Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

possesses a network of

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

s, which cover a total distance of 2,784 km. Of that length, 2,187 km of the road system is paved. There are no roads going into the

cirque A (; from the Latin word ) is an amphitheatre-like valley formed by Glacier#Erosion, glacial erosion. Alternative names for this landform are corrie (from , meaning a pot or cauldron) and ; ). A cirque may also be a similarly shaped landform a ...

of Mafate; thus transportation there has to take place by foot or

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

Motorways

A system of

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

that run between the main cities has been developed. * Route national 1 (N1/RN1) connects Saint-Denis to Saint-Pierre, also connecting Le Port, Saint-Paul, La Saline Les Hauts and Saint-Louis. It has a length of 76 km. *N2 connects Saint-Denis to Saint-Benoît, also connecting Saint-André. Its length is 34 km. *N3 connects Saint-Pierre to Saint-Benoît, but the motorway only goes from Saint-Pierre to Le Tampon, with a length of 7 km.

Sea

There are two major ports in Réunion: Le Port and Pointe des Galets. There are six

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

s. Réunion possesses a merchant marine of one ship with a weight exceeding 1,000 gt, which is a chemical tanker.

Airports

There are two

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

s on the island, of which both have paved runways. The main airport is the international Roland Garros Airport located close to Saint-Denis and the second one is the Aéroport de Pierrefond, located near Saint-Pierre in the south of the island.

Railways

There are no railways in Réunion, with the exception of a short tourist line, which was originally part of a larger rail network. A 42 km

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

project was cancelled in 2010, after a regional government change in 2010, mostly because the project was considered too expensive (€1.6 billion). The region's new president chose to fund a new coastal road instead. In 2019 a new light rail system was proposed to link Le Barachois with the airport.

Cable car

Due to huge traffic congestion, channelled by the rough topography on the main coastal road, public authorities invested in a cable car transportation system, linking two districts of Saint-Denis : Le Chaudron to Bois de Nèfles, with three intermediate stops. Built by POMA, a leading French company in cable car systems, it opened in March 2022. With 46 cabins, it is designed to transport up to 1200 persons per hour. This cable car is the first in the whole Indian Ocean.

References

Notes

External links

Aéroport Roland Garros
(Main airport)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Transport In Reunion