History

Conerobus – Inter-communal mobility Company, was born in June 1999 from a fusion of two transport companies of Ancona: the ATMA, for the urban connections within the city of Ancona, and the COTRAN for the suburban connections.

The project was born between the municipality of Ancona and the whole Province with the twenty-one municipalities of Agugliano, Belvedere Ostrense, Camerano, Camerata Picena, Castelfidardo, Chiaravalle, Falconara, Filottrano, Loreto, Montemarciano, Monte San Vito, Morro d'Alba, Numana, Offagna, Osimo, Ostra, Polverigi, Recanati, San Marcello, Santa Maria Nuova, Sirolo, and is based on the need to spread and connect the municipalities one another.

That was the finishing line of a history that has twisted and structured through different times, different finishing stages and new last stops from which to restart. What is particularly interesting is the history of the public transportation of Ancona. The city began to show its wish for movement since 1878, therefore the Municipal Administration approved the project to build a tram line pulled by horses. At those times the city mayor was T. Frediani and believed that the “car service”, i.e. the electric tramway, still was pretty dangerous. People had to wait until July 1881, when the municipality gave to the entrepreneur Giovan Battista Marotti the concession of the tramway service, which was launched in December 1881. It was structured in two lines: the first one was 2 km long and connected the railway station with the Piazza del Teatro delle Muse; the second line was over 3 km long from Piazza Cavour to Piazza d'Armi.

Ever since then, all the steps forward – in terms of conquests and improvements – have been nearly unstoppable. In October 1909 the electric tram was launched: “19 October” how the newspaper Il Corriere delle Marche wrote “will stay a glad date of our everyday life in town”. The character of the city has changed and been transformed. Vehicles, manufactured by the workshops in Reggio Emilia, moved quick along the roads and squares, enlivening them of noises, frenzies and buzzes unknown until then. But in October 1943 the crackling of the trams was replaced by the bomb roars. The tramway system was deeply damaged and on 26 April 1944 it was definitively suspended because of 169 air raids that bombed the city.

After two years of work, on 5 June 1946, the first tram wagon had been restored and re-circulated in line no. 1. People kept on working to give again to the population an efficient public transport system. The military jeeps were adjusted for the public transport and, in a few months, they turned into buses. The ATMA launched the tramway system in March 1949 establishing four lines, which quickly became five, that covered both the city centre and the suburbs on the hills like Pinocchio, Posatora and Tavernelle. Part of the lines were suspended in the seventies; today there is still only the line 1/4, extended to Tavernelle suburb as main route of the city transport. In 1998 ATMA company was absorbed by COTRAN and, the following year, it disappeared as well to give birth to Conerobus S.p.A.

By the end of 2006, thanks to the acquisition of the CIPA company and its systems, vehicles and professional experiences, Conerobus spread its working range also to Jesi, organising its public transport. Finally, in July 2007, Conerobus, as majority shareholder, participated in establishing – together with the Consortium Tran, which gathered all the private companies working within Ancona – the A.T.M.A. (Azienda Trasporti e Mobilità di Ancona e provincia): only one company managing a great part of the public urban and suburban transport, within the territory of the Province of Ancona.