Linee tranviarie a Torino
The history of urban tram network from Sbt to Gtt
The lines were grouped within the network to which they belonged, thus articulating the discussion into four chapters: Sbt-Stt , Saeai-Atm and Atm-Gtt urban tram network and the suburban tramway network.
In appendix we can find the colour tables (for a long time every route was identified with a colour), the night routes and the list of forced limits to tram service due to bombing during World War II.
Edited by Phasar - Firenze
ISBN 978-88-87911-78-7
236 pages - 12,00 €
The book can be bought at Phasar site or at main on-line bookshops
Sbt-Stt tramway network. In 1872 the Société Belge-turinoise des Tramways (Sbt) and, after a few years, the Società Torinese di Tramways e ferrovie economiche (Stt) began to operate an urban transport service in concession; these two companies, at first in a competitive system and later in joint work, set up the first Turin tramway network. At first tram routes were operated with horse-drawn trams then, in the years around 1900, the entire network was electrified. In 1922 the Azienda Tranviaria Municipale (Atm) redeemed the concessions and unified the network.
Saeai-Atm tramway network. In 1897 another company began to operate in Turin in the field of urban transport, the Società Anonima Elettricità Alta Italia (Saeai), which obtained the concession of six new electric tram routes. In 1906 the Town Council of Turin enforced the redemption of this network and established Atm that expanded quickly until the outbreak of World War I.
In the Twenties Atm redeemed the Sbt-Stt network, too, thus giving rise to a unified, widespread and functional network. After the Second World War, during the Fifties and the Sixties, the chaotic expansion of the town created difficulties for the tramway transport, which was heavily cut down and risked the suppression, in favor of new and more adaptable bus lines.
Atm-Gtt tramway network. In 1982 the network was completely redesigned according to the streams of traffic studies. Originally the project planned five new light rail routes and eight standard tram routes; actually only ten of them were put into operation.
Between the twentieth and twenty-first century there was some bad and good news for Turin tram network: a couple of routes were suppressed, while the first underground line was started up and a modern tram route reached suburban districts as Falchera and Mirafiori Sud.
Suburban tramway network. Around 1880 some companies began to operate a suburban transport service: several steam tram routes linked Turin with surrounding villages as Moncalieri and Venaria, but also with more faraway places as Pinerolo and Saluzzo. During the first decades of the twentieth century these routes were updated and electrified and some of them were taken over by the management of Satti public company. Due to hard coexistence with private traffic, none of these routes survived beyond the Fifties.