Naples–Bagnoli–Pozzuoli Tramway
The Naples–Bagnoli–Pozzuoli tramway was an interurban tram line connecting Naples with Pozzuoli. Integrated into the Neapolitan tram network, this connection was one of its busiest routes.
Opened with steam traction in 1883, the line was later electrified and remained in service until the Second World War.
History
In 1876 the Société Anonyme des Tramways Napolitain (SATN) designed an urban horse-drawn tram line connecting Piazza San Ferdinando to Fuorigrotta, which required the excavation of a tunnel inaugurated in 1884.
From this original connection was born the first interurban steam tram line in the Neapolitan area, the Fuorigrotta–Pozzuoli line, inaugurated on 5 July 1883. It was extended to the new terminus at largo Torretta on 25 March 1885 after the construction of the tunnel under Posillipo, giving rise to the Torretta–Pozzuoli service.
To serve the line, the Fuorigrotta depot was built in 1894, abandoned in 1980 following damage from the 1980 Irpinia earthquake.
In 1902 the line was electrified, and in 1910 the interurban services operating on it were assigned numbers 22 (Torretta–Pozzuoli) and 23 (Torretta–Bagnoli). Later the numbering of the interurban lines changed and the two connections became lines 52 and 53, later merged into just 52 (Piazza della Vittoria–Pozzuoli).
In 1912, the branch to Agnano Terme was inaugurated, granted by the Municipality of Naples directly to the Società Terme di Agnano; it branched off from the main Pozzuoli route at the junction of via Agnano with via Diocleziano. It was finally suppressed on 19 April 1961.
In 1919, urban operations were taken over by the Municipality of Naples and separated from the interurban ones, which remained under concession to SATN until June 1927, when they too were entrusted to the municipal company.
Rolling stock
For the steam operation of the line, S.A.T.N. used, over time, 11 locomotives, of which nine were built by Henschel and two by Saint-Léonard; all were transferred to other Italian lines (Turin–Orbassano–Giaveno tramway, the interprovincial steam tramways of Milan, Bergamo and Cremona, and the Cremonese provincial tramways) upon the electrification of the tramway in 1902. To these was added a Rowan-type steam railcar, built by Borsig in 1896. The electric motor cars used on the Naples–Pozzuoli line were the same ones in service on the urban network: all two-axle bidirectional cars, they were chosen among those with the highest power, as they sometimes had to be able to tow two trailers as well. On line 23 alone, bogie trams from the company's overall fleet were later used.
See also
- Trams in Naples
- Pozzuolo Martesana railway station
- Turin–Orbassano–Giaveno tramway