Porta Susa Station

Pages linking here: 15 entries

Porta Susa station is one of Turin's main railway stations: an underground station on the cross-city rail link (passante), covered by a glass canopy more than four hundred metres long.[1] About thirteen million passengers pass through it every year.[2] Next to it, in piazza XVIII Dicembre, survives the building of the first station, opened in 1856 and now being converted into a hotel.[1]

The name

The name comes from one of the gates of the Roman city of Augusta Taurinorum: the Porta Segusina, on the road to Susa, which stood at the corner of today's via Garibaldi and via della Consolata. In the modern era, with the expansions ordered by Vittorio Amedeo II, a new Porta Susina was built.[3]

Carlo Promis's station

The railway reached this part of the city with the line to Novara: the joint-stock company set up to build it was formed in 1851, and the first stretch opened in May 1855. Porta Susa station was inaugurated on 20 October 1856, at the end of via Cernaia, to a design by the architect Carlo Promis, who gave it an eclectic-classicist layout; the complex covered 5,261 square metres and had six tracks.[1]

On 1 January 1916 a freight train collided with a passenger train at the station: the impact was violent, but the passengers emerged unhurt.[4]

The chronicles of the city newspaper also recorded everyday life in front of the station. In August 1950, a family who had come to Turin under a compulsory removal order was reported in the station hall, with two young children in very serious condition from polio, later admitted to the Amedeo di Savoia hospital.[5] In July 1954, a messenger was robbed outside the station of a bag containing one and a half million lire, left on the seat of a parked van, without any of the roughly twenty people present noticing.[6] In June 1996, a Nigerian woman who had got into a taxi near the station was insulted and threatened with a steering-wheel lock by the driver, who had mistaken her for a prostitute; the taxi driver was reported to the Carabinieri.[7]

A century of plans

The station's position made it the subject of constant rethinking. From 1922, work began on lowering the track level between the junction for Alessandria and Genoa and Porta Susa station.[3] In November 1937, the press pointed to the need to upgrade it, because trains coming from Milan had to make a long detour to reach Porta Nuova station.[8] In August 1953, while work continued at Porta Nuova, a modernisation project was presented providing for the redevelopment of piazza San Martino and the lowering of the line between corso Vittorio Emanuele and corso Regina Margherita.[9]

The idea that would eventually prevail took shape in the early 1980s, with a project for a new station linked to putting the cross-city rail line underground.[1] In October 1982, the City Council, the Region and the Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State Railways) drew up a plan to move the passenger and freight terminal underground by 1986, leaving a large garden with public space on the surface; Porta Nuova would stay where it was.[10] The actual timeline turned out to be much longer.

The underground station

The first two tracks of the new station came into service on 14 December 2008, two more on 27 September 2009; on 18 October 2009 the old Promis building was closed to trains.[1] The metro stop, postponed until the railway station was finished, opened on 9 September 2011; the cross-city line from Stura to Lingotto came into service on 9 December 2012.[11] The station was inaugurated in its complete form on 14 January 2013.[1]

The glazed roof, fitted with a photovoltaic system, earned the station the Eurosolar association's European Solar Prize 2012; on 19 November 2013 the European Rail Congress named it the best large station in the European Union.[1]

In December 2016, a three-level car park opened inside the station, with an entrance from corso Bolzano: 168 car spaces, 16 for motorcycles and 22 for taxis, covering around twelve thousand square metres.[12] Today the station has six tracks for passenger services[13] and is a hub of the suburban rail service: since 20 January 2024 its trains have reached Caselle airport in 31 minutes.[14]

The old building: from shelter to hotel

Once decommissioned, the Promis building was refurbished in 2015 and housed the Mercato Metropolitano until September 2016; in 2017 it was occupied by homeless people and put up for sale by Ferrovie dello Stato, and in 2018 it passed to Vastint Hospitality Italy, part of the Ikea group.[1] In February 2018, when the cold wave known as Burian arrived, the City opened an overnight shelter there, run by the municipal Civil Protection service and the Red Cross, offering, in the City's words, "comfort items and forty beds in a covered, warm, safe place not far from the city centre".[15] In the following nights it came to house fifty-five people, supported by volunteers and associations.[16]

On 30 October 2018, the city executive (Giunta) approved the framework agreement with FS Sistemi Urbani and RFI to implement the Spina 2 building rights in the Porta Susa area: 178,951 square metres in all, 114,644 belonging to the railways and 65,307 to the City, including a hotel and the restoration of the historic building in the area north of the station; a link between corso Matteotti and via Cavalli, and a car park in a 5,000-square-metre section of an underground structure, had already been completed.[17]

In January 2022 the façade was repainted in "Turin yellow", colour number 21 of the city's official palette, under the supervision of the heritage authority (Soprintendenza);[18] in May, bulldozers began demolishing the side sections of the entrance façade.[19] On 15 June 2023, after days of rain, about two hundred square metres of the roof collapsed, just as asbestos removal was about to begin;[20] the square was reopened to traffic in early July, after the perimeter walls had been made safe.[21]

Management of the hotel has been entrusted to the Marriott group, with the lobby planned in the former ticket office.[22] The project, named «Scalo 1856», was approved by the heritage authority in October 2024: seven floors and 203 rooms for an investment of more than forty million euros, using prefabricated timber modules.[23] The name recalls the year the building was built; work began at the end of March 2026, and the opening is expected in early 2028, together with an underground car park beneath piazza XVIII Dicembre.[24]

The station today

In May 2026 a supermarket opened at street level on corso Bolzano, the first step in a reorganisation entrusted by RFI to Altageres: the ticket offices will move up from level −1 to street level, and the railway police (Polfer) will get new space towards corso Matteotti.[2] "With the opening of new businesses on level minus one, RFI intends to reinterpret the imagery of Turin's porticoes, combining historical identity with contemporary language," said councillor Paolo Chiavarino.[2]

Weak points remain. On 27 July 2026, the City abandoned the planned bicycle station (velostazione): the spaces considered interfered with the station's safety or with escape routes, and RFI had no funds to build it.[25] In September, the press reported that two escalators and two lifts between level −1 and street level had been out of service for some time.[26] On 29 September the escalator and lift breakdowns had put twelve of the station's 71 mobility facilities out of service, eight escalators and four lifts, 17% of the total, for extraordinary maintenance that had been under way for several days, causing difficulties for people with reduced mobility, elderly people and families with pushchairs; Vittoria Nallo, leader of the Sue group in the Piedmont Regional Council, tabled a question time after being stuck in the station herself with her daughter in a pushchair.[28][29]

Related articles: Escalator and Elevator Breakdown at Porta Susa (September 2026), Metropolitana di Torino, Stazione di Porta Nuova, Transport in Turin, Turin-Caselle Airport

Sources

  1. Stazione Porta Susa di Torino: tra passato e futuro — Mole24, 10 December 2020
  2. Stazione di Porta Susa, inizia il cambiamento con l’arrivo di un nuovo supermercato — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 8 May 2026
  3. Treccani, Enciclopedia Italiana
  4. Consultazione Archivio — La Stampa, 01/01/1916, n. 1, p. 7, 1 January 1916
  5. Consultazione Archivio — La Stampa, 11/08/1950, n. 190, p. 2, 11 August 1950
  6. Consultazione Archivio — La Stampa, 01/07/1954, n. 155, p. 2, 1 July 1954
  7. Consultazione Archivio — La Stampa, 25/06/1996, n. 173, p. 43, 25 June 1996
  8. Consultazione Archivio — La Stampa, 30/11/1937, n. 285, p. 4, 30 November 1937
  9. Consultazione Archivio — La Stampa, 01/08/1953, n. 182, p. 2, 1 August 1953
  10. Consultazione Archivio — Stampa Sera, 11/10/1982, n. 255, p. 4, 11 October 1982
  11. Metropolitana di Torino (VAL) — UrbanRail.net
  12. Torino Porta Susa: aperto il nuovo parcheggio all’interno della stazione — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 19 December 2016
  13. Torino Porta Susa — RFI – Rete Ferroviaria Italiana
  14. Inaugurato il nuovo collegamento ferroviario tra Torino e l’aeroporto di Caselle — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 19 January 2024
  15. Senza dimora: arriva Burian, accoglienza notturna nella vecchia stazione di Porta Susa — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 23 February 2018
  16. A Porta Susa è in arrivo la solidarietà — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 2 March 2018
  17. Porta Susa. Approvata la convenzione che permetterà la trasformazione dell’area della stazione storica — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 30 October 2018
  18. Svelata la facciata dell'ex stazione Porta Susa in tinta "Giallo Torino" — Mole24, 11 January 2022
  19. Torino, partiti i lavori di demolizione della vecchia stazione di Porta Susa — Mole24, 5 May 2022
  20. Torino: crollato il tetto dell'ex stazione Porta Susa — Mole24, 15 June 2023
  21. Ex Porta Susa, completati i lavori di messa in sicurezza. Riaperta al traffico piazza XVIII dicembre — TorinoClick (Città di Torino), 7 July 2023
  22. Torino: l'ex stazione di Porta Susa ospiterà un hotel in stile liberty — Mole24, 5 January 2023
  23. La Soprintendenza approva l’hotel nell’ex stazione di Porta Susa: al via i lavori — Mole24, 10 October 2024
  24. Progetto nuovo parcheggio interrato Porta Susa a Torino — Mole24, 27 August 2026
  25. Stop alla velostazione di Porta Susa: niente parcheggio bici — Mole24, 4 August 2026
  26. Alla stazione di Torino Porta Susa ci sono due scale mobili e due ascensori inutilizzabili da tempo — Quotidiano Piemontese, 17 September 2026
  27. Quotidiano Piemontese — 17 September 2026
  28. Porta Susa, otto scale mobili e quattro ascensori fuori servizio — CronacaQui Torino, 29 September 2026
  29. A Porta Susa, tra ascensori e scale mobili rotte, dodici impianti fermi — TorinoOggi, 29 September 2026

Similar entries

Categories

Transport in TurinPlaces in TurinBuildings and structures in Turin

Pages linking here: 15 entries

Report a mistake.