Sicily had at one time an extensive narrow gauge railway network. The design work was begun under at the time of the provisional management of the Southern Railways, continued by the Rete Sicula (Sicilian Railways) and built by Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State Railways), which spread over the territory of five provinces: Palermo, Trapani, Agrigento , Caltanissetta, Enna; today the FS narrow-gauge network is completely abandoned and only the Circumetnea railway survives.
History
The design origins of some sections of the network date back to the 1870s; The construction of these railways was however started later and in some cases implemented so slowly to that construction was only completed in the 1960s only to be abandoned soon after.
The first narrow gauge railway, the Palermo-Corleone-San Carlo Railway was built by private investors; the first project of 1873, was for an 850mm gauge steam tramway but on 15 September 1879 (perhaps also as a consequence of the new "Baccarini law", a framework for the construction of new lines to complete the Sicilian railway network) which recommended the use of metre gauge and established the contribution to construction costs by local authorities, the Provincial Council of Palermo decided to build it as heavy rail. This decision was probably the basis for the subsequent, unfortunate, choice of the narrow gauge for all the other related lines, built subsequently. The primary aim was to be able to convey wines, agricultural products and fish from the ports of the Mediterranean to the regional capital, Palermo. The construction of the section from Palermo to Corleone was sub-contracted in June 1883 to the English entrepreneur Robert Trewhella. Work began on 20 April 1884. The extension towards Castelvetrano and the south coast was entrusted in concession to the Società Siciliana per le Ferrovie Economiche (Sicilian Economical Railway Company) on 11 December 1898; however the Corleone-San Carlo was inaugurated only on 21 May 1903. Traffic remained at good levels for the first section up to Corleone but was always limited on the second and this led to a period of provisional management by the State in 1906 and then the incorporation into the FS network as of 1922.
While the construction of the main standard gauge network continued steadily, the construction of the other secondary lines suffered long setbacks with the exception of the private Circumetnea Railway, built by the Società Siciliana per lavori pubblici, (the Sicilian Civil Engineering Company, of which Trewhella himself was a shareholder), opened between 1895 and 1898. The remaining lines to be built suffered continuous setbacks due to multiple factors, including disputes among the municipalities in exchange for their investment capital required the alignment to pass as close as possible to the town centre, the interests of foreign or national sulphur companies who wanted the lines to serve their mines and not least the Rete Sicula's priority to build standard gauge lines to the coast, in particular, Castelvetrano-Porto Empedocle and Agrigento-Palma di Montechiaro-Licata.
To resolve these conflicting interests,the government set up a Royal Commission in 1901. Its recommendations are considered to be the cause of the premature obsolescence of the network. Narrow gauge with minimum infrastructure was recommended in order to limit the cost. Extensive use was to be made of rack sections to shorten the route. The result was a mess of very slow and tortuous lines, subject to landslides, the absence of efficient signaling and operating systems, and above all no relation to any master plan.
In the meantime, the construction of the network was further delayed by the nationalization, which happened for the Rete Sicula at the end of 1906. Under the aegis of the FS (State Railways) two sections from Castelvetrano station were finally put into service on 20 June 1910: the first of the line to San Carlo and Burgio up to Partanna and the first of the line to Porto Empedocle as far as Selinunte; on December 16, 1911, construction began on the Porto Empedocle-Siculiana section.
The first railway to be completed was the Canicattì-Licati, built between 1911 and 1915, to carry sulphur from the mines to the ports of Licata and Palma di Montechiaro and to transport the sulphur miners between the towns and the mines scattered between Canicattì and the sea.