Vaporetto the Waterboard of Venice

In 1881

a regular public transport service with mechanically-propelled vessels began in Venice. In the autumn of the same year, on the occasion of the "Congresso di Geografia" (Geography Congress), the first waterbus, named "Regina Margherita", appeared on the Grand Canal. After the "Regina Margherita" experiment, a limited liability company called "Compagnie des bateaux Omnibus" was set up with French funds in Paris. After it was granted the licence to carry people on the Grand Canal route, it began the construction of 8 boats at the French shipyards of Rouen. In this way, sailing down the Languedoc Canal in France and circling Italy, the first eight waterbuses from Rouen reached Venice. At first, gondoliers looked upon waterbuses as terrible competitors and set themselves against the enterprise. However, the benefits introduced by these new means of transport appeared very soon evident and the initial reservations of Venetians turned into real enthusiasm.

1890-1911

In 1890 the Società Veneta Lagunare (Venetian Lagoon Company) (S.V.L.) replaced the French Company and extended the service to the areas of the Lagoon outside the City, providing connections with Fusina, San Giuliano, Cavazuccherina and Torcello. In 1903 the Municipal Council aimed at taking direct control of the inland waterbus services and, after having carried out a public-opinion survey with a referendum, founded the Azienda Comunale per la Navigazione Interna (Municipal Company for Inland Navigation) (A.C.N.I.). A.C.N.I. therefore took over all the inland waterborne routes from S.V.L., also purchasing the fleet that was being used for these (23 vessels with a carrying capacity of 2,860 passengers per day). The situation remained unchanged for the following 26 years.

1930-1937

On 1 January 1930 the Municipality of Venice bought in bulk the fourteen vessels from the Società Veneta Lagunare destined for the Chioggia, Burano and San Giuliano routes. A.C.N. I. became A.C.N.I.L. - Azienda Comunale di Navigazione Interna Lagunare (Municipal Company of Lagoon Waterborne Transport) and at the end of the same year it boasted 57 vessels which could carry 11,750 passengers. In the meantime the works for the construction of the road bridge allowing motor vehicles to reach the new Piazzale Roma terminal were proceeding fast. With the opening of the new motor vehicle bridge linking Venice with the mainland (25 April 1933) the Municipality of Venice entrusted the control, accounting, ticket supply and supervision of the Venice-Mestre routes to A.C.N.I.L.. Under the terms of the contract, these routes were run by the company "Tramvie di Mestre". During the same period the Rio Novo building works were completed. In order to let traffic go through this new canal (it considerably shortened the journey time from the road terminal of P.le Roma to St. Mark's Square) A.C.N.I.L. built 8 smaller waterbuses, which were very easy to handle and named them after 8 illustrious Venetian palaces. It was during this period that disputes intensified on the damage caused by wave motion to the foundations of the buildings. Research and studies aimed at reducing the damaging effects of wave motion were thus begun. Some bow propellers designed in Germany were tested; the Rio Novo smaller waterbuses were fitted with blades able to correct the wash left by the propellers, but above all new hulls were studied and designed, which in the end give excellent results for the control of the wave-damage phenomenon. This period heralded the start of a continuing commitment by Venice's public transport company of studies and experimentation on how to reduce the wave damage.

1940-1944

Until 1940 public transport on Lido Island was provided by a somewhat-meagre electric tramway managed by "Compagnia Italiana dei Grandi Alberghi" (Italian Company of Grand Hotels). On 1 January 1941 the tram service was replaced by an A.C.N.I.L. bus service. At the same time, in spite of the serious problems caused by the war, the construction of the trolley-bus system began: 14 double-axle trolley-buses made up the vehicle fleet. In the meantime, from 10 June 1940 (the date when war broke out) the Navy and the Army requisitioned many of ships. At the end of the war, when it was time to think about rebuilding, A.C.N.I.L. found many of those ships all around Italy, sunk, wrecked and machine-gunned. The Torino steamship was found shipwrecked near Messina. The Roma steamship was salvaged after sinking in the Giudecca Channel. The Aquileia foot-passenger ferry, which had also sunk, was salvaged at Leghorn. The Altino ferry was found sunk, in the French port of Marseilles. Scores of other vessels were recovered in the Venice Lagoon.

1948-1990

After the War, the Company decided to organise the rebuilding of the fleet with its own staff. A special technical-financial plan for the rebuilding works was therefore prepared, a plan that was then duly carried out. Foot-passenger ferries and steamships were changed; landing piers, landing stages and pontoons were built. Larger and smaller waterbuses were built and all the services were reorganised in 1950. In 1965 the "Azienda Municipale" ("Municipal-Owned Company") began to work in the area of road transport, running the urban services of Mestre and Marghera that had already been entrusted to "Società Filovie Mestre". All the trolley-buses went on to be replaced by fuel-powered buses and on 21 December 1966 the last Mestre trolley-bus route performed its service. The fast growth of the city with the building of important roads (such as the Marghera flyover and the San Giuliano junction) obliged the Company to increase its services and the resources used. After the setting up of the "Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano" (Venice Transport Consortium), with the subsequent publicising of the company "Società SVET", the "Azienda del Consorzio Trasporti Veneziano" (A.C.T.V.) - the Venice Public Transport Company - was founded and began operating on 1 October 1978. The companies ACNIL, SVET and SVA converged into it from the outset, followed by other smaller companies.

From 1991 ...until today

Bringing us up to the present day, from 1 January 2001, in observance of the directives of Legislative Decree 422/97 (Burlando) and Regional Law 25/98, Actv became a joint-stock company. The share capital was established at ITL. 90,546,181,264 (equal to Euro 46.763.200) for a number of 467.632 shares with the nominal value of ITL. 193,627 (equal to Euro 100 each). The Company is majority-controlled by local public capital as per Article 22 sub-section 3, letter E of Law 142/90 and throughout the company's life the capital must be held no less than 51% overall by the founding shareholders. Valter Vanni was appointed as the first Chairman of the new joint-stock company, while the first Managing Director is Maurizio Castagna. Currently Actv S.p.A. owns 600 land buses and 120 waterborne vessels, every year carrying approximately 180 million passengers and producing 500,000 navigation "movement hours", while land-bus services travel 31.5 million kilometres. The company employs a personnel of approximately 3,000.