 It is a single track tunnel on the Paola-Cosenza line with a passing loop in the middle, about 800 metres long.In 1905 the Ferrovie dello Stato (Italian State Railways) looked into to building a railway connection built between Cosenza and Paola; to overcome the steep slopes (the southern coastal chain had to be crossed) the normal gauge was adopted with a rack railway and a maximum slope of 75 feet per thousand.Work began between 1907 and 1911, with the line opening on August 2, 1915.