Montpellier tramway

The tram Montpellier (French Tramway de Montpellier) is the tram system of the French city of Montpellier. Four lines are already in operation, a fifth, sixth and seventh are planned. It is operated by the Transports de l' agglomà de Montpellier ( TaM ). The modern tramway is the successor to the 1949 old disused tram.

The old tram network

From July 18th 1880 to 1883, built the Compagnie Générale des Omnibus de Marseille a network of horse-drawn tram lines in Montpellier. At that time the city had about 55 000 inhabitants. The 39 horses with 20 cars served six lines. They associated depending on the route in 30 -minute intervals or every hour. This transport system was abandoned because of poor maintenance of the tracks and the poor care of the horses.

Later, an electric tram network was created. The first meter gauge tram lines commenced in November 1897 to operate on, others followed at the beginning of the year 1898 They opened up the area of Montpellier and the neighboring village of Castelnau -le- Lez in 7.5 -. To 15 -minute intervals. The Place de la Comédie was the main hub of five tram lines. Other transfer points were the train station and the square before the church of Saint- Denis. The network length was 12 kilometers.

Due to the rising competition from the automobile and in particular for the creation of a bus network, the Montpellier tramway was decommissioned on 31 January 1949.

The history of the new tram and metro lines 1 and 2

During the 1990s, the city government proposed under the mayor Georges Frêche before the reconstruction of a tram network with three lines. Was discussed at the time the choice of rolling stock and the route of the first line. One of the principal members of the conservative opposition in the council of Montpellier, Bruno Barthez, fought for the project of a track-guided trolleybus, known in France Tramway sur pneumatiques, following the example of trolleybus Caen. A main argument for this was the lower construction costs for the route compared to a streetcar on rails.

The first line should Paillade connect (to the west ) with the new shopping and leisure center Odysséum (in the east ), where it serves important areas of the city: Euromédicine, the hospital Lapeyronnie, the university, the old town ( l' Écusson ), the station and the bus station and Antigone, with the Olympic swimming pool and the central library. Conflicts did with respect to the Old Town Crossing: The retailers opposed a path on the Boulevard du Jeu de Paume, a busy main road, and did not agree with the leadership through the pedestrian areas Rue Foch and Rue de la Loge. Finally, a routing via the Allée de la Citadelle and the Place de la Comédie was proposed and adopted - despite the opposition of the hosts whose terraces were cut by the tracks. North of the main railway station of Saint-Roch, the railway was " housed " in the direction of Paris, to a length of about 250 meters, the tram runs here over the railroad tracks. In this elevated area of ​​the station is located Du Guesclin (formerly Hôtel de Ville).

In July 2000 the first line was opened. As with most new street railway companies in France, the passenger forecasts were far exceeded. Meanwhile, the Line 1 of the standard gauge tramway transports an average of 130 000 passengers per day.

In December 2006, the line was opened 2. It was 19.6 kilometers long and consisted of 33 stations with a distance between stops of 300 to 500 meters. The two end sections were carried out single track. The building cost 400 million euro. After the public benefit of the project was found on 11 May 2004, between 2004 and 2006, work was carried out on the line.

Nevertheless, the tram from local residents and organizations is criticized. Residents complain about noise, which is caused by the tracks until late at night ( in the suburb Boutonnet for example). The dealerships complains about the losses that were caused during construction, especially if the tram impedes the car access to a shopping center. This was done in transforming the national road 113, which was a main axis to Montpellier and has now been converted in Castelnau -le- Lez to a city boulevard.

Civic associations criticize the selected routing, in particular, the tight curves and detours through sparsely populated areas that slow railways. The passenger Association Collectif Tramway de Montpellier beat from the start before a faster and cheaper project linking the town center. The magazine Ville & transportation judges, however, that Montpellier builds an amazingly close-knit network through which the possible start-finish relations are multiplied, analogous to examples in Germany, the Netherlands or Switzerland.

The genesis of lines 3 and 4

The lines 3 and 4 were opened on April 7, 2012. The proposed variants for Line 3 has been submitted to the competent minister on 25 July 2002. After the public benefit was found, construction began on the line 3 on 19 March 2009. It is 19.3 km long and has 29 stops on. From Rive du Lez to Gare Saint -Roch it uses the previously used by the line 2 line, otherwise it runs largely on newly built tracks. To create a node, the line was extended to 1 one stop to Mosson.

Once the new route of the path of the line 2 was modified in downtown. Had she initially runs along the stations Pompignane, Place de l'Europe and Voltaire, it now leads up to the Place de la Comedie at a shorter distance from the connecting stop for Corum approached by all lines station Gare Saint -Roch. Here she uses a hitherto line 1 with reserved track section. Nouveau Saint -Roch was largely traced out new, shared otherwise existing routes and replaces the previously circulating there line between the two stations Corum and Rives du Lez - Through this installation space for a newly created line 4, the only section Moularès arose.

Plans for the construction of Line 5

Construction of the line 5 is currently in planning. The track will be 20.5 km long and run from Prades la Mandarine through the city center of Montpellier by Laverune. The new line will be shared use sections of the already -built tram network. A final decision on the construction of Line 5 is still pending (as of September 2012). According to the plan, the new tram line in 2017 to be ready.

Vehicle park

There are a total of 83 vehicles in use. For line 1 30 trams have been delivered Citadis 301 by the manufacturer Alstom from 1999 to 2002. Because of the high ridership, the railcars were 401 extended until the end of 2003 to the type Citadis and increased from 30 to 40 meters. For line 2 a total of 27 trams have been delivered from the type Citadis 302 from 2006. The differing in shape and color vehicle types are used purely line, the blue 401 only come on line 1, the 302 with flowers design just on the line 2 to use. The same applies to the newly created lines 3 and 4

The blue car with white swallows to symbolize the sky, the flower pattern on line 2 the earth. The 27 vehicles of the type Citadis 402 line 3 are decorated with multi-colored marine motifs. On line 4 there is with the basic colors black and gold two different color schemes. You are supposed to represent the " fourth element " fire and light.

In contrast to the Citadis 302 and 402, the wagon type 301/401 are not low at 100%.