Preserving the heritage of railway stations has, due to present-days privatisation processes, become a topical issue and as a result a series of town-planning projects with architectural interests have been launched. The projects range from the design of the re-use of abandoned railway yards to the operations involving partial upgrading of the railway stations and annexed buildings. The aim is to increase the profitability of this property heritage. In these circumstances it is of prime importance to gain an in-depth knowledge of this heritage. This needs to be done in order to suggest compatible uses that will preserve the historic, documentary and artistic value of these properties and also the design elements contained therein. Furthermore, in order to organise this framework of knowledge, it is necessary to carry out an evaluation of the railway property heritage as well as the different degrees of aesthetic-documentary value of the handmade items.

Literary works dealing with the history of economy and modern history, usually include chapters dedicated to the development of the national railway system. This topic is also covered in studies of the history of town planning, in numerous studies on the individual railway buildings, but mainly in the monographs on single architects or single cities, as well as in a limited number of monographs on some most important Italian railway stations (for further bibliographical informations refer to A. Giuntini, Il paese che si muove. Le Ferrovie in Italia fra '800 e '900, Franco Angeli, Milan 2000). Contrary to other countries, in Italy there is a regrettable lack of specialised magazines and concise studies dealing in a exhaustive manner with the architectural, structural and town planning complexities of railway buildings. Moreover, the bibliography available is not recent.