Castagnole delle Lanze Station

The station was opened on 13 October 1865, at the same time as the route from Bra to Nizza Monferrato, which completed the line Alessandria-Cavallermaggiore and was originally managed by Strade Ferrate of the Piedmontese State.

In 1870, with the opening of the Asti line, it became a branch station^[1].

Following the statization of the railways, between 1905 and 1906, the last lines managed by the Company for the Ferrate Roads of the Mediterranean was incorporated into the state network and the exercise of the plants was assumed by the Railways of the State.

Since 2001 the management of the lines, and with them that of the station of Castagnole, has been in charge to Rete Ferroviaria Italiana which for commercial purposes classifies the plant in the category "Bronze"^[2].

From 30 April 2010 traffic was suspended on the route Alba-Castagnole, due to the instability to the gallery Ghersi (posted between Barbaresco and Alba), which needed huge structural interventions for safety.^[3], thus interrupting relations with Alba. This suspension was definitively highlighted from 17 June 2012, with the closure of the Castagnole-Asti and Castagnole-Cantalupo routes, by decision of the Piemonte Region, which unlike neighboring Lombardy did not intend to start a program to enhance rail transport, decreeing the suspension of service contracts on numerous secondary lines under its jurisdiction^[4]. The station therefore remained without traffic, due to the suspension of service on all the routes to which it was connected.

On 11 November 2018 the station was reinaugurated to the passage of two historical trains of Fondazione FS Italiane (of which the first with steam locomotive) on the occasion of the reopening of the route Asti-Chestnuts-Nizza Monferrato^[5].

From 4 May 2019 the Alba-Castagnole trunk for tourist purposes was partially reopened, limited to Neive, as a continuation of the Asti-Castagnole-Nizza routes^[6], while the remaining stretch up to Alba from 27 November 2021^[7].

After years of battles of the territories, in June 2022 the reopening to the commercial service of the routes Alba-Asti and Mortara-Casale was approved by the Region, which would have had effect from September 2023^[8].

The Asti-Alba route was officially reopened at the ordinary service from 11 September 2023 and the station is again served by 6 daily pairs of trains on weekdays^[3][9].

The station is equipped with 4 passing tracks, of which the first three equipped with docks are destined to the service travelers. The first track is corrected by the Alba-Castagnole-Asti routes on which most traffic takes place, while the second transit of the Alba-Castagnole-Nizza route, with deviation in direction Alba and correct traced towards Nice. The other two tracks are detourable, with exchanges of 30 km/h, of which the third used for crossroads or foreheads, while the fourth is service, used only for the shelter of the means of work, such as the train yard.

The station's passenger building is on two floors; it houses the office of the Manager Movement, which prepares the manoeuvre desk for the authorities of the square of the station, in addition to the remote control system point-point for remote control of the station station of Canelli.

The station also has the goods port, in direction Asti, equipped with a warehouse and other broken tracks for the storage of goods, in disuse.

The station is served by regional working trains excluded Saturday from Trenitalia on the Alba-Asti, under the contract of service stipulated with the Region Piemonte. The ordinary service on the route Castagnole-Alessandria remains suspended and self-replaced from 17 June 2012, the day when traffic was suspended on all routes of which the station had served, by decision of the same Region.

From 11 November 2018 it is served on a calendar by tourist trains of Fondazione FS, which also include the Castagnole-Nizza section.