The train station of Lucca was built right before the middle of the 19th century, a period in which railway stations were an example of the profitable union of science, technology and art. The building was designed by German engineer Enrico Pohlmeyer who laid out its plan, and by architect Vincenzo Pardini from Lucca who built the elevations. However, the influence of architect Lorenzo Nottolini, then commissioner of the Lucca-Pisa Railway for the Duchy of Lucca, is quite evident. The facade opposite the city walls is sober and elegant, and has a double row of arches that lighten the structure. In the course of time, the station has undergone several modifications which, however, have not altered its original nineteenth-century layout.

The railway from Lucca to Pisa opened at the end of 1846, in the very years in which the Grand Duchy of Tuscany was engaged in building other important railway lines, from Florence to Pisa (Leopolda Railway), from Florence to Prato and Pistoia (Maria Antonia Railway), and from Pisa to Livorno. A scientific debate got underway in the Duchy of Lucca to determine the most suitable course to arrive in Pisa. After rejecting the hypothesis of a line that would cross Mount Pisano by means of a tunnel, due to the excessive costs and time for its realisation, it was decided that the level road for Ripafratta was preferable, though longer and less direct than the other.