Between legacy and abandonment. The reuse of minor railways as resilience paths

In the framework of issues related to the regeneration of fragile territories, affected by abandonment processes that involve areas of landscape interest, the proposed reflection focuses on the experiences of reuse of common goods: in particular underutilized or disused minor railways. These practices represent emblematic paths of innovative planning and management of territorial heritage and define resilient integrated strategies able to recover and strengthen material and immaterial relationships belonging to the environmental and socio-economic structure of contemporary territories and to the landscape as a unitary and shared image and legacy of the local culture. Therefore, the reflection pursues the aim of identifying new methodological and operational references for the integrated reuse of railway lines in a perspective of landscape valorization and sustainable tourism development through the establishment of new greenways and historical train services. An integration that seizes the opportunity to enhance historical memory and environmental quality, as well as the demand of socio-economic revitalization and the fostering of cultural contamination through new forms of slow mobility and new creative uses, even rooted in local culture and production. In particular, the paper intends to deepen the cases of the Costa dei Trabocchi Greenway from Ortona to Vasto, the reuse of the abandoned Fano-Urbino railway, and the reopening of the historical Avellino-Rocchetta Sant’Antonio railway line, as ongoing examples of different design and management approaches in the Italian territory.