The first part of the Turin underground was inaugurated on February 11th, 2006 (it starts from the Fermi station in Collegno through the XVIII Dicembre station in Turin) and the second part of the Line 1 was completed on October 5th, 2007 starting from the XVIII Dicembre station through the Porta Nuova station, for a total of 9,6 Km.

The 14 stations (they will become 15 when the railway link has finished and the new Porta Susa station will come into operation) which form part of the Line 1 of the Turin underground are in order: Porta Nuova, Re Umberto, Vinzaglio, XVIII Dicembre, Principi d'Acaja, Bernini, Racconigi, Rivoli, Montegrappa, Pozzo Strada, Massaua, Marche, Paradiso e Fermi (where nearby there is the train depot) that you can see in the map below.

Usually the service hours of the underground is from 6,00 a.m. to 12 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and from 6,00 a.m. to 13,30 p.m. from Friday to Saturday; from 8,00 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Sunday and holidays, with the transit frequency that can range from 3 minutes in the rush hour (tipically from 7 to 9,30 a.m.) to 6-9 minutes in other periods (check officials running times).
The transit speed is helped by the little distance which separates the stations about 500 metres. In the stretch of the Line 1, from Collegno to Piazza XVIII Dicembre, the time of distance covered is 12 minutes.

A one-way ticket that lasts 70 minutes, usable even on traditional buses and trams, can be bought in the surface shops or in the automatic ticket machines placed in the hall of every underground station.
Every kind of urban pass and the Formula passes for the urban and suburban lines can also be used for the Turin underground.
Besides the traditional paper ticket with magnetic band it is also possible to buy in the ticket offices stiff cards with integrated microchip for the annual passes and for the special passes for the disabled, students, elder people and unemployed.

Further information are available on the official website of the Turin underground at http://www.metrotorino.it

The projects for the realization of an underground line in Turin are distributed in a period of about sixty years, beginning from 1936, when the first 300 metres of tunnel were excavated under via Roma.
In 1998, when the public transport company Satti, now GTT (Gruppo Torinese Trasporti), received from the Turin Municipality the task to project, to realize and to manage the works.
In 1999 the CIPE increased the financial rate for the construction of the underground and on December 19th, 2000 the works for the line 1 officially began.

For the excavation of the first stretch of the tunnel from Collegno to piazza XVIII Dicembre were used two tunnelling machines, called Valentina and Madama Cristina, 90 metres long and with a diameter of 8 metres.
Each tunnelling machine was placed 16-18 metres deep with an advancement rhythm of 10-12 metres a day with record peaks of 24 metres.
Each of them was manoeuvred by 15 skilled workers divided in three daily work shifts, 24/7.

While the excavation proceeded, at the same time the tunnel with prefabricated ashlars was prepared, and after only four years, in June 2004 the first stretch was concluded.
Meanwhile the works for the 11 stations and for the tracks began; the same tracks will allow on December 2005 to begin the pre-exercise of the line.

But the works are not finished yet, because in 2004 began the excavation of the third tunnelling machine, Valeria, that keeps its route until the Porta Nuova railway station, finished at the moment and in exercise on October 5th, 2007.
The works dedicated to the prolongation to the Lingotto railway station began after the Winter Olympic Games, and they will last 5 years.
Once finished the whole route will be 13,6 km long, with a total of 21 stations.

The Turin underground uses trains coming from the Siemens factories of Prague, each of them can hold up to 440 passengers at a medium speed of 33 km/h.
Each train, 52 metres long and 2,08 metres wide moves without a driver (automatic system VAL), drove by a sophisticated computer system placed in the headquarters, in Collegno.