Rome Metro

Line A runs from the southeastern suburbs of Rome, then along the northeast section of downtown, and then to the northern section of the city, near Vatican City. It connects with Line B, along with many other national and regional rail services, at Termini, and with Line C at San Giovanni. It has 27 stations, with terminals at Battistini and Anagnina. It is identified by the colour orange.

Line A was the second line built in Rome. Approval was given for the construction of the city's second Metro line in 1959.

Work on Line A began in 1964 in the Tuscolana area, but suffered a series of delays caused by poor organisation. Above all, the originally planned cut and cover method of construction posed serious problems for road traffic in southeast Rome. Work on the Metro was suspended and began again five years later, using bored tunnels, which partially resolved the traffic problems but caused numerous claims for compensation for vibrations caused by the machines. Work was also frequently interrupted by archaeological finds made during the excavations, particularly near Piazza della Repubblica.

Line A entered service in February 1980. In the late 1990s, it was extended from Ottaviano, in the Prati district, to Battistini to the west.

Since June 2022, Line A is connected with the reactivated railway station of Vigna Clara. The Vigna Clara-Valle Aurelia section is a relevant step to close the railway ring in North Rome because of the connection with the Line A, Line B (Ostiense) and the FL3 railway line to Viterbo.[6]

Line B was the first Metro line in Rome. Line B connects the northeast of the city with the southwest. It has 26 stations with terminals at Rebibbia, Jonio and Laurentina (just east of EUR). It is identified by the colour blue. Transfers are available with Line A and other rail services at Termini station.

Line B was planned during the 1930s by the fascist government to provide a rapid connection between the main train station, Termini, and a new district to the southeast of the city, E42, the planned location of the Universal Exposition (or Expo), which was to be held in Rome in 1942. The exposition never took place due to Italy's entry into the Second World War in 1940. When its construction was interrupted, some of the tunnels on the city-centre side of the Metro (between Termini and Piramide) had already been completed, and they were used as air raid shelters during the war.

Work restarted in 1948, together with the development of the site formerly designated for the Expo into a residential and business district under the name EUR. The Metro was officially opened on 9 February 1955 by the then President of the Republic, Luigi Einaudi. Regular services began the following day.[7]

In 1990, Line B was extended from Termini to Rebibbia in the east of the city and the entire line was modernised. A new 4 km (2.5 mi) long branch (B1) was opened connecting Piazza Bologna with Conca d'Oro on 13 June 2012; the branch's last stop (and new terminus), Jonio, was opened on 21 April 2015.

Archaeological finds inside the San Giovanni station

Opened on 9 November 2014, line C currently runs radially from San Giovanni, serving as an interchange station for Line A, to the eastern terminus of Pantano (the former terminus of the Roma–Giardinetti light railway). It is the first Metro line to extend beyond the city boundaries in Rome.

It is planned to extend to the northwest, towards Grottarossa (north of the Vatican), via the city centre; it will also intersect with Line A at Ottaviano (beside the Vatican), with Line B at Colosseo, and with the planned Line D at Piazza Venezia, thus creating a fourth Metro hub in Rome.

San Giovanni Archeostation

The first section of the line, from Centocelle to Pantano,[8] is the furthest from the city centre and includes 15 of the planned 30 stops. A further 5.4-kilometre (3.4 mi) section of Line C, serving six additional stations, opened on 29 June 2015, as the line's western terminus was moved from Parco di Centocelle to Lodi.[2] On 12 May 2018, the western terminus was moved to San Giovanni (interchange station for line A).[9] After this third phase, the line will be further extended with three stations, Porta Metronia, Colosseo, and Piazza Venezia, located in the city centre.[10]

Progress on the line has been slow with projected completion dates being repeatedly delayed. Rome is one of the oldest cities in the world, and as such, the construction of the Metro system has encountered considerable obstacles owing to frequent archaeological discoveries.[11] While the excavation of the tunnels themselves can be undertaken well below the probable location of most archaeological finds, the excavation of stairwells and ventilation shafts – which must, by necessity, connect with the surface – pose considerable difficulties.

The trains operating on line C are completely automated,[12] and use the same AnsaldoBreda Driverless Metro system also featured on the Copenhagen Metro.

Projected overview map of Rome Underground and Rail

During the excavation for the central route of line C, thanks to the archeological richness of Rome's ground a new type of underground station was born, as in Paris with Louvre–Rivoli station.

San Giovanni station was the first archeostation to be opened on 12 May 2018. Excavation to a depth of about 20 metres allowed the exploration of about 21 stratifications of history up to the so-called virgin soil, the one in which man's presence is absent.

The exhibition is characterized by being a real tour with libraries for the finds along the route, explanatory panels on the walls and a temporal measurement of the historical phases that follows the path of the passengers from the atrium level to the platforms' level:

• Atrium level: from Contemporary Age to Late Antiquity Age
• First underground level: from Republican Age to Archaic Age
• Platform level: Prehistoric Age

The various archaeological finds and exhibits include small items such as gold jewelry, coins, crockery, shells, large amphorae and elements of ancient columns and also large finds, such as the large pool, the largest reservoir ever found, located inside a farm of the imperial age.

An urban single journey ticket, the Biglietto Integrato a Tempo (BIT), costs €1.50, and is valid on the Metro, buses, trams and suburban trains inside the Rome municipality for 100 minutes from first validation. Other tickets are available, including daily (€7.00), 2-day (€12.50), and 3-day (€18.00) passes (Rome 24h/48h/72h), and a weekly pass (€24.00), the Carta Integrata Settimanale (CIS). Monthly passes that are valid during the charged calendar month for unlimited journeys available for the personal usage (€35.00) or impersonal usage (€53.00) and may be used alternatively by different persons. Children under 10 years old travel can travel for free on public transport services when accompanied by a fare-paying adult.

Two proximity cards are available in Rome, èRoma and Metrebus Card Red, which can be charged with season tickets, replacing paper for this type of ticket.

Service starts at about 5:30 am and ends at about 11:30 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays service ends later, at about 1:30 am.[13]

When the Metro is closed, a night bus service operates with lines that follow the same routes and stop at the same stations as the Metro. Line A is served by bus NMA, Line B is served by bus NMB/NMB1, and Line C is served by bus N28.

Construction of the Roma–Lido line began shortly after the end of World War I and was completed some six years later in 1924. It began operation as a steam locomotion railway but electrification was completed less than a year later.

The line is operated as an integrated part of the Metro, but runs entirely overground. It runs from the Roma Porta San Paolo station beside the Line B Piramide station and runs alongside Line B as far as EUR Magliana. It then continues separately on to the seaside district of Ostia. The line terminates beside the end of Via Cristoforo Colombo.

A train of the Roma–Giardinetti line

Officially termed a railway, the Roma–Giardinetti line is a narrow gauge tram which connects Laziali (a smaller, local train station some 800 metres east of Termini's main concourse) with Giardinetti, just past the Grande Raccordo Anulare (GRA) – Rome's orbital motorway. The line originally ran to Frosinone some 137 km (85 mi) from Rome, but has been gradually reduced in length, when the section from Giardinetti to Pantano, which will become a permanent part of Line C, was taken out of service. Most recently also the part from Centocelle to Giardinetti was reduced.

Montebello station of the Roma–Civita Castellana–Viterbo line

The Roma–Civita Castellana–Viterbo line (also called Roma Nord railway) began life as a narrow-gauge tram running from Piazza della Libertà in Rome to Civita Castellana. However, the next stretch of the line, to Viterbo, was built as a railway and over the years the tram section was converted into a railway as well, a process which concluded with the moving of the Roman terminus from the street-level terminus at Piazza della Libertà across the river to a new underground station in Piazzale Flaminio, beside the subsequently constructed Line A station, after World War II.

The line is operated in two modes: as an urban service from Piazzale Flaminio to Montebello, and as a suburban service from Piazzale Flaminio to Viterbo. The urban service operates with a frequency of about one train every ten minutes, while the suburban service operates considerably less frequently, with less than a third of the trains making the full two-and-a-half–hour journey from Rome to Viterbo.

Proposed Line D

There are two proposed new lines, with no timeline for their construction:

• Line D is currently proposed to run from Ojetti in the north to Agricoltura in the south, passing through the city centre to the west of Roma Termini. Development on the project was suspended from 2012 to 2018.[15][16]
• Line E would take over the existing Rome–Lido railway and the Jonio branch of Line B, with a new railway connection south of Roma Porta San Paolo/Piramide.[17]

Line A uses an evolution of the RS4 Codici, a classical block system of the Italian railway. Since its creation the signalling offers to the conductor advice about the speed limit and the freedom of the way.[18]

Until 1990, Line B used a railway-like signaling system that advised only about the freedom of the way.[19]

Since 1990, the line uses a new signaling system, inspired by the Milan Metro's signaling, that gives information about the speed limit in the section within a range of 0 km/h and 80 km/h. Conductors are informed by classical light semaphores.[20]

Line C is an automatic line and uses a radio frequency system for communication with the train. It has an electrical block system that permits a max frequency of a train every 90 seconds.[21]