derek Walcott, regia di Piero Maccarinelli, (2002)
• A posto così, regia di Gioele Dix, (2002)
• Corto Maltese, regia di Giorgio Gallione, (2003)(2004)
• Edipo.com, regia di Sergio Fantoni, (2003)(2004)(2005)
• La Bibbia ha (quasi) sempre ragione, regia di Andree Ruth Shamma, (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)
• Grand Tour, cronache di viaggiatori illustri, regia di Gioele Dix, (2004)
• Amore a prima vista, letture delle poesie con regia di Wislawa Szimborska, (2004)
• I ragazzi hanno orecchie, interpretazione delle fiabe di Fernand Deligny, regia di Gioele Dix, (2005)
• Meglio il nuovo oggi (L'innovazione fa spettacolo), regia di Serena Sinigaglia, (2006)
• Tutta colpa di Garibaldi, regia di Sergio Fantoni, (2008)
• Dixplay, regia di Giancarlo Bozzo, (2008)

Bibliography[link]

Dix has also published some books on amusing themes:

• Il manuale del vero automobilista (Manual Of The True Car Driver) (M.M., 1991)
• Cinque Dix (Five Dix) (Baldini&Castoldi, 1995)
• La Bibbia ha quasi sempre ragione (The Bible Is Almost Always Right) (Mondadori, 2003)
• Manuale dell'automobilista incazzato (Manual Of The Friggin’ Mad Car Driver) (Mondadori, 2007)

External links[link]

• Official website
• Official YouTube Account
• "Gieole Dix, My Roots", by C. Cannella (Corriere della Sera, 2004)
• Gioele Dix at the Internet Movie Database