Tram et Bus de la CUB
Tram et Bus de la Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux, named TBC is a public transport company in the metropolitan area in the French city of Bordeaux. The company is run by Veolia Transportation on behalf of the community association Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux. The company operates three tram lines and dozens of bus routes in Bordeaux and suburbs.
History
First Phase
The history of the tram in the city dates back to the year 1880. On May 4 this year, the first horse-drawn tram line was opened in Bordeaux. By the year 1891, the network of these lines grew at up to 39 kilometers. There were from 17 December 1893, when the Société du tramway de Bordeaux au Bouscat et Vigean recorded in operation. In the following years many private suburban railways were added. In contrast to standard gauge tramway in the city, the suburban railways tracks sailed in meter gauge. Since these tracks ended before the inner city, the passengers were mostly forced to change trains.
The success of the electric suburban railways led to the consideration to electrify the railways in the city center. Since impairment of the cityscape were feared by the overhead lines, attacked you on the idea of the line. On February 17, 1900 a two- kilometer test track went into operation. Despite several technical difficulties due to the immaturity of the system, the train continued into the 1950s.
In the 1920s it began to align the two tram networks themselves and under the umbrella of the Tramways Électriques et omnibus de Bordeaux bundle ( TEOB ). By 1939 they had converted all suburban railways to standard gauge and was able to demonstrate a 38 lines comprehensive network of more than 200 kilometers in length. 25 lines wrong in the city and 13 suburbs. By the year 1946, the number of passengers could be increased to 160 million. However, this led to a strong wear of cars, tracks and overhead lines.
In 1947 it came with the election of Jacques Chaban -Delmas as mayor to a radical change in transport policy of the city. He began immediately after his election, the tramway in Bordeaux systematically shut down. 1952 went about the business of TEOB to Compagnie générale française de transport et d'entreprise ( CGFTE ). The last tram was set on December 7, 1958. Accompanied this deconstruction with a massive job cuts. Of the 1950 remaining 2,500 employees were at this time only 1,200 in service.
Tram lots of time
Then was founded in 1968 the Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux, composed of the city of Bordeaux and its suburbs, and which operates public transport. In 1975, the French government due to the increasing problems in urban areas of large cities to promote rail transport. Also in Bordeaux was thinking about the introduction. Were to have been the construction of a meter-gauge metro along the lines of Lille since Chaban -Delmas did not want to introduce a tram in Bordeaux, after he had freed the city from the tram. However, the sandy bottom thwarted these plans. To get the problem still in the grip, articulated buses were first introduced, but this only led to a short-term improvement in the situation.
Second phase
1995 resigned Chaban -Delmas and Alain Juppé became his successor. With it came a change of direction in transport policy. On 18 February 1997, the introduction of a tramway in Bordeaux and the surrounding area has been decided by the Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux. On 26 January 2000, the public benefits of the measure was approved and construction could begin. Due to problems in the awarding of the construction project delayed the construction of the network. The first line was opened on 21 December 2003. The other sections of the first phase were handed over by July 2004 the traffic. At the same time the entire bus network has been restructured and aligned to the tram. 2006, the expansion to the suburbs Carbon-Blanc, Le Bouscat and Merignac was continued.
Technology and Operations
The network is 43 km long and consists of the lines A, B and C, which intersect in the city center. The tram runs not only in Bordeaux itself, but also in the suburbs Cenon, Lormont, Pessac, Talence, Carbon-Blanc, Le Bouscat and Merignac.
Not only in the city center is 14 km away with the new system " Alimentation par Sol " (APS ) feature, it is also used between outer stops. This system is designed so that the busbars only be energized when the train over an eight-meter long section of drives and the circuit is closed. Between the portions sections are arranged can not be energized. So touching this third rail in the middle of the route is safe to do so.
Are used 74 low-floor vehicles of the types Citadis 402 and 302 of the company Alstom. In addition to the pantographs, the trains have batteries, so that the power supply is also guaranteed in the catenary -less sections when the APS system fails. Due to massive problems in the implementation of the new system, the first line was opened with several months delay.