September 26, 2009
More than a quarter-century after its operations were halted, the trolleybus system in the city and commune (municipality) of Chieti in central Italy was brought back into service. The following month, Omar Cugini reported on this milestone was in the Rome-based magazine TheCommuter: News from the World of Mobility and Public Transport.
“September 26th is a ‘historic’ date for the city of Chieti and for the history of its public transport,” wrote Cugini, “After 17 years of work and bureaucratic problems, the long odyssey which has involved the trolleybus of the city of Chieti since 1992 finally comes to an end. Under a warm autumn sun the trolleybus resumed its journey where it had started in 1950, and in the same way.”
The original version of the Chieti trolleybus system was introduced on July 16, 1950. It replaced a tram (streetcar) service that had been in place since 1905. In its first incarnation, this trolleybus system consisted of a 5.2-mile (8.3-kilometer) line operating on a steep incline and connecting Chieti railway station at Piazza Guglielmo Marconi with the higher-altitude center of Chieti.
Over the next several decades, the Chieti trolleybus system proved to be a popular means of transit within that centuries-old Italian city and commune. (The accompanying photo of one of that system’s vehicles – a Fiat 668F trolleybus built in 1950 – was taken sometime during the 1970s or early 1980s.) In 1992, however, this public transportation service was discontinued due to the lack of funding for sorely needed maintenance needs such as the replacement of the line’s worn overhead wires.
The eventual efforts to repair and restore the Chieti trolleybus system and bring it back into use did not begin in earnest until 2002. The return of this service was officially marked seven years later with a ribbon cutting by Francesco Ricci, mayor of Chieti. He called that date in 2009 “a historic and unforgettable day for the city” and also emphasized the strong linkage between the newly inaugurated trolleybus system and its longtime predecessor. Ricci noted, “[Many] of us grew up on this means of transport which will now be shared by the new generations.” The route for the current version of the trolleybus system covers six miles (9.6 kilometers) altogether within Chieti.
Photo Credit: Mario Kablinger (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
For more information on the Chieti trolleybus system, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_Chieti
Additional information on trolleybus systems in Italy is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trolleybus_systems_in_Italy
Transportation History 
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