Reims tram

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tram
Reims tram
image
Basic information
Country France
city Reims
opening April 18, 2011
operator Transdev Reims
Infrastructure
Route length 11.2 km
Gauge 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system 750 V DC overhead line /
APS busbar
Stops 23
business
Lines 2
Clock in the peak hours 5-6 min
vehicles 18 Alstom Citadis 302
statistics
Passengers 42 500 per day
Line plan

The Reims tram ( French: Tramway de Reims ) is a tram system in the French city ​​of Reims , which has been in service since April 16, 2011. After three years of construction, a 11-kilometer-long tram network went into operation with two lines.

A meter-gauge tram ran from 1881 to 1939; it emerged from the horse buses that had existed since 1872.

Horse bus and tram until 1939

In June 1872, the first two lines of the horse-drawn bus network went into operation. A year later a third line was added. In 1875, the Conseil Municipal decided to modernize the network and build a standard-gauge tram with a total of four lines. Construction began in 1878 and the first three kilometers were put into operation in 1881. In 1899, renewed renovation work followed, the tram was retraced to meter gauge and electrified. The first electric trains ran in June 1900. Shortly before the First World War, the company carried 10 million passengers on six lines.

During the First World War, the network was completely destroyed; most of it was rebuilt by 1920. In the 1920s, the "Compagnie des tramways de Reims" modernized the vehicles and the network was expanded. In 1937 the city decided to shut down the tram network and switch to bus service. This was implemented on all lines by November 1939.

Planning history

On January 14, 1991, Mayor Jean Falala ( RPR ) stopped a ready-to-build project to build a tram, which had been in preparation since 1984 and which had met with considerable resistance from retailers in the city center. Falala's successor Jean-Louis Schneiter ( UDF ) took up the plans again from October 2003: after a phase of coordination between political bodies and authorities, the project was presented to the population between September 2004 and January 2005. It became clear that the construction of the tram continued to be met with considerable reservations from retailers, conservative parties and the bus drivers' union. The union feared job losses given the increased capacity of trams. Nevertheless, on February 28, 2005, the local council made a decision in principle to build the tram. In the local elections in 2008, their supporters were able to prevail under the new mayor Adeline Hazan .

To finance this, the transport tax Versement Transport was raised from 1.0 to 1.8% in April 2005 . On October 10, 2006, the contract was signed with the Mobilité agglomération Rémoise (MARS) consortium . MARS is responsible for the financing, implementation planning, construction and operation of the tram system until 2041; In addition, the consortium took over bus transport in Reims in January 2008. The main shareholders of MARS are the rail vehicle manufacturer Alstom (17%), the transport company Transdev (17%) and the state financial institution Caisse des Dépôts (30%). By forming the consortium, in which the participating companies are responsible for the maintenance of the self-constructed systems, conflicts between building and operating companies should be avoided. The new organizational model for France was applied in a similar form to the Rhônexpress , the airport railway in Lyon. The authority responsible for local transport is the Reims Métropole municipal association , which is responsible for tariff policy, deciding on expansion measures and monitoring MARS.

On February 13, 2008, the public utility ( déclaration d'utilité publique (DUP)) was determined; it is comparable to the plan approval decision under German planning law. Preventive archaeological investigations in the area of ​​the planned route began in July 2007; the actual construction work started on March 31, 2008.

Route network

Test run of the Reims tram in March 2011
Tram parade on the opening day
Opéra station with points of the planned branch in the direction of Épinettes
System change point overhead line / conductor rail at the Comédie station

The tram network, which opened on April 16, 2011, is 11.2 kilometers long and consists of a north-south route that crosses the city center and a branch route to the Bezannes TGV station . The starting point in the north is the Orgeval district , then the route leads through the Avenue de Laon shopping street . Stops are the Clairmarais business center and Reims train station before crossing the city center. The route passes Reims Cathedral . After crossing the Vesle River and the Canal de l'Aisne à la Marne, there are Comédie de Reims , the Léo Lagrange City Park and the Auguste Delaune Stadium . There is another stop at a large private clinic. Finally, the train reaches the Croix-Rouge district with its 20,000 inhabitants and the university . The final stop is in front of the regional hospital.

The branch line to the Bezannes TGV station, which opened in 2007, is partly single-track, with the construction of the second track being prepared. The route runs largely through undeveloped areas, to whose urban development the tram is intended to contribute. A total of 23 stops were built, in whose catchment area 70,500 people live and 26,500 jobs are located.

In the city center of Reims, the tram runs for 1.9 kilometers without overhead lines, instead the power is supplied via a power rail according to the APS system: in order not to endanger passers-by, the power rail is only energized when the section of the route is used by trams becomes. This power supply was requested in the tender so as not to impair the cityscape in the area of ​​Reims Cathedral, which has been a World Heritage Site since 1991 .

As with numerous other French tram projects, the construction of the tram in Reims was also used for urban development measures. Road areas previously used by motor vehicles have been redesigned in favor of pedestrians and cyclists. Another goal of the measures was to upgrade urban districts. A road tunnel was built at the main train station, which meant that the forecourt could be enlarged and there was no need to cross the lane for people changing trains. Overall, around a third of the investments were used for urban development measures.

Vehicles, depot and timetable

The vehicle fleet consists of 18 Citadis 302 railcars. The first train was delivered to Reims on March 26, 2010; from October 2010 the entire route network was used for test drives. The Citadis railcars are 32.4 meters long, 2.4 meters wide and can carry up to 205 passengers. The trains were designed by the Swiss designer Ruedi Baur . The front section resembles a champagne glass as a tribute to the location of the city ; each train is in one of the eight colors selected in September 2005. The citizens were able to vote on the color scheme for the tram cars and the design of the vehicle heads. Stops and workshops allow the railcars to be extended to 44 meters.

The Bezannes tram depot was built near the junction of the route to the TGV station. In the depot , the workshop and the operations control center were built. If necessary, its storage capacity can be expanded to 40 railcars.

The tram network is used by lines A and B between 5:30 and 0:30 a.m. Line A serves the north-south route; it is traveled 133 times a day at intervals of between six and 18 minutes. Line B connects the main train station with the Bezannes TGV train station; the timetable provides for 38 journeys per day with a cycle time of 18 to 30 minutes, whereby the journeys are coordinated with the TGV timetable. Since September 29, 2011, all journeys on line B beyond the main station have been extended to the northern terminus of line A in Neufchâtel .

A total of 338 million euros were invested in the construction of the tram and the accompanying urban development measures ; a further 75 million euros were spent on planning and financing costs as well as taking over the existing bus operations. The MARS consortium contributed around 60% of the total expenditure; it is refinanced from operating income and payments from the agency. 45,000 passengers are expected every day.

The tram lines, which went into operation in 2011, each open up a third of the jobs and apartments in the Reims metropolitan area. There were no concrete expansion plans when the company opened; operating experience should be taken into account in their development.

literature

  • Christoph Groneck: Reims: “Champagne tram” before the opening. In: Stadtverkehr 12/2010 (55) ISSN  0038-9013 , pp. 18-23.
  • François Laisney: Atlas du Tramway dans les villes françaises . Éditions Recherches, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-86222-067-3 , pp. 326–335 (French, from the perspective of architecture and urban development).
  • Connaissance du Rail No. 216–217: a specialist magazine about railways and trams.
  • City magazine Ville de Reims Informations , large magazine Reims Métropole Magazine , newspapers L'Hebdo du Vendredi and L'Union .

Web links

Commons : Reims Tram  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L'hebdo du vendredi
  2. ^ A b Jean Tricoire: Le tramway en France . La Vie du Rail, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-915034-73-8 , p. 158 .
  3. ↑ Reims: L'invraisemblable marche arrière in: f La Vie du Rail 2288/1991, p. 15
  4. ↑ Groneck, Reims , p. 23.
  5. ↑ Groneck, Reims , p. 20 f.
  6. ↑ a b Figures in Groneck, Reims , p. 22.
  7. ↑ Groneck, Reims , pp. 19, 21.
  8. ↑ Blickpunkt Tram 6/2011, page 126, ISSN  0173-0290
  9. ↑ Figures in Groneck, Reims , p. 22 f.
  10. ↑ Groneck, Reims , p. 22.