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The story
Founded by Milan on May 22, 1931, in Milan.1
Public transport in Milan started on August 17, 1840, with the opening of the Milan-Monza railway. Horse-drawn buses were introduced in 1841.
Services were run by the Società Anonima degli Omnibus (SAO), "Omnibus Anonymous Company". The company was responsible for 11 bus lines between 1861 and 1865.
Few years later the first horse-drawn trams were introduced: 3 lines were opened in 1881 followed in 1893 by the first electric tramway, built by Edison company. Two years later the same company opened 18 more lines, all ruled by municipality offices. Edison's concession on new lines expired in 1917, leaving all the operations to the municipality. Few years later the public offices responsible for public transport operations were made independent, becoming the Azienda Tranviaria Municipale (ATM) in 1931.
In the meantime, the first petrol powered bus lines were introduced in 1905, operated by SITA (Società Italiana Trasporto con Automobili) and then moved under control of ATM along with the first trolleybus line (1933).
After World War II resources were focused on bus lines and, since the mid-1950s, on the new metro. Milan Metro construction began in 1957 and in 1964 the first line was opened. Five years later the Line 2 was inaugurated.
On 1 January 1965, ATM changed its name to "Azienda Trasporti Municipali" (Municipal Transport Company). In these years a new generation of longer tram (jumbotram) were introduced. In the 1960s Italy and Milan saw a strong increase in car owners, and the increasing importance of private over public transport.
Several new stations of the two metro lines are opened in the following years. The new Line 3 was inaugurated in 1990.
Tram line 15 to Rozzano was the first to go beyond the city border in 1992.
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ATM changed its name again in 1999 to adopt the current one, "Azienda Trasporti Milanesi", and it became a S.p.a. in 2001. In these years, the first on-demand service, the Radiobus, was introduced to operate during the night.
The first light rail line, Line 7, was introduced on 7 December 2002. This was followed by other two lines on 8 December 2003: Line 4 and Line 15. These three lines are howsoever referred to as trams.
New magnetic tickets and electronic pass cards were introduced in 2004. The complete upgrade process took 3 years.
From Wikipedia’s article on Azienda Trasporti Milanesi, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4