The Lecce

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

system () forms part of the

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

network of the city and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

, in the

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

southern Italy Southern Italy (, , or , ; ; ), also known as () or (; ; ; ), is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern Regions of Italy, regions. The term "" today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or cultu ...

. Opened in January 2012, the system comprises three routes, of which one is a circular (loop) route with different route numbers for the two directions. The last of the three routes opened in June 2014.

History

The network was made possible thanks to state funding authorised by the law 211 of 26 February 1992 (''Interventions in the field of mass rapid transport systems''). The tender for its construction was won by a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

made up of , Van Hool NV, Imet Spa and Vossloh Kiepe GmbH. Van Hool A330T trolleybus in Lecce

The first of 12

Van Hool Van Hool NV () was a Belgium, Belgian coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, Coach (bus), coaches, trolleybuses, and Semi-trailer, trailers. Most of the buses and coaches were built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axles sourced from C ...

trolleybuses on order was delivered on 30 March 2007, and the first

overhead wiring Overhead may be: * Overhead (business), the ongoing operating costs of running a business * Engineering overhead, ancillary design features required by a component of a device ** Overhead (computing), ancillary computation required by an algorithm ...

was installed during the same month.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 274 (July–August 2007), p. 89. National Trolleybus Association (UK). . The operator, SGM Lecce, ceremonially 'opened' the network in the presence of the then-mayor,

Adriana Poli Bortone Adriana Poli Bortone (born 25 August 1943) is an Italian politician who was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2008. She represented Southern Italy. She was mayor of Lecce from 1998 to 2007 and since 2024. Biography Born in Lecc ...

, and ran an inaugural tour. However, a series of bureaucratic problems delayed the actual completion of the system and its opening for service. Delivery of additional trolleybuses began around the end of October 2007.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 277 (January–February 2008), p. 16. National Trolleybus Association. On 31 March 2010, SGM appointed a director of trolleybus operations, a move that facilitated commencement of procedures for driver training. Still, by October 2010 only a few test runs had taken place.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 295 (January–February 2011), p. 19. National Trolleybus Association. The system was finally opened on 12 January 2012, but only one route (29) initially.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 302 (March–April 2012), pp. 43–44. National Trolleybus Association. At the time of the system's opening, four of the twelve vehicles on orderall of which had been completed by the end of 2007''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 280 (July–August 2008), p. 88. National Trolleybus Association.were still being stored at the Van Hool factory in Belgium. On 2 February 2013, the second line was opened, a loop route numbered 31 in the clockwise direction and 30 in the counterclockwise direction, with a

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise definition varies depending on ...

of 40 minutes.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 309 (May–June 2013), p. 78. National Trolleybus Association (UK). . The third route, 27, opened on 15 June 2014, connecting the city centre with Ecotekne.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 317 (September–October 2014), p. 131. National Trolleybus Association (UK). . A large loop at the route's outer end is not equipped with

, and the trolleybuses cover it using their diesel engines.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 319 (January–February 2015), pp. 20, 22. National Trolleybus Association (UK). . Trolleybuses do not operate on any route on Sundays. In June 2022, the routes were renumbered, with route 27 becoming S13, route 29 becoming M1, and circular 30/31 (counterclockwise/clockwise) becoming C3 and C2, respectively.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 365 (September–October 2022), p. 209. National Trolleybus Association. At the time of that change, route 27 had been temporarily operated by motorbuses since the end of 2021 because of

roadworks Roadworks, also called road construction or road work, occur when part of the road, or in rare cases, the entire road, has to be occupied for work relating to the road, most often in the case of road surface repairs. In the United States road ...

and the need to repair a

substation A substation is a part of an electrical Electricity generation, generation, electric power transmission, transmission, and electric power distribution, distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or pe ...

, but trolleybuses returned to the route, now S13, in October 2024.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 379 (January–February 2025), p. 35. National Trolleybus Association.

Lines

The Lecce trolleybus lines are as follows: * M1 (formerly 29): City Terminal (on Via Porta d'Europa) – city centre – Lecce railway station * C2/C3 (formerly 31/30), named ''Circolare destra'' and ''Circolare sinistra'' (clockwise circular and counterclockwise circular), with layover point at Porta Napoli * S13 (ex-27): City Terminal – Ecotekne-Fiorini

Fleet

The Lecce trolleybus fleet comprises 12

A330T 12 m dual-mode

rigid bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used i ...

es, built in 2006–2007, each fitted with both electric traction motors and a

euro 4 The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

diesel engine.

References

Notes

External links

Trolleybus city: Lecce (Italy)
at Trolleymotion (German, with automated translation to English and other languages available on-site) {{Urban public transport in Italy