The public transport service in the city of La Spezia, dates back approximately to the beginning of the XX century, when the Municipality of La Spezia drew up an agreement with the German company "Helios" for the construction of the first tramway. If Helios company in Cologne and the following licensees that followed one another over the years (that is the Società Tramvia Elettriche –electrical tramway company- and the Cieli company) can be considered the ancestors of today's ATC, the "mother" of our Company can be rightly considered FI.TR.A.M., established by the municipal Administration of La Spezia on 1st October 1948. In fact it is with the creation of this municipal company that are set the basis for the development and the enlargement of a widespread transport network as it is today. From 1948 to 1976 FI.TR.A.M develops its own activity in the urban field without changing its institutional nature of municipal company 

The 70s are the years of nationalization, those in which private companies are taken over, such as Brun and Caprini (in 1972), which at that time was working in Val di Magra and in the areas around Sarzana - Lerici – Spezia and, as a consequence of this, the Consorzio Trasporti Extraurbano (Extra-urban Transport Cooperative) is established, which gives -according to an agreement- to FI. TR.A.M. the management of the extra-urban lines. This process goes on with the takeover of SIAMIC (already SARSA) in 1974 which, until that moment, was licensee of the Spezia - Aulla – Lunigiana lines. 

In 1976 the Cooperative takes over SITA licenses (La Spezia - Portovenere and La Spezia - Val di Vara) and later takes over the lines of which Lorenzini company had the license ( area around Spezia - Carrara) thus completing the process of nationalization in the traffic basin of La Spezia.

On 1st January 1977 the Consorzio Trasporti Extraurbano (Extra-urban Transport Cooperative) changes its corporate name into Consorzio Trasporti (Transport Cooperative) and establishes its own Azienda Speciale (special Company). So A.T.C. is created, which from this time on would manage all extra-urban services and, according to a license granted by the Municipality of La Spezia, the urban services.

The old FI.TR.A.M. stopped its activity, which had begun in 1948, and it wound up.
The Consorzio Trasporti (Transport Cooperative) and its own Azienda Speciale A.T.C. (special company) work until August 1995 when they are merged into the Azienda Speciale Consorzio ATC ( Special Cooperative Company).

In December 2000 the Cooperative ATC changes into ATC S.p.a., that is into a joint-stock company whose shareholders are represented by the Province of La Spezia and by twenty-seven Municipalities, among which the Municipality of La Spezia.