Tours Tramway

The Tours tramway is a tram network which is operated by the city of Tours, in Indre-et-Loire 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.

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 July 8, 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 May 20, 1944, which destroyed the tram depot. The installations were repaired as much as possible after the Liberation, and the network operated until September 14, 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 (TCSP). 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 (forming a “Y” shape); 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 (PDU) 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 (BRT) 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 (SITCAT), the organizing authority for urban transport in the 19 municipalities of the Tours agglomeration community and six others (Chanceaux-sur-Choisille, Parçay-Meslay, Rochecorbon, Vernou-sur-Brenne, Vouvray, and La Ville-aux-Dames), decided to create a tram line. The SITCAT board approved the project on February 4, 2010, and requested a public inquiry, which took place from June 15 to July 30, 2010. The project was declared of public utility by prefectural decree on December 21, 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 (PSMV).

Infrastructure

Route and stations

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 (in Tours Nord) to the Lycée Jean-Monnet (south of Joué-lès-Tours).

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 (tram/bus/pedestrian/bicycle) has also been built to the south, over the ring road.

Main features of the first tram line:

* 14.8 kilometres
* 29 stations
* 21 trains of 43 meters long
* 54,900 passengers transported each day (SITCAT forecasts)
* 1 train every 6 minutes during peak hours
* 47 minutes to cover the entire line (average speed: 19 km/h).

With six months to go before the end of the project, the total cost (line, equipment and installations) is estimated to be more than 400,000,000 euros excluding taxes. CitéTram (a consortium comprising SET and Transdev) was appointed lead contractor for the preliminary design and construction of the line in November 2008.

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 (52 m with the access ramps). There will be 2 double shelters per quay (16 m long).

Four stations have the platforms shared with the buses (Marne, Liberté, Joué Hôtel de Ville, Rotière). Five stations are "sidewalk" stations (Christ Roi, Porte de Loire, Nationale, Liberté, Fac 2 Lions and L'Heure Tranquille): located in pedestrian areas, the space is flat between the station and the sidewalk. Finally, Jean-Jaurès and Charcot (avenue de Grammont) 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.

Criticism

From July 2010, a protest took shape. It is made up of collectives and associations, including an association close to the municipal opposition (TCSP 37).

Following the signing of the DUP by the prefect in December 2010, the TCSP37 association appealed against it to the administrative court of Orléans in the municipality of Tours. The summary suspension was rejected at the end of October, and the appeal itself in June 2012.

Costs and funding

Initially estimated at between 270 and 290 million euros during the preliminary studies of 2007, the cost estimate was set in 2009 at more than 369 million euros excluding tax (2009 value) (in particular because of the extension of the line over an additional 2.5 km to the north for nearly 45 million euros (between the Belfry and the Vaucanson high school). At the beginning of 2013, the budget was revised upwards to exceed 400 million euros excluding tax (2013 value), to finally settle at 433 million euros at the end of the project. The investments related to this project are mainly financed by borrowing (construction sites, studies, etc.).

The Urban Community of Tours subsidised the project for 50 million, the department of Indre-et-Loire

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