Apparently it had become known that the legendary ETR 252 “Arlecchino” high-speed railcar of the Fondazione FS Italiane would be making a photo stop at Balvano station in the province of Potenza that day. In any case, numerous people from the village of only around 1700 people up in the mountains gathered at the station. The stop lasted only 5 minutes, then peace returned to the valley of the Platano river. The train journey this day was from Bari via Taranto-Metaponto-Potenza-Battipaglia-Salerno-Napoli-Frosinone to Roma Termini. In Balvano, there are 3 trains a day stopping only, two in the morning to Potenza, one in the afternoon to Salerno. Balvano was the site of one of the greatest tragedies on the railroad. In March 1944, during the Second World War, over 500 people were killed when the steam train 8017 with 47 freight cars and two steam locomotives came to a protracted halt in the Armi Tunnel about 2 kilometers uphill from the station and people died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The Balvano train disaster was the deadliest railway accident in Italian history and one of the worst railway disasters ever.
