Ticino

The Republic and Canton of Ticino or Ticino (Italian: Canton Ticino [kanˈton tiˈtʃiːno]; German: Tessin [tɛˈsiːn]; see also in other languages) is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Ticino borders the Canton of Uri to the north, Valais to the west (through the Novena Pass), Graubünden to the northeast, Italy's regions of Piedmont and Lombardy to the south and it surrounds the small Italian exclave of Campione d'Italia.

Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton where Italian is the sole official language and represents the bulk of the Italian-speaking area of Switzerland along with the southern sections of Graubünden.

The land now occupied by the canton was annexed from Italian cities in the 15th century by various Swiss forces in the last Transalpine campaigns of the Old Swiss Confederacy. In the Helvetic Republic, established 1798, it was divided between the cantons of Bellinzona and Lugano, which since the formation of the Swiss Confederation five years later have been the canton's districts.

Ticino (river)

The river Ticino (Lombard: Tisín; German: Tessin; Latin: Ticinus) is the most important perennial left-bank tributary of the Po River. It has given its name to the Swiss canton through which its upper portion flows.

Course

The river rises in the Val Bedretto in Switzerland at the frontier between the cantons of Valais and Ticino, is fed by the glaciers of the Alps and later flows through Lake Maggiore, before entering Italy. The Ticino joins the Po a few kilometres downstream (along the Ticino) from Pavia. It is about 248 kilometres (154 mi) long. The highest point of the drainage basin is the summit of Grenzgipfel (a subpeak of Monte Rosa), at 4,618 metres (15,151 ft). Beneath it flows the Anza River, a right-bank tributary of the Ticino.

The river is dammed in Switzerland in order to create hydroelectricity, while in Italy it is primarily used for irrigation.

History

The legendary Gallic leader Bellovesus was said to have defeated the Etruscans here in circa 600 BC. Ticino was the location of the Battle of Ticinus, the first battle of the Second Punic War fought between the Carthaginian forces of Hannibal and the Romans under Publius Cornelius Scipio in November 218 BC. The Ticino was in the territory of the Duchy of Milan during much of the later medieval and early modern period, although its upper portion as far as Bellinzona in 1500 and as far as the shores of Lago Maggiore in 1513, fell to the Swiss as a result of their campaigns in the Italian Wars.

Ticino (train)

The Ticino was an express train that linked Milan in Italy, with Zürich, Switzerland and for some years even to Munich, Germany. The train was named after the Canton of Ticino in the south of Switzerland. Introduced in 1961, it was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express (TEE) service until 1974. Later, it was a EuroCity service.

Trans Europ Express

When launched on 1 July 1961, the Ticino was one of three Trans Europ Express services that filled a gap between the northern and southern parts of the TEE network.

Rolling stock

The TEE Ticino, TEE Gottardo and TEE Cisalpin were the first electric TEE trains; all other TEEs in operation at that time used diesel-powered trains. These services through Switzerland were operated by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS) with purpose-built Swiss quadruple-voltage RAe TEE II trainsets. Each trainset worked a four-day schedule: