Trams in
Turin
Filobus a Torino
Trolleybus network, routes and vehicles in Turin
Edited
by Atts
Associazione Torinese Tram Storici
126 pages, glossy paper, 110 photos, 10 schemas, list price 18 €
In Turin the book can be bought at the stand of ATTS during the shows.
The
trolleybus network in Turin, active between 1931 and 1980, was always
considered, in nearly fifty years of operation, marginal compared to
the rest of the transport network. The trolleybus has never had
popularity and fortune in the city of the Mole, apart from a short
period around World War II, with a thriving of projects concerning the
creation of new lines; the obvious difficulties in the supply of goods
and materials during the war and the shortage of electricity at the end
of it caused a sharp downturn. The massive immigration from the South
and from the North-East during the years of economic boom led a
tumultuous and disorderly growth of the city; to satisfy the demand for
new links to the suburbs, in lack of a comprehensive project, were set
up new bus lines.
The trolleybus network remained so still quite small, in comparison with other Italian cities such as Rome, Milan, Naples and Bologna and with the rest of Europe. In 1975, following a course giving priority to bus in public transport, the administration of the municipality of Turin, decided to remove the last trolleybus lines in the city. Trolleybus was a kind of vehicle that had received great acclaim since the thirties: quiet, with excellent pick-up in city traffic, cheap and non-polluting.
The cause that led to its suppression was probably the obsolescence of vehicles: most of them dating back a quarter of a century before, but there were still present even some three axle vehicles dating back to the forties. It would have been necessary a complete replacement of the fleet but the City and Atm were then focused towards the realization of a new light rail route, with its remarkable investment: trolleybuses were then sacrificed.
The new edition of Filobus a Torino tells the story of the trolleybus network, routes and vehicles in Turin. A hundred and ten photographs (a third of them in colour), most of them unpublished, enrich the descriptive part, while the schema of vehicle provide additional technical details. The map of the network, as well as some reproductions of newspaper articles of the time, complete the description of the history of this vehicle in the city of the Mole.
The trolleybus network remained so still quite small, in comparison with other Italian cities such as Rome, Milan, Naples and Bologna and with the rest of Europe. In 1975, following a course giving priority to bus in public transport, the administration of the municipality of Turin, decided to remove the last trolleybus lines in the city. Trolleybus was a kind of vehicle that had received great acclaim since the thirties: quiet, with excellent pick-up in city traffic, cheap and non-polluting.
The cause that led to its suppression was probably the obsolescence of vehicles: most of them dating back a quarter of a century before, but there were still present even some three axle vehicles dating back to the forties. It would have been necessary a complete replacement of the fleet but the City and Atm were then focused towards the realization of a new light rail route, with its remarkable investment: trolleybuses were then sacrificed.
The new edition of Filobus a Torino tells the story of the trolleybus network, routes and vehicles in Turin. A hundred and ten photographs (a third of them in colour), most of them unpublished, enrich the descriptive part, while the schema of vehicle provide additional technical details. The map of the network, as well as some reproductions of newspaper articles of the time, complete the description of the history of this vehicle in the city of the Mole.
