In the meanwhile, Rome was also being strongly influenced by the ongoing wave of technological advancements spreading all over Europe at the time, and evidently also when it came to public transport. As a matter of fact, the first horse-drawn tramway suburban line between Piazza del Popolo and Ponte Milvio was introduced in 1877 by the "Societé Anonime des Tramways et Chemins de Fer Économiques", known as "the Belgian". The main innovation was that the motion of the horse-towed carriage was facilitated by the presence, on the ground, of a metal rail. After a little while, still in 1879, "steam tramways", connecting Rome to Tivoli, also went into service.
