Tram T2 Inauguration & News

Florence welcomed both the president of Italy and the minister of transportation to celebrate the highly anticipated opening of the T2 line on February 11. The line has 12 stops and will run every four minutes from Piazza dell’Unità to the Peretola airport and back.

The opening of this line comes from months of delayed construction and as a result, the line will remain free to Florence residents until February 24. After that point, it will cost €1.50 for those without an ATAF bus pass. A proposal to make the journey to the airport from the second to last stop cost €4.50 for all others is still awaiting approval by the Tuscan Regional Government. While this proposal received some public backlash, it is expected to pass easily due to the fact that transportation to all airports throughout Europe is generally expensive. Even with the proposed price raise, the tram will still be a cheaper option of airport transportation in comparison to the €6 airport bus, which will continue to run.

The kickoff of T2 tram service comes with some adjustments to the bus schedule as well as the installation of a new parking lot across from the viale Guidoni stop. The parking lot will have 250 spots available with the hope of increasing to 1600 spots in the near future. The lot is free to residents until June 24, after which parking will cost €1 an hour and €4 an hour at night.

Several preexisting bus routes will be affected: line 22 will no longer run and other changes have been made.

Two lines will be added:  Bus 16 will link Piazza Puccini with Piazza San Jacopino and Piazza Leopoldo and will end at the T1 Leopoldo tram stop. Bus 68 will connect Brozzi and Quaracchi to the airport. Buses 31, 32 and 7 have route modifications: 31 and 32 will come to the end of the line at the station instead of San Marco. Bus 7 will now take passengers from Fiesole to Largo Alinari near the station, going through San Marco.

Other changes sparked by the addition of the new line, according to news sources, will be less smog, fewer cars on the road, a 10% drop in traffic and 40 thousand fewer tons of carbon monoxide released into the air.

At the inauguration, the Minister of Transportation, Danilo Toninelli, announced that 40 million euros will be arriving from the European Union to construct another tram line that will go to Bagno a Ripoli.  (kelsey lentz)

To read more in Italian, visit Florence’s La Repubblica news site.