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Transport in Rome

Roman public transit

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Rome banned diesel vehicles from its roads for the first time on Tuesday 14 January 2020. The local transport authority said the order would affect around one million vehicles.

Urban transport

Rome has an urban transport network which consists of buses, trams, rapid transit lines, light rail lines and suburban railways.

Roma servizi per la Mobilità is the municipally owned public transport agency which is in charge of programming bus routes and providing real-time information and services to the user.

Atac (formerly an acronym for Azienda del Trasporto Autoferrotranviario del Comune di Roma, "Company for rail and road transport of the city of Rome") is the municipally owned public transport company which operates most of the public transport lines in the city.

Roma TPL is a private company which operates a minority of bus lines.

Rome Metro

The Rome Metro is the rapid transit system serving the city with three underground lines. The first track opened in 1955, making it the oldest in the country. The total length of the network is 60 km (37 mi) with 73 stations. There are three lines A, B - plus a branch called B1 - and C. Lines A and B intersect at Termini station; line C is completely automated and intersects line A at San Giovanni Station and line B at Colosseo Station.

The Metro operates on 62 km (39 mi) of route, serving 77 stations. On 12 May 2018, the western terminus of Line C was moved to San Giovanni (interchange station for line A). On 16 December 2025, the western terminus of Line C was moved to Colosseo (interchange station for line B). It has a daily ridership of approximately 820 thousand passengers, and an annual traffic of approximately 320 million passengers. Line B was the first metro line inaugurated in the system, and the first official metro in Italy, but the names 'A' and 'B' were only added when the second line opened 25 years after the first. Inaugurated in post-war Italy in 1955 during the reconstruction and on the verge of the Italian economic miracle, it was designed and built for the 1942 universal exhibition (Esposizione Universale Roma, which is now the current business center of Rome) desired by the fascist regime, which never took place due to the outbreak of the World War II.

All Rome metro lines are heavy rapid transit lines, with 6-car trains, approximately 105 m long. Line A of the Rome metro uses exclusively the CAF MA 300 series, line B essentially uses the CAF MB400 series together with other CAF MA300 series trains and the historic MB 100 Ansaldobreda. Line C is the longest driverless metro in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, using Hitachi Rail Italy's driverless technology.

Trams and commuter rail

Rome's overground rail transport comprises the tramway network, suburban and urban lines in and around the city of Rome. Whereas most FS-Regionale lines (Regional State Railways) provide a largely suburban service with more than twenty stations scattered throughout the city.

  • The Rome-Lido (Metromare) (starting at Ostiense station) connects the city with Ostia, the seaside resort of Rome;
  • Roma-Nord, starting at Flaminio station, connects the city with the suburban areas in the northern part of the city, with terminus in Viterbo in the extra-urban service.
  • Rome–Giardinetti, tram-train line.

The Lazio regional railways - FL lines, a commuter rail system with eight lines which link the suburbs of the Rome metropolitan area and the Lazio region. The FL1 line and the Leonardo Express serves Rome's main airport, Rome Fiumicino Airport; while the FL4 and FL6 lines serves the second airport of the city, Ciampino.

Buses

Rome has a comprehensive bus network, including three trolleybus routes. The Metrebus integrated fare system allows holders of tickets and integrated passes to travel on all companies' vehicles, within the validity time of the ticket purchased.

Classification of bus routes

Bus routes in Rome are identified by a symbol and a small letter:

  • U (Urban bus routes) - regular bus routes around Rome, calling at all stops and operating mostly between 5 am and 12 am. These routes include also one summer seasonal route (062). They are identified by a U letter and a blue background on their number reported on bus stops.
  • X (Express bus routes) - they are 12 bus routes (20, 30, 40, 50, 51, 60, 80, 90, 120F, 150F, 180F and 190F). These routes connect the centre of Rome with some far away suburbs and call at lesser stops than Urban routes and tend to have a higher frequency. On bus stops, they can be identified with a green colour and an X letter.
  • E (Exact bus routes) - they are a bunch of bus routes with a reduced timetable and operating mainly through peripheral areas of Rome. The name exact is due to their timetables being strictly adhered to. These routes also include those serving local cemeteries. On bus stops, they are identified with a brown colour and an E letter.
  • N (Night bus routes) - indicates Rome's night bus network, it is made up of 31 lines and serves a large part of the city, the system also includes 4 night lines (nMA, nMB, nMC and nME) which respectively cover the routes taken by the metro and the Rome-Lido railway (Metromare) when these are closed. They are active from 23:30 to 5:30 am. At the bus stops the night lines are identified by a midnight blue colour, the letter "N" and an owl next to the line number.

Route numberings and service areas

Most bus routes in Rome have three digits. The route numberings, in such cases, depends from the division in Rome in 10 zones (0 to 9). For instance, in case of route 916 it starts from zone 9 (Trionfale-Cornelia stop) and terminates at Rome Termini station on zone 1 (city centre).

The only exceptions to this system are routes 446 (connecting zones 9 and 2) and route 201 (unchanged since 1934). Both of which had been established on a previous numbering system not adjourned.

Other features which can be seen are:

Letters:

  • C××× (the letter C stands for cemetery, and as such it identifies those routes connecting residential areas with local cemeteries)
  • F (any bus route with the letter F after a numbering operates only on Sundays and public holidays)
  • H (route H is the only route in the entire network which number consists only in a letter)
  • N (any bus route with the letter N operates during nights only)

In other cases, there are routes whose first digit is 0. It stands for those peripheral routes operating outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare at all times.

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