[BLN 724.051][IT, VA] Rare track in the Città del Vaticano: (Ball 52A1) From the electrified FS line just north of the secondary station Roma San Pietro, a non-electrified connection branches off north along a 120m-long viaduct to reach a doorway in the high wall surrounding the Vatican City. Immediately beyond, behind two heavy doors, lies the passenger reception building of the Vatican railway and, beyond that, sidings converge to a headshunt in a tunnel 100m long beneath the garden of the Vatican's broadcasting station. The branch is 626m long in all. Diesel-hauled trip workings operate twice a day, one with bulk wagon-loads and one with merchandise freight. The doors are rolled back when the train arrives and are closed immediately it has passed through. Once inside, the FS locomotive sets out the loaded wagons and takes away the empties. The passenger building has little resemblance to a real station, consisting mainly of a large reception hall with white marble floor and marble-tiled walls. There are offices, storage rooms and a robing-room for priests and laymen preparing to receive visitors, but no booking-office, waiting-room or restaurant, for it has never been intended as a station for use by the general public.

The building of the railway and the station, at the expense of the Italian state, resulted from a treaty between Italy and the Holy See concluded on 20 December 1933, in turn stemming from the Lateran Treaty of 11 February 1929, by which the Italian government of Benito Mussolini recognised the Vatican as an independent state. The railway opened on 2 October 1934 and was intended for the papal train and for the reception of foreign heads of state arriving at the Vatican by rail. From 1934 to 1994 however the successive Bishops of Rome have personally used their railway only three times. In 1959 the mortal remains of Pope Pius XII were conveyed thence to Venezia; in 1962 Pope John XXIII used a saloon vehicle from the former royal train for a pilgrimage to Loreto and Assisi; and in 1980 Pope John Paul II left in a saloon for a visit to railway staff at a Rome marshalling-yard. (Op de Rails (NL), December 1993)

There's clearly a challenge here for an innovative UK railtour operator - a visit to the Vatican via Eurotunnel, over some off-peak weekend when there's an HST to spare.

When were you there?