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The Florence tramway network ( it, Rete tranviaria di Firenze) is an important part of the
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
network of
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
,
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. It consists of two operational light rail lines. Florence, like many other Italian cities, closed down its old tramway network at the end of the 1950s, but has come back to trams in recent years to find a solution to the rising car traffic in the city. The first line in the present network was opened in 2010 to link the city center with the neighboring ''
comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
'' of
Scandicci Scandicci () is a ''comune'' (municipality) of c. 50,000 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence. Scandicci borders the following municipalities: Campi Bisenzio, Flore ...
; the second line opened on February 11, 2019, linking the city center with
Florence Airport Florence Airport, Peretola , it, Aeroporto di Firenze-Peretola and formally Amerigo Vespucci Airport, is the international airport of Florence, the capital of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the second-busiest Tuscan airport in terms of ...
. The current network operator is ''GEST'' (''Gestione Servizio tramviario''), a subsidiary of the French RATP.


History


1879–1958

The first horse-drawn tramway in Florence was inaugurated on 5 April 1879. It linked the city center to
Peretola Peretola is a suburb of Florence, Italy, located on the northern extremity of the Florentine commune. It belongs administratively to Quartiere 5 - Rifredi. It lend its name to the nearby Peretola Airport, international airport and is claimed ...
. One year later the original line was extended to reach
Prato Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 ...
and
Poggio a Caiano Poggio a Caiano is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Prato, Tuscany region Italy. The town, birthplace of Philip Mazzei, lies south of the provincial capital of Prato. Sister towns Poggio a Caiano has two sister cities: * Charlott ...
. The tramway was managed by ''Società dei Tramways Fiorentini''. In 1898 the company bought out ''Tranvia del Chianti'' company and in the same year the lines were electrified. In 1926 the tram was considered already obsolete, and the first bus routes started. In 1934 the company responsible for the service went out of business. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
the tramway was severely damaged, and the network was fully restored only in 1951. From the end of the war the tramway was managed by ATAF. However, after few years the infrastructure was deemed too old and inadequate, and the tramway was definitively closed on 20 January 1958.


Modern tramway (2010)

During the early 2000s, the Florence administration decided to restore the tram service. Works on the first line started in December 2005. Construction works were expected to last for 1,000 days, but eventually it took more than 1,800 days to complete the line. Line 1 started operation on 14 February 2010. The first part of Line 1, at
Scandicci Scandicci () is a ''comune'' (municipality) of c. 50,000 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence. Scandicci borders the following municipalities: Campi Bisenzio, Flore ...
, was the first rail public transport service in the area. During the first 10 months of service, the total passenger served were 7 million, a result considered a success. On 16 July 2018 the line was extended from Florence Santa Maria Novella railway station to the current northern terminus, Careggi.


Lines

Service starts at 5:30 and stops at 0:30. The headway is 4 minutes from 7:30 to 20:30 and 6 minutes at other times. A journey from end to end of Line 1 takes about 23 minutes. Line 2 opened on February 11, 2019. A journey from end to end takes 22 minutes. File:Tram firenze.JPG, The ''Sirio'' 1003 File:Tranvia firenze.JPG, Tramway in piazza Vittorio Veneto File:Test of tramway of Florence 2.png, Tramway test


Technical summary

The rolling stock of Line 1 consists of 19
AnsaldoBreda Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A. is a multinational rolling stock manufacturer company based in Pistoia, Italy. Formerly AnsaldoBreda S.p.A., a subsidiary of state-owned Finmeccanica, the company was sold in 2015 to Hitachi Rail of Japan. After the ...
''
Sirio The Hitachi Sirio (Italian for Sirius, formerly sold as the AnsaldoBreda Sirio) is a low-floor tram built by Hitachi Rail Italy (formerly AnsaldoBreda), a Japanese-Italian manufacturer of trains, trams and light-rail vehicles. It can be ordered ...
'', already in use in other cities in Italy and around the world. The route is mainly on reserved lanes. Stops are located at a distance of .


Future plans


Line 1 extension

An expansion from Scandicci towards Casellina and Pontignale is planned. The new terminus will be near an exit of the A1 motorway. A Park & Ride will also be built.


Line 2

Line 2 currently runs from the
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...
to Santa Maria Novella railway station, where it interchanges with line 1. From here, the line should run through the city center in two different branches, also serving the
Duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition n ...
in the initial planning. However, after the recent revisions, the line will probably not pass in Duomo and will run partly underground (4 stops). As of 2022, the route has been finalised for completion at the end of 2023, with new stops at Lavagnini, Poliziano, Parterre, Libertà, Cavour and Piazza San Marco. There will be two Cavour stops as the line will follow the street one-way system. Line 2 will be long and will be fundamental in serving the city center, which is planned to become mainly pedestrian.


Line 3

The name Line 3 was used for the Line 1 section between Santa Maria Novella and Careggi. This section was fully opened on 16 July 2018 and it has now been incorporated into Line 1.


Line 4

Line 4 is the long-term plan which will complete the city tramway. The line will have a terminus at Santa Maria Novella railway station and will serve the western part of the city.


Controversies

There were some people who opposed the new tramway lines 2 and 3. A city referendum was held on 17 February 2008. The statute of city referendums do not contains any "quorum" clause: 39% of the citizens actually voted. Among them, the majority was against the construction. The municipality decided to disregard the result of the referendum.


See also

*
List of town tramway systems in Italy A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
History of rail transport in Italy History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
*
Rail transport in Italy The Italian railway system is one of the most important parts of the infrastructure of Italy, with a total length of of which active lines are 16,723 km. The network has recently grown with the construction of the new high-speed rail netw ...
*
List of tram and light rail transit systems The following is a list of cities that have current tram, tram/streetcar (including Heritage streetcar, heritage trams/heritage streetcars), or light rail systems as part of their regular public transport, public transit systems. In other word ...


References


External links

*
Tramway page on the official website of Florence municipalityTrams in Florence (public-transport.net)
{{Urban public transport in Italy
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
Transport in Florence
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
Railway lines in Tuscany 1879 establishments in Italy 2010 establishments in Italy RATP Group