| Ancona trolleybus system | |
| Locale: | Ancona, Marche, Italy |
| Status: | Open |
| Routes: | 1 |
| Operator: | Conerobus |
| El: | 750 V DC |
| Stock: | 9 |
| Map State: | collapsed |
| Website: | http://www.conerobus.it/ Conerobus |
The Ancona trolleybus system (Italian: Rete filoviaria di Ancona) forms part of the public transport network of the city and comune of Ancona, in the Marche region, central Italy. In operation since 1949, the system presently comprises only one urban route.
The Ancona trolleybus system opened on 15 March 1949.[1] [2] An interurban trolleybus line connecting Ancona with Falconara Marittima opened on 26 June of the same year.[1] Operated by a separate company and considered a separate trolleybus system, the Ancona–Falconara system closed in 1972.[1]
The urban system originally had the following five routes, and used 11.5km (07.1miles) of overhead wiring (9 km of which was "double-track", or two sets of wires, one for each direction, and 2.5 km of bidirectional single-track wiring):[1]
All urban routes travelled via Stazione FS, and routes 2–4 served hilly neighbourhoods on their outer sections.[1]
A fifth route, 5 – Piazza Repubblica–Manicomio (a short-working of route 2),[1] was added at the end of the 1950s. Trolleybus wiring was added through the Risorgimento Tunnel, after its completion in December 1962, providing a more direct link between the city centre and Piazza Ugo Bassi. Route 3 closed (was converted to motorbuses) in July 1970,[3] and all other urban routes except route 1 were closed later in the 1970s.[1]
Trolleybuses originally wore a two-tone green livery (light green above the waist, dark green below),[1] which was the standard livery for urban trams and trolleybuses throughout Italy during the 1930s and 1940s, but in Ancona, this was replaced by a red-and-yellow livery in the mid-1970s.[4] New Menarini-built trolleybuses delivered in 1983 introduced a new all-over orange livery; the red-and-yellow livery continued to be worn by the fleet's older trolleybuses,[5] but ceased to be used upon their retirement from service, in 1987.[1]
By 1982, use of trolleybuses on the surviving route had been restricted to mornings and early afternoons only, because of pedestrianisation of Corso Garibaldi at other times, and route 1 used motorbuses otherwise.[6] In 1985, route 1 was extended from the railway station to Piazza Ugo Bassi, bringing back into use a section of wiring used by former routes 2–5.[5]
In 1998/99, the wires of former trolleybus route 4 between Piazza Ugo Bassi and Tavernelle, which had been out of use since at least 1974, were completely renewed, with plans to reintroduce trolleybuses to route 4.[7] The new wiring was not tested by a trolleybus for the first time until February 2005, delayed by the need to refurbish or replace a substation.[8]
On 9 November 2006, routes 1 and 4 were combined at all times as route "1/4"—a combination that had already operated on Saturday afternoons and Sundays for many years, but was now expanded to seven days a week and with routes 1 and 4 discontinued.[9] However, route 1 service had been temporarily motorbus-operated since May and this initially continued following its replacement by route 1/4. Starting on 18 December 2006, about half of the new route's runs became trolleybus-operated, and this date thereby brought the return of trolleybuses to the Tavernelle route after an absence of around 32 years, now as route 1/4.[9] Trolleybus operation continued to be limited to the hours of 6:00 am to 1:20 pm, Mondays to Saturdays, but it was planned to alter the wires in the city centre to enable the afternoon-pedestrianised street to be bypassed and trolleybus service expanded to all-day.[9] The expansion to all-day service was implemented on 17 September 2007, using a new, second set of wires along Corso Stamira for westbound travel, in place of Corso Garibaldi.[10]
The voltage of the overhead wires was increased from 600 V to 750 V in 2012. The change had long been planned, and some or most of the vehicles had been modified to run on the higher voltage several years earlier, but modification of the substations was not completed until 2012.[11] [12]
The fleet was renewed in 2012–14. Two new Solaris Trollino trolleybusesthe system's first articulated trolleybusesentered service on 18 February 2013,[13] and the last example of the nine Menarini trolleybuses that had provided the service since the 1980s was withdrawn in March 2013. A third Trollino followed one year later. In December 2014, six new two-axle AnsaldoBreda trolleybuses began to enter service.[14]
The route comprising the present Ancona trolleybus system is:
This is an amalgamation of the previous lines 1 and 4. The amalgamated line has the following itinerary, from Piazza IV Novembre: Viale della Vittoria, Piazza Cavour, Piazza Roma, Archi, Ancona railway station, Viale Giordano Bruno, Piazza Ugo Bassi, Via Torresi, Tavernelle (terminus).
The following now-retired trolleybuses have been used in Ancona:
Ancona's present trolleybus fleet is made up of only the following two types: