Tours tramway
The Tours tramway is a tram network which is operated by the city of Tours, in Indre-et-Loire, in the French region of Centre-Val de Loire. Originally opening on 31 Aug 2013, the route is nearly 15 kilometers long and has 29 stations. The tramway is made up of a single line called the A, which connects many major areas of the city, such as Tours station. A second line designated as B is expected to open in 2028.
History
Original tram network
The municipality of Tours considered creating a tramway network as early as 1874. They accepted a proposal from Belgian entrepreneur Frédéric-Jean de La Hault, founder of the Compagnie Générale Française de Tramways. His company launched the city’s first public transport network, horse-drawn, on 8 July 1877.In 1889, another operator extended the network to Vouvray, along the Loire for 7.6 km, using steam locomotives.
In 1898, the Compagnie des tramways de Tours was established to electrify and expand the urban network, which reached 20 km by 1900. During World War I in 1916, some sections were abandoned. The suburban lines closed in 1932 due to competition from private buses.
The tramway network suffered significant damage during World War II, especially during the bombing of Tours’ railway facilities on 20 May 1944, which destroyed the tram depot. The installations were repaired as much as possible after the Liberation, and the network operated until 14 September 1949, when the last tram was replaced by buses, the predecessors of the Fil bleu network of the Touraine agglomeration.
Proposals for the city's new tramway network
The municipality of Hervé Chantrel and the PRUNIER ET CO group are working to route the A10 motorway through the peninsula, close to the city center. This project, undertaken between 1968 and 1972, led to the development of a major interchange that significantly restructured the eighteenth-century boulevards along the banks of the Loire.A transport union, SITCAT, was established in 1974, but Tours did not join until 2002, following the re-election of Jean Germain as mayor in 2001, when the city had about 136,000 inhabitants. The Communauté d’agglomération de Tours, which was created in 2000 links Tours with neighboring municipalities.
In the early 1990s, as bus ridership began to stagnate, Tours’ mayor Jean Royer initiated studies for a dedicated lane public transport system. The city considered hybrid TVR equipment, part trolleybus, part tram, while SITCAT recommended a conventional tramway.
Several routes were considered by the city until 1994. The project proposed two lines crossing in central Tours: one running from Lycée Vaucanson in the north to Joué-lès-Tours and Parc Grandmont in the south ; the other, an east-west line linking Saint-Pierre-des-Corps and La Riche. Concurrently, the creation of a dedicated bus lane on national road 10, the main north-south axis from Carrefour de la Tranchée in the north to Grandmont in the south, was studied. This project was carried out in the following term, with Jean Germain’s municipality, elected in 1995, choosing to continue it.
From Bus Rapid Transit to Tramway
In 2003, the agglomeration community adopted an urban transport plan that closely mirrored a plan drafted ten years earlier. It proposed establishing two lines but did not specify the mode of transport: the first line would run from the north through the center to Joué-lès-Tours, and the second from Saint-Pierre-des-Corps through the center to the Trousseau hospital, slightly beyond Grandmont in Chambray-lès-Tours. The La Riche branch was not included in these plans.The first line was constructed in the early 2000s and utilized by a Bus Rapid Transit system, which later became the right-of-way for tramway line A.
In 2005, discussions began on adopting a "classic tramway" mode. By 2007, the inter-municipal union of public transport of the Touraine agglomeration, the organizing authority for urban transport in the 19 municipalities of the Tours agglomeration community and six others, decided to create a tram line. The SITCAT board approved the project on 4 February 2010, and requested a public inquiry, which took place from 15 June to 30 July 2010. The project was declared of public utility by prefectural decree on 21 December 2010.
Between 2009 and 2010, there was a debate about whether to install overhead contact lines in the city center. Ultimately, a ground power supply was chosen for the section between the station and Place Choiseul, beyond the perimeter of the Safeguarding and Enhancement Plan.
Infrastructure
Route and stations
Line A
The first line of the Tours tramway generally follows the route of the former line 1 of the Fil bleu network, linking the Lycée Jacques de Vaucanson to the Lycée Jean-Monnet.The tramway runs through the cities of Tours and Joué-lès-Tours from north to south, largely reusing the dedicated lane already created between the Belfry and Joué-centre. However, it deviates from it at the level of Avenue de Grammont in order to offer better service to Tours station and the Sanitas district.
The Vendée bridge over the Cher has been rebuilt in order to shorten the travel time between Tours and the Deux-Lions district and to avoid a passage through the Saint-Sauveur bridge. Finally, a new bridge reserved for soft traffic has also been built to the south, over the ring road.
Main features of the first tram line:
- 14.8 kilometres
- 1.8 km of catenary-free operation between Place Choiseul and Tours station
- 29 stations
- 54,900 passengers transported each day
- 1 train every 6 minutes during peak hours
- 47 minutes to cover the entire line.
Line B
The second line of the Tours tramway will run between the end stations Papoterie and Prieuré Saint-Cosme. The main features of the line are:- 12.5 kilometres
- 22 stations
- 37,400 passengers estimated to be transported each day
- frequency: every 7 minutes during peak hours, every 8 minutes in the off-hours
- 40 minutes to cover the entire line.
- 4 park and ride facilities with a total of 900 parking spots.
Station architecture
The twenty-nine stations of tram line A are designed on an identical plan, with the platforms in the two directions facing each other. They will be 4 m wide and 43 m long. There will be 2 double shelters per quay.Four stations have the platforms shared with the buses. Five stations are "sidewalk" stations : located in pedestrian areas, the space is flat between the station and the sidewalk. Finally, Jean-Jaurès and Charcot are also used by buses and have longer platforms.
The red totem and Daniel Buren's gangs can be found on all stations.
The Tranchée, Charles Barrier and Place Choiseul stations are not accessible to people with reduced mobility.
In the event of an interruption of the tramway, the Plan B bus line is set up. Operated as articulated buses, it cannot however follow and serve the exact route of line A, and consequently some tram stations cannot be served by this replacement line, or transferred to stops with different names : Monconseil is not served, Coppée is postponed to the Rotterdam stop, Porte de Loire is postponed to Constantine, Nationale is not served, Tours station, Palais des Sports and St Paul are not served because the line passes avenue de Grammont, République is postponed to the La Grange and Rabière and Bulle d'O stops are postponed to the Coubertin judgment.
Vehicles
Line A uses 21 Alstom Citadis 402 trams that are 43 m long and 2,400 mm wide, and have capacity for 280 passengers. There is no catenary over the 1.8 km of track between Place Choiseul and Gare de Tours. For this section, the Alstom trams will use Alstom APS, a type of ground-level power supply.Line B will use 19 seven-section CAF Urbos trams that are 43.7 m long and 2,400 mm wide, and have capacity for 280 passengers, 76 seated. APS is not available for CAF trams, and thus they will use battery power for the section without overhead catenary. In order to better accommodate wheelchairs, baby carriages and bicycles, the CAF trams will have 12 fewer seats than the Alstom trams.
Criticism
From July 2010, a protest took shape. It is made up of collectives and associations, including an association close to the municipal opposition.Following the signing of the DUP by the prefect in December 2010, the TCSP37 association appealed against it to the administrative court of Orléans. The court rejected the request for summary suspension on 13 May 2011, and the appeal on the merits in June 2012.
At the same time, cycling associations have warned about the lack of reduction in car traffic and the inadequacies of bicycle traffic around the tramway; on Avenue Maginot, a petition opposed, among other things, the principle of a mixed lane in the north-south direction.
In April 2011, the protest over the trees grew in the Sanitas district with the complaints of many Touraine residents about the felling of trees in the 600 m long mall. Several activists climbed to the branches in protest.
In September 2011, François Louault, a retired geography teacher, filed an appeal with the administrative court of Orléans, asking for the suspension of the construction work on a bridge over the Cher in the municipality of Tours. The summary suspension was rejected at the end of October, and the appeal itself in June 2012.