Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In Italy, a new light rail system opened in the city of Messina on the island of Sicily. The 4.8-mile-long Tranvia di Messina, which replaced a bus line, made its debut more than a half-century after the last tramway network serving one of Sicily’s largest cities had ceased operations. With a rolling stock of 15... Continue Reading →
The first flight between Portugal and its then-territory of Madeira, a North Atlantic archipelago located 280 nautical miles off the coast of Africa, took place when a Felixstowe F .3 seaplane traveled from Lisbon to the city of Funchal on the southern shore of Madeira’s main island. The Portuguese Naval Aeronautical Service crew on board... Continue Reading →
As World War II in Europe was fast approaching its end, an extensive operation known as “White Buses” began using a fleet of vehicles to rescue concentration camp inmates in Nazi Germany. White Buses was jointly conducted by the Swedish Red Cross and the Danish government. (Sweden was neutral throughout the war; Denmark, for its... Continue Reading →
A day after it was officially opened, the first electric tram (streetcar) line in all of Scandinavia began regular operations in Norway’s capital city of Kristiania. (In 1924, the city formally readopted its original name of Oslo.) This tram line was run by the company Kristiana Elektriske Sporvei (KES) as a part of the Oslo... Continue Reading →
A pivotal moment took place in the development of the Simplon Tunnel, a railway tunnel running through the Alps in the vicinity of Simplon Pass and linking the city of Brig (now part of Brig-Glis) in southwestern Switzerland with northern Italy’s Piedmont region. More than six years after the construction project began, both halves of... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 