The Municipality of Trieste was happy to report earlier this week that two Belle Epoque tram cars that used to operate there until recently have been saved from the possibility of being acquired by private collectors and hidden away from public eyes. To that end, the Municipality of the Italian city put forward 25 000 euros to purchase and restore the vehicles, which at the beginning of the 20th century used to serve the line linking Trieste with the nearby suburban town of Opicina.
These trams are among the oldest surviving in Europe
The trams in question represent a truly precious heritage, especially for transport history enthusiasts, but also for everyone nostalgic of bygone eras. They take us to a time when motorized transportation was still making its first steps, yet it also shows us that vintage transport can be sustainable, too.
The older of the two cars (in green colour) was made in 1901 and was in service until 1935, just like its brown-coloured counterpart (on the photo), which was produced in 1906. Afterwards, they continued being utilized but for a different purpose. The trams were employed as counterweight cars for the local funicular section.
The brown tram was then housed and displayed in the Railway Museum between 1990 and 2002 and was restored for the funicular service in 2003, when its green ‘brother’ was taken off duty due to electrical and asbestos issues.
“These are an asset of Trieste and they will remain so. We have safeguarded these two historic cars from the early 1900s which will thus be able to be enhanced even more at a tourist-cultural level and will also be able to return to service on short flat stretches (the brown one is already restored, while the green one will have to be recovered and reclaimed from the ‘asbestos’) and still be used for initiatives, events, appointments and ceremonies,” promised Lorenzo Giorgi, Councillor of General Services.
Mr Giorgi was also an optimist about the reactivation of the historical tram line between Trieste and Opicina.
Source: TheMayor.EU
