Urban rail
Bordeaux leads Fren W
Cities all over France are investing in light rail infrastructure to ease congestion and improve their urban environment. Bordeaux is entering the third phase of its development programme and Kevin Smith visited the city to see how the work is progressing
ALKING on a warm summer’s day through the centre of Bordeaux has
become a far more pleasant experience in the past 10 years or so. Instead of noisy and polluting traffic, the streets are populated by pedestrians and a new symbol of the southwestern French city: the tram.
Steady investment in the light rail system in the past 15 years has established Bordeaux as arguably the pioneer of France’s modern tram revolution.
In particular it was the first city to utilise Alstom’s APS catenary-free power-supply system which has subsequently been installed in Reims, Angers and Orléans, and will be used in Tours when its network opens in September. Many credit former prime minister and Bordeaux mayor, Mr Alain Juppé, for providing the vision and impetus to
improve public transport in Bordeaux. He also possessed the political clout to secure funds for the project at a time when these types of investments were rare.
Planning for phase 1 of the LRT
project commenced in 1995 with construction getting underway in 2000 and concluding in 2003-04. The initial network consisted of three lines totalling 24.7km and 53 stations which were built simultaneously. This included 10km of APS which, after overcoming early teething problems, was extended to 13.6km following various extensions of the three lines between 2004 and 2008 taking the overall network length to 43.3km and 84 stations.
The network is served by 64 Citadis
LRVs, 52 of which are the seven-section 43.9m-long 402 variant which have capacity for up to 345 passengers and are operated on lines A and B. Line C is served by 12 five-section 302 vehicles
which can transport up to 265 passengers, with up to 288,000 passengers using the service every day. Systra has been active in Bordeaux since 1998 and is again involved in the latest extension plans which got underway in 2008. Phase 3 will add a further 15km to the network, as well as 600m of APS, when construction work, which started in August 2010, is completed in 2014. Services are due to begin in 2015 and are expected to boost daily ridership to 430,000. Five expansion projects are underway, including a 3.6km, five-station extension of Line A from its western terminus at Merignac Centre to Pin Galant which includes 500m of APS. Line B is being extended west from Bougnard to Allouette, and north to Bordeaux Nord for a total of 4.3km and five stations, while an extension of Line C is divided into two phases. Work on the first phase, which like lines A and B
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