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Metromare is a Bus rapid transit, line in the province of Rimini, Italy. Part of Rimini's trolleybus system, the line runs between the railway stations of Rimini and Riccione on a segregated track beside the Bologna–Ancona railway. Fifteen intermediate stops serve the coastal suburbs, the touristic seafront, Federico Fellini International Airport, and the Fiabilandia amusement park. The service is operated by Start Romagna SpA, and launched in November 2019.
Metromare is the culmination of decades-long planning of coastal rapid transit projects in the Romagna region. It is envisaged that the line could eventually be extended to serve the length of the riviera romagnola from Ravenna to Cattolica, forming a regional rapid transit network. A northern extension to Rimini Fiera has been approved, with construction starting in summer 2024.
In local politics, Metromare has been a controversial project, with opponents criticising its 78-million-euro construction cost and its protracted planning and construction phases, which spanned a quarter of a century. Opposition was particularly strong in Riccione, causing a rift between the provincial and municipal governments. Further criticism surrounded the decision to launch the service provisionally with buses, following a delay in the delivery of nine trolleybuses which ultimately entered service in October 2021. Metromare's proponents cite its environmental benefits and the relief it provides on traffic congestion and the route 11 trolleybus, which also connects Rimini and Riccione but runs along the principal seafront avenue.
The route starts at Rimini railway station in the city centre, with connections to regional and national Trenitalia railway services, local and suburban buses, and coaches to San Marino. The next stop southbound, Kennedy, gives access to the Roman amphitheatre. Two further stops (Pascoli, Lagomaggio) complete the section in the frazione of Rimini. The roadway is only one lane wide at Lagomaggio, but is two lanes wide at all other stations.
In the frazione of Bellariva, the Toscanini stop is closest to the hospital, and is followed by Bellariva, Marebello and Rivazzurra in their homonymous frazioni. The Fiabilandia stop in Rivazzurra serves the amusement park. In the frazione of Miramare, Miramare Station interchanges with Rimini Miramare railway station. The Miramare Airport stop is located near Federico Fellini International Airport. The following stops (Marano, D'Annunzio Nord, Alba, Dante) fall in the comune of Riccione. Porto is located above the Rio Melo and gives access to the port in Riccione. The route terminates at Ceccarini Riccione Station, which is served by regional and national railway services and local and suburban buses.
The service is operated by Start Romagna SpA, contracted by the Patrimonio Mobilità Provincia di Rimini (PMR). In January 2023, the stops of Toscanini, Alba, Dante and Porto were equipped with lifts.
Since August 2023, two non-electric folding bicycles have been allowed aboard per trolleybus between 9am and noon and 3pm and 7pm. Those travelling with a bicycle are required to pay an extra ticket.
| + Current fleet Trolleybus Magazine No. 366 (November–December 2022), p. 251. |
Between its launch in November 2019 and the trolleybuses' arrival in October 2021, Metromare temporarily used eight buses. These were four Iveco Urbanway 18 Hybrid buses, loaned from TPER Bologna (TPER fleet numbers 6400–6403); four IIA CityMood 12 CNG buses (Start Romagna fleet numbers 32320–32323); and four Neoplan N4522 Centroliner G buses (Start Romagna fleet numbers 36041, 36043–36045).
In March 1994, city planner Leonardo Benevolo proposed a metropolitana costiera in a package of urban projects for Rimini, with a projected cost of Italian lira 120 billion. The line would run double-tracked from the site of the new Rimini Fiera to Riccione using Guided bus. Trolleybus Magazine No. 208 (July–August 1996), p. 102. Trolleybus Magazine No. 291 (May–June 2010), p. 67. National Trolleybus Association (UK). The project was approved by the regional assembly in June 1994, and expected to open in 2000. In March 1996, the central government approved a loan of Lit. 62 billion. Rimini and Riccione municipal council approved the programme by spring 1998, which would, until February 2018, become known as Trasporto Rapido Costiero (TRC) (Coastal Rapid Transport). The project's controversies would later echo early opposition from this period, including the project's expected costs and its effects on surrounding properties and existing trees. The TRC was a significant theme in Rimini's 1999 municipal elections after unsuccessful campaigns for the issue to go to referendum in Rimini and Riccione.
By spring 2019, structural and vehicular testing along the route were complete and Metromare merely required the approval of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport to launch, which it would receive in September. While the provincial mayor hoped to launch the service in October 2019, a further month's delay took place.
Metromare's infrastructure cost was estimated at just over 78 million euros, below the 81 million euros that had been set aside at the time of the project's approval in 2006. The central government was budgeted to pay for 42 million euros of this cost, with local and regional government agencies providing 38 million euros. The contract for the trolleybuses cost a further 10.6 million euros, mostly paid by local agencies. Several separate urban projects later accompanied the Metromare, including an additional 1,400 parking spaces across the Kennedy, Toscanini, Rivazzurra, and Miramare Station stops, and a new piazzetta on Rivazzurra's Via dei Martiri. The parking spaces are partly intended to replace those removed along the seafront by the redevelopment of the pedestrian esplanade.
Metromare was expected to eliminate between 12,000 and 15,000 car journeys a day, equal to an 11% drop in fine particles along Rimini's coastal route per year.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, Metromare services were suspended on 21 March 2020. Following a request by the provincial government, services resumed on 25 July 2020 with reduced capacity. After a further pandemic-induced delay, the first trolleybus was delivered to Rimini on 12 June 2020, and the vehicles entered service in October 2021.
In May 2023, it was reported that the new Line E of Rome Metro, connecting Rome to Ostia, would be branded as Metromare. PMR's president said that they had registered the Metromare name and logo in January 2021, and did not plan to bring legal action.
The intermediate stops (from north to south) are Fiera di Rimini Est-Teodorico; Popilia; Sacramora; Rivabella; San Giuliano; and Principe Amedeo. The route is double-tracked between Rimini Fiera and Rivabella, and single-tracked from after Rivabella to Rimini Station. An additional six trolleybuses will be purchased to run the service, and the journey from Rimini Fiera to Ceccarini Riccione Station will take 31 minutes. Among the districts served will be the historic fishing quarter of Borgo San Giuliano, the coastal Rivabella suburb, the Monumental Cemetery of Rimini near the Sacramora stop, and the Rimini Fiera exhibition centre.
The works contract is due to be awarded in December 2023, with construction starting in the summer of 2024. The project requires two new bridges over water, four new vehicular underpasses, and two new and three refurbished pedestrian underpasses. The extension is expected to be completed by 2026.
The third stage of the Metromare is expected to be a southern extension to Misano Adriatico and Cattolica. The extension is opposed by some Misano municipal councillors. Renata Tosi, the Mayor of Riccione from 2014 to 2022, campaigned for the extension to follow existing roads and functionally connect important coastal districts rather than areas along the railway line, also to counteract the "urban disfigurement" that the first stage had caused. In October 2022, Riccione's new municipal administration ordered technical studies to evaluate the options of running the extension along the railway or along the principal seafront avenue.
Several officials and political parties support connecting the Metromare to inland towns, including Santarcangelo and Morciano di Romagna.
At a protest at a construction site in 2014, a protestor produced an anonymous document claiming that Agenzia di Mobilità (AM), the agency overseeing the construction works, was filling excavation sites in Riccione with untreated sludge, and she asked representatives about the veracity of the claim. The protestor was sued by AM for defamation; in November 2019, the Court of Rimini overturned her initial conviction, citing her protected constitutional right to critique.
The demolition of properties to make way for the line attracted local opposition. The project required 680 expropriation decrees, many relating to land containing buildings and garages. Via Serra in Bellariva was particularly affected, becoming a flashpoint of community opposition. In total, 96 appeals were filed against expropriation orders, all of which were won by PMR.
The construction of a retaining concrete wall along the track, up to six metres high, caused notable consternation. An open letter from Riccione's hoteliers association warned against the disfigurement it would create. To avoid the wall, in June 2014, Tosi's administration presented an alternative route to run the line in Riccione along existing roads nearer to the seafront; this was rejected by the project's coordination committee, leading to the direct intervention of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Both the regional administrative court and the Council of State rejected Riccione's appeal against the committee's decision. In September 2015, an engineer hired by Tosi's administration concluded that the proposed route would not reduce journey times by using smart traffic lights, and could reduce construction costs by 7 million euros. The proposal was backed by the city's hoteliers association, a Rimini-based industrial trade association, and the provincial president of , an association of commercial enterprises. The coordination committee rejected the engineer's findings, projecting that the proposal would increase journey times and construction and operating costs while decreasing road safety.
Community tension shrouded the felling of over 200 pine trees in Via Portovenere. In April 2014, a demonstration outside the town hall decried the felling. In June, Tosi attended an occupation of the construction site and issued an injunction to halt the works, which was later overturned. 200 protesters regathered at the site, and the felling was supervised by around 70 police officers. For her part in the protest, the carabinieri charged Tosi with complicity in the interruption of public works, criminal damage, and abuse of public office. Via Portovenere returned to local news in April 2015 after residents were given short notice to evacuate their courtyards and garages for works on the line.
In October 2014, AM threatened Tosi's administration with legal action for failing to regulate traffic flows to allow works in Riccione to proceed. The works had already been postponed by one month on the municipality's request. Tosi believed that the threat was politicised to bend Riccione against backing down. In March 2015, the coordination committee elected to replace Riccione's representative on the committee with an ad hoc commissioner for matters relating to road regulations. Local politicians described the move as anti-democratic and authoritarian. In May 2015, AM and the municipal administration further clashed on the closure of an underpass in Via Puccini.
In May 2015, over a thousand residents formed a human chain protest at a construction site in Viale Rimini, where 89 trees were felled. After a municipal ordinance to stop works in Viale Rimini was overturned in August 2015, the municipal administration accused the regional administrative court of a "now prejudicial attitude" against its concerns. The administration also protested against the felling of trees in Via delle Magnolie, citing conservation laws.
Local politicians criticised Tosi's administration for its stubborn opposition to the project and causing unnecessary, costly delays. In January 2021, the preliminary hearing judge of the Court of Rimini indicted Tosi for abuse of office, relating to ordinances she issued to obstruct Metromare's construction. PMR had sued Tosi for civil damage claims of 2.35 million euros. Riccione municipal councillors from across the political system expressed their solidarity with Tosi. Tosi, who retired at the 2022 municipal election, was acquitted at the trial in July 2022.
In March 2021, the administration of Bellaria – Igea Marina, north of Rimini, protested that the municipality was asked to absorb an increase in provincial transport costs that they attributed to Metromare. The councillors reaffirmed that the project had increased the investment gap between Rimini's northern and southern suburbs, and that Metromare was prioritised for regional funding. The municipality said that it was initially agreed that areas that would not benefit from Metromare would not be asked to contribute to its construction, but that this was later rescinded on the justification that the project was a coastal service.
In August 2019, the coordination committee decided to launch Metromare provisionally with buses. Local politicians criticised the replacement buses as polluting and incompatible with the platform for wheelchair users. Some also accused the provisional launch of being an electoral stunt ahead of the regional elections. The provisional launch was projected to cost 1.1 million euros, including 640,000 euros in management costs, 188,000 euros for the installation of signalling systems inside the vehicles, and 57,000 euros for vehicle leases.
Riccione's municipal government formally objected to the provisional launch of the Metromare using alternative means, and sought legal advice to overturn the legitimacy of the decision. The municipal Democratic Party said that Riccione's mayor was acting "like that Hiroo Onoda with the helmet that continues to fight a battle lost from the start". At a hearing in Rimini's municipal council in October 2019, a councillor objected to the provisional launch going ahead without Riccione's consent, while another asked why the provisional launch was necessary given the existing alternative provided by the route 11 trolleybus.
Riccione's municipal government filed a legal appeal to suspend the provisional Metromare services on grounds of safety deficiencies relating to the route, replacement vehicles, and workplace standards; it lost the case in December 2019. In January 2020, Start Romagna drivers cited the dangerousness of the Metromare among their reasons for striking. The event of a bus collision along the track was simulated in an emergency exercise later that month, which Riccione politicians said should have been carried out before the launch. After the COVID-19 pandemic closed Metromare, Riccione's municipal government voted against resuming services until the trolleybuses could enter service.
The first trolleybus arrived on 12 June 2020. Testing began in July 2020 and the vehicles were approved in September 2021, entering service the following month.
Local politicians have criticised the lack of a direct connection as an oversight of the project's planning. In September 2020, the Mayor of Riccione proposed a direct connection from the airport to the city's southern spa district.
In October 2019, PMR's president suggested that a moving walkway could be installed between the airport and the Metromare stop. The municipal council launched a feasibility study into the moving walkway in September 2023. The suggestion was derided by local politicians as fanciful and much costlier than a shuttle service. A feasbility study concluded that the covered walkway would cost 13.7 million euros, with annual operating costs of 288,000 euros.
In September 2021, the municipal council approved the replacement of the three-way directional interchange between the SS16 and the Via Cavalieri di Vittorio Veneto with a roundabout. The project would include lit segregated pedestrian walkways and a pedestrian crossing of the SS16 controlled by traffic lights.
In April 2023, Roberta Frisoni, Rimini's councillor for public transportation, argued that the variability of demand for a direct airport connection – dependent on the times of flights – meant that a shuttle connection between the Metromare stop and airport would be more appropriate than a branch of the Metromare. Frisoni further ruled out an underground branch, citing high costs and the geological difficulty presented by the superficial groundwater.
In the provisional phase, usage data suggested that the lines had distinct user bases. On Metromare's fare-less inaugural weekend during the winter period of 2019, usage of the route 11 trolleybus declined by 30%. In March 2020, Frisoni suggested halving the frequency of route 11 services to one every twenty to thirty minutes. The winter timetable for 2022–2023, effective from 15 September to 7 June, adopted a lengthened headway of 36 minutes for route 11, requiring just three vehicles, compared with 20 minutes in previous years. The summer 2022 timetable had an 18-minute headway on route 11, compared with 12 minutes in recent previous summers.
Metromare also competes with the route 9 bus, which runs from the airport to Rimini city centre, Rimini Fiera, and Santarcangelo or San Vito. Being further inland, the route 9 bus runs through, rather than beside, the residential districts in the southern suburbs and also serves the hospital, Colonnella district and Arch of Augustus.
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