The opening of the Vicenza-Schio railway in 1876 marked the dawn of a new era for transport in the Vicenza pre-Alps and triggered the industrialisation of Schio’s valleys, revolutionising their societies and local economies. Brothers Francesco and Gaetano Rossi desperately needed to link Schio to the factories along the Astico, a situation that led to early plans for a 700 mm narrow- gauge railway in 1880. In 1883, Francesco pushed for the establishment of “Società Anonima Cooperativa di Schio per le Tranvie e Ferrovie nel Distretto”. This small structured cooperative for local trams and railways, probably the first of its kind in Italy, had an initial capital of 12,300 lire provided by 11 pioneers; shortly afterwards, the cooperative had 200 backers and its capital had increased to 126,000 lire. It expanded its vehicle stock and bought two German steam locomotives produced by Henschel & Sohn; they bore the service numbers 60 and 61 and the names of the main stations: “Schio” and “Arsiero”. The project soon turned out to be more ambitious than first thought, and huge investments had to be made to construct the tunnels through Meda. The provincial government provided a grant of 5,394 lire for 50 years, with the national government adding a 1,000 lire subsidy per kilometre for 35 years. The president of Società Veneta, Signor Breda also answered the call of Senator Rossi to support the company, and he agreed 500,000 lire of funding for Schio’s railways. September 1884 thus saw the beginning of a new company “Ferrovie Economiche di Schio”, which had a share capital of 1,000,000 lire and shares worth 100 lire each.
Sources:
Binari del passato, La Società Veneta Ferrovie, Giovanni Cornolò e Giovanni Villan, Ermanno Albertelli Editore, 1984
Arsiero-Panorama storico, Angelo Busato, Tipolitografia G.Fuga e Figli, 1993
I treni delle lane, Giorgio Chiericato e Franco Segalla, Edizioni Bonomo Asiago, 1995
