Turin Metro
The Turin Metro is the modern VAL rapid transit system serving Turin. It is operated by Gruppo Torinese Trasporti, a public company controlled by the municipality of Turin. The system comprises one line with 21 stations connecting Fermi station in Collegno with the Lingotto multifunctional centre in Turin.
History
The history of metro in Turin begins in 1930s, when the first project of an underground railway was put forward. However, only a part of the first tunnel was built, and the actual project was put aside. Nowadays, the tunnel is part of an underground parking system.A new company committed to the development of a metro system in Turin was founded in 1960s. Several projects and feasibility studies were made for a 7 km underground line under the city centre and then for a line connecting FIAT factories to surrounding neighborhoods, but eventually all the proposals were rejected.
In the mid-1980s a new proposal for a system of 5 fast tram lines at-grade was approved. However, only the planned line 3 was built following the original project, while the others eventually were built either as regular tram lines, with no dedicated lane, or as bus lines.
A new project was approved in 1995 for a line running from Campo Volo on the west border of the city to Porta Nuova, the main railway station in Turin. The project was put in hold due to lack of funds.
The project for the underground line was resumed in April 1999 with a longer route to Lingotto based on the VAL system. Works on the line began on 19 December 2000, part of the works for the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics. The first section from Fermi to XVIII Dicembre was opened on 4 February 2006, while the second section on the south to Porta Nuova opened on 5 October 2007. Porta Susa station opened later on 9 September 2011. The last part of the line on the south to Lingotto was inaugurated on 6 March 2011.
Timeline
Network
Service
Ticketing
The single journey ticket costed €1.50 and was valid also outside of the metro for unlimited trips on other public transport in the city for 90 minutes. From May 2018 the single journey ticket costs €1.70 and it includes the urban line and the suburban line for 100 minutes. Moreover, any form of urban transport season ticket is valid also for the metro system.Opening hours
Turin metro starts operating at 5:30 from Monday to Saturday and at 7:00 on Sundays. It closes at 22:00 on Mondays, at 00:30 from Tuesday to Thursday, at 1:30 on Friday and Saturday and at 1:00 on Sundays.Plans
Line 1
Lingotto – Bengasi southern extension
Two additional stations, reaching the Southern boundary of the city, are currently under construction. These stations will be known as Italia '61, serving the new Piedmont Region Headquarters, and Bengasi, named for the piazza under which it will be located. Recent estimates suggest this southern extension will be completed not before February 2021.Collegno – Cascine Vica westward extension
A further Western extension is planned to reach the boundaries of Collegno and the city of Rivoli. In December 2017, the city approved the first stage of the project, valued at €123.7 million, to construct two already named stations: Certosa, which will interchange with the central railway station of the city of Collegno, and Collegno Centro, serving its central market area. An additional two stations, including one in the Leumann Village neighbourhood and another in the Cascine Vica district of Rivoli, were allocated €148 million. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport expects the extension to Cascine Vica to be completed by Summer 2023.Line 2
On 30 August 2017, a contract to create the preliminary design for a second line was awarded to Systra, a French conglomerate. The line will connect South-Western suburbs of the city with the northern district of Barriera di Milano. The first 26 stations had already been defined, starting from Mirafiori Sud district to Barriera di Milano, crossing the Line 1 at Porta Nuova station and serving key points as Politecnico di Torino University and Piazza Castello, one of the major central squares of the city.Part of the Southern track will be elevated to reduce building costs. On Northern side, from Vanchiglia to Rebaudengo, it will follow an old railway track, which was used to connect the old and abandoned scalo Vanchiglia to the main Turin railway.
Preliminary analysis conducted by Systra in the Spring of 2018 resulted in some changes to this original alignment. The following June, public consultations were announced and the new alignment, with the list of 23 planned stations was published on the city's website. In December 2018, the preliminary project was submitted to the Ministry of Transportation for funding approval, with an objective to start the bidding process by 2021. In 2019 the Italian government committed to €828 million of funding for Line 2's total projected €3 billion cost, with construction due to begin in 2021 for a 2028 opening.
| List of planned stations of the Turin Metro Line 2 |
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Potential Line 3
The current mayor of Turin, Chiara Appendino, publicly supports the idea of a third line for the city's Metro system. Campaign literature, published on the then candidate's website during the Turin municipal election, 2016, show Line 3 using tracks that formally served the Ferrovia Torino-Ceres railway. Potential stations would serve the community of Venaria Reale, the Juventus Stadium and Turin International Airport. Since the election, Deputy Mayor and Chief of Urban Planning Guido Montanari has expressed interest in readapting the Torino-Ceres line to be part of the city's Metro network. After which the city council decided to keep the railway line Torino-Ceres with a new tunnel and a new station, called Torino Grosseto.In 2019 the mayor of Venaria, together with the first citizens of Pianezza, Druento, Cafasse, Alpignano, Fiano and Val della Torre, presented a new proposal of metro to the mayor of Turin Chiara Appendino.
The area will include the west part of the city: Torino Dora railway station, Juventus Stadium, Amedeo di Savoia Hospital, Maria Vittoria Hospital, The Court of Turin, Cenisia district, San Paolo district and the Torino Lingotto railway station. The metro will would provide for interchange in three stations: Bernini, Pitagora and Italia ‘61.