Travels 2022 – Part III (Turin)

15. December 2022

Italia Travels

December is not usually a month where we travel to tramway destinations but the events that took place in Torino and the possibility to see many old friends and make new ones warrented this long weekend trip. Luckily the weather was good (little rain, sunshine and no snow – only on some mountains in the distance). Torino ATTS together with the local operator GTT celebrated the 150th anniversary of the tramway. The real date was in 2021 but due to Covid it was decided to move the celebrations to December 2022.

A few words about ATTS (taken from their own website):

ATTS, Turin’s Historical Tramways Association is a non-profit association open to private individuals and public institutions.

It was founded in 2005 to promote the tramway as an historical and cultural resource for the city, besides being a durable and environmentally friendly means of transport. It is partner of GTT – Gruppo Torinese Trasporti , with the aim to create a “running tramway museum” where historical tramcars do not lie still in a depot but run every day, offering to both visitors and residents the emotion of a unique trip through culture and history.

Many historical vehicles restored
Our tramcars, often rescued from the scrapyard, were built between 1904 and 1960 and have traced the history of public transport. We have restored and saved cars from Turin, Rome, Bologna, Trieste, Naples, Milan and even Munich (Germany). Alongside the trams is the magnificent double-decker bus CV61 by Viberti, the icon of Italia ’61 exhibition, splendidly restored to as-new condition!

Tram means culture
ATTS takes part to several cultural, educational and beneficial activities. Telethon, FAI – the Italian Fund for the Environment, Turin’s Chamber of Commerce, ASI – the Italian Historical Automobile Club and many Street Associations are just some among our many partners. The project “In classe sul tram storico” (with the school on a vintage tram) takes children and boys to discover the city from the windows of an historical tramcar.

Join ATTS, become one of us.
The association is only supported by the voluntary work of members and the donations of private individuals. Your help is essential to recover, restore and service historical trams. You can donate 5‰ of your income, but that’s not all. For only 30 euro per year (15 for the under 18) you will be entitled to great discounts on gadgets, books, tramcar rentals, you will take part to all exclusive events, tours and special outings with vintage cars for members only and will access the restricted areas of our website.
And if that’s not enough, ask us how to cooperate actively: your help is also needed!

Many opportunities to ride on a vintage tram
Trolley Festival (in December) and ATTS Show (in June) are the main events, but there’s a lot more on. The historical route no. 7, introduced by ATTS and operated by GTT, runs on Saturdays, Sundays and during peak tourist periods. On Sundays you can often see us around town, hop on one of our vintage trams and enjoy an unusual tour of the city. For constantly updated information visit our website or follow us on the most popular social networks.

Help us keep the memory alive
ATTS is always looking for vintage tramway stuff such as tickets, postcards, pictures, uniforms and… memories. Both donations and loans are welcome, we will make a digital copy and give the real thing back to you. We also listen with pleasure to memories, experiences, anecdotes because nothing deserves to be forgotten.

For any further information please visit: www.atts.to.it

Some years ago the German AHN organisation (members are tramway museums and tram preservation societies, including from some other European countries) held a convention in Torino (ATTS is a member) and this time ATTS wanted to enlarge this sphere by including such organisations from further away (around the globe really). One day before the big tramway parade a day-long convention took place in a posh hotel and many speakers (some linked in via zoom) and participants talked and learned about a large number of such preservation projects in many countries. The convention included some tram rides with historic trams, a ride on the rack tramway, depot (including the main workshops) visits and even a lunch tour with the two Torino restaurant trams. On the big day of the parade 15 trams ran around the centrally located piazza Castello every 20 seconds or so (not carrying passengers) and then at noon these cars plus 6 more cars made a procession down Via Po. The oldest tram (#116 from 1911) was directly followed by the new Hitachi class 8000 (#8004). These new trams will soon replace the first series of the 2800 class (these were rebuilt from older trams in 1958-60).

Here are some views from the events:

The big tramway parade (December 4th)