Tramways Changing the Urban landscape of France

Tramways are starting to change the urban landscape of France, as Le Mans and Nice are the latest towns to inaugurate a new service, and as Bordeaux adds a new line to its existing network.

The introduction of a new tramway system often provides the opportunity for major new developments projects to be launched, as areas previously suffering from a poor transport infrastructure are redeveloped.

The most recent French town to introduce a tramway is Le Mans, in the Pays de Loire. Costing around €300K the new line is 15 kilometres long and will allow around 50,000 people a day to use it.

In addition, 26 kilometres of cycle track have been introduced, and new areas of the city centre have been pedestrianised.

To support the introduction of the system, new out-of-town car parking has been provided for up to 800 vehicles. Along the line of the new route around 1500 new homes are being built, and many other buildings undergoing renovation. A new cultural quarter is also being created, which will regroup some existing facilities and provide new ones.

In the South East, Nice has also recently celebrated the inauguration of a 8.7km tramway line, after 4 years of engineering work, notable for the technical and judicial problems it encountered.

Allegations of corruption against the main contractor Thales were accompanied by months of delay due to archaeological discoveries along the line of the route.

Such were the difficulties and controversy surrounding construction of the line that some observers began to doubt whether it would actually ever be completed.

There are now around 20 towns and cities with tramway systems, including Strasbourg, Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Lyon, and Paris, with new projects planned at Reims, Angers, Douai, and Toulon, and new lines being installed in Grenoble, Montpellier, Mulhouse, and Valenciennes.

In Bordeaux, the City Council found an ingenious way of ensuring the overhead power cables do not spoil the architecture of this beautiful city, by simply putting them underground. Nice has also dispensed with overhead power lines.

In Nancy they have similarly dealt with the noise and lack of manoeuvrability of rail line systems, by running the trams on rubber wheels.

The Government have recently announced their ambition to extend substantially the network of tramway systems in the country, by the creation of an additional 1500 kilmetres of route over the next 10 years.