Nice tram

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Nice tram
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Basic information
Country France
city Nice
opening November 26, 2007
operator ST2N
Infrastructure
Route length 23.2 km
Gauge 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system 750 V = overhead line / battery operation
Stops 38
Tunnel stations 2
business
Lines 3
Clock in the peak hours 4 min
Cruising speed 18 km / h
vehicles 12 Alstom Citadis 302
16 Alstom Citadis 402
11 Alstom Citadis 405
Top speed 70 km / h
statistics
Passengers 100,000 per day (2011)
Network plan
Route map of line 1

The Nice tram ( French Tramway de Nice ) was reopened in November 2007 with an 8.7 kilometer long line after electric trams had existed in the French city ​​of Nice since 1900 , which had been replaced by buses in 1953. Tram vehicles have been in use on a total of three lines since autumn 2019.

Tramway de Nice et du Littoral (1879–1953)

Historic trams in Nice, Place Masséna

The first tram in Nice was in the form of a horse-drawn tram in 1879 . Electrification began in 1900 and was completed in 1910. By 1906 a meter-gauge network had been built that extended far beyond the city limits into the surrounding area. In 1921, 11 lines were in operation. Some of the routes were also used for freight transport. For example, there was the coastline that connected Cagnes-sur-Mer to Monaco and Menton via Nice . In Cagnes-sur-Mer it was possible to change to the Cannes tram .

In 1927 the highest transport performance was achieved with 27 million passengers. Two years later the first lines were abandoned, but there was still a 150-kilometer route network left. The extra-urban routes were completely shut down in 1934. In 1939, four inner-city lines were still in operation. During the Second World War, two sections of the route were reactivated due to a lack of buses. The final shutdown took place on January 10, 1953.

A trolleybus network existed in Nice from 1941 to 1970 . After it was discontinued, buses No. 21 to 28, acquired by Vetra - Berliet in the early 1960s, were sold to Saint-Étienne .

The new tram (from 2007)

In April 2000, the City Council of Nice laid down the route for the first new tram line and at the same time opted for a conventional tram system running on steel wheels. As an alternative, a tram on rubber wheels had been considered. Between 1986 and 1996 the construction of a VAL metro was also examined; however, this turned out to be four times as expensive as a tram. The goals of the reintroduction of the tram were to limit motorized individual traffic, increase the quality of life, revitalize the inner city and urban design ideas, especially the preservation of the city's architectural heritage. Preparatory work began in July 2003, and construction actually began in January 2005. The first line was opened on November 24th and 25th, 2007, and scheduled operations began on November 26th, 2007.

The tram is being built and operated on behalf of the Communauté d'agglomération de Nice-Côte d'Azur (CANCA) established in 2002. The first construction phase of the Tramway de Nice incurred costs of around 560 million euros, most of which were covered by CANCA. The railcars and tram systems are owned by CANCA. The operating company is the Société des Transports de Nice (ST2N), a subsidiary of the Veolia Environnement group, which also provides the majority of city bus traffic in the CANCA region.

As part of the award of the contract to Thales Engineering and Consulting (THEC), allegations of bribery were raised, which only caught up with the former head of THEC, Michel Josserand after he switched to the EADS Group.

It is operated electrically with a contact wire voltage of 750 volts DC. In contrast to the meter gauge network of the “Tramway de Nice et du Littoral”, the new network is designed in standard gauge .

Line 1

Citadis 302 on avenue Jean Médecin
Citadis 402 on Place Masséna

From the terminus “Henri Sappia” in the north of Nice, line 1 leads via the Stade du Ray , the central avenue, Avenue Jean-Médecin , the main train station , central points in the city center such as Place Masséna and Place Garibaldi and the Saint-Jean campus. d'Angely from the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis to “Pont Michel” in the northeast of the city and since the extension further to “Hôpital Pasteur”. More than a third of the apartments and workplaces in the city of Nice are within walking distance of the 21 stations on the chosen route. The double-track line is a total of 8.7 kilometers long, largely separated from other traffic and partly uses grass track .

The lack of a direct connection to the main train station and the terminus of the narrow-gauge Chemins de fer de Provence (CP), which was omitted in the interest of a straight line, is criticized . There is a 200-meter walk between the train stations and the respective stops; sometimes the construction of a short branch line to the station forecourt was required.

The depot is connected to the terminus “Henri Sappia” (originally “Las Planas”). The narrow development and the topographically moving terrain required an unusual solution, in which the access to the depot is via a full turn that crosses the route to the city center. The depot was built over with a three-storey car park, which - located directly on the A8 autoroute - offers 765 park-and-ride spaces. There are park-and-ride facilities with a total of 410 parking spaces at two other stations.

The original passenger estimates are exceeded at the start of operations. In May 2008, 65,000 to 70,000 people used the trams every six minutes on weekdays, every eight to 15 minutes on weekends and every eight to 15 minutes on weekends instead of the forecast 55,000 to 60,000 people. In 2010, 23.4 million passengers used the tram.

Line 2

Route of line 2 of the Nice tram

A first section of 7 km between CADAM / Center administratif in the west and Magnan was put into operation on June 30, 2018. The branch to Nice Airport followed at the end of the year . The Magnan - Jean-Médecin route will follow in mid-2019. The eastern section Jean Médecin - Port Lympia, which leads through the city center to the port, was opened on December 14, 2019. In the area of ​​the old town of Nice, the line runs 3.2 km in the tunnel. There are four stops here. The total length of the line is 11.3 km.

The power supply is innovative: with the exception of the subterranean section, the line does not have contact lines. Instead, the energy is supplied via the SRS system developed by Alstom through further development of the APS system, which is being used here for the first time. In contrast to APS, SRS does not use a continuous busbar, it is only in the area of ​​the stops. Each railcar is equipped with a so-called Ecopack (a combination of battery and supercapacitors ) and a current rail pantograph . The trains stop above the conductor rail, the pantograph is lowered and enough energy can be transferred within 20 seconds for the journey to the next station.

Line 3

The planned line 3 after completion

After a construction period of around 18 months, 11 of the planned 13 stops on Line 3 have already been put into operation.

The route runs from the Aéroport - Terminal 2 stop in a northerly direction. To Digue des Français Line 3 runs on 3.3 kilometers together with the line 2. The remaining 3.7 km were built. The tracks in the new construction area are located in the wide green strip that separates the lanes of a multi-lane road.

vehicles

System change point Masséna - the train on the left is ironing

For the traffic on the line 1 there are 13 members of multiple units (numbers 01-13) of the type Citadis 302 of the manufacturer Alstom and 15 trains (numbers 14-28) of the type Citadis 402 available.

Originally, all 28 cars were five-part. They are air-conditioned and have a length of 33.02 meters, a width of 2.65 meters and each have 62 seats and 243 standing places (assuming six people per m²). They have a low-floor share of 100%, which means that they are consistently low-floor, and boarding is the same level at the stops. With a top speed of 70 km / h, an average travel speed of 18 km / h is achieved on line 1.

20 railcars were ordered for the commissioning of line 1. Due to the unexpectedly high number of passengers, eight more vehicles were ordered, which were delivered from June 2010 and enable line 1 to be compressed to four minutes. These newer trains differ only in details from the first series.

In order to be able to cope with the increasing number of passengers, it was decided in 2010 to extend 15 vehicles by two modules to 44 meters. This increases the capacity by 30%. The drive module is powered, the second module has only one door on each side for reasons of strength. One of the new modules received additional batteries and new color screens were installed at the same time. The first extended vehicle was presented to the public in September 2012 and has been in passenger service since mid-November 2012.

20 Citadis 405 vehicles were acquired for line 2, and six vehicles of the same type are available for line 3. They have the vehicle numbers 029 to 054.

Urban planning and design

Place Garibaldi: battery-powered tram
Sculptures by Jaume Plensa above the Place Masséna

The construction of the first tram line was combined with the introduction of pedestrian zones , including in the area of ​​the Liberation stop and in the Place Masséna area , which lost its function as a major traffic intersection.

The power supply offers a special feature: In the areas of Place Masséna and Place Garibaldi , the overhead line was dispensed with over a length of 435 and 485 meters, respectively , in order not to impair the historic cityscape and not to restrict the headroom for the high-rise carriages of the Nice Carnival parade. To cross these places, battery operation is switched over. The batteries are on the roofs of the cars, they are charged on the electrified sections. The meter-gauge tram before 1953 had sections with an underground power supply.

Along the route, which opened in 2007, there are 14 works of art by 15 artists; CANCA invested a total of 3.3 million euros in the artistic design. The works of art include a group of seven sculptures by Jaume Plensa that glow at night and that were installed nine meters above the Place Masséna . The name tags of the stops are also artistically designed. These were supplemented with sayings that are intended to inspire passengers to pause. In the trams, the stop announcement is underlaid with sound collages that change depending on the time of day and season.

Planned route extensions

Long-term planned route network

Further expansion plans envisage an expansion of the network, particularly in the west and north of the greater Nice area:

  • Line 3 is to be extended from its current northern end in Saint-Isidore by around 2,300 meters north to the shopping center in Lingostière. The line will also have a stop at Nice-Lingostière station on the Chemins de fer de Provence (CP). On the section between Lingostière and downtown Nice, the tram would compete with the Nice – Digne-les-Bains line .
  • The extension of line 1 by about four kilometers to the municipality of La Trinité in the valley of the Paillon River was postponed in favor of the other line extensions that had taken place.
  • Another route extension is planned from Grand Arénas by around six kilometers to Cagnes-sur-Mer .

literature

  • Theo Stolz: The tram in Nice is running again . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 7/2008 . Minirex, 2008, ISSN  1421-2811 , pp. 321-324 .
  • François Laisney: Atlas du Tramway dans les villes françaises . Éditions Recherches, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-86222-067-3 , pp. 250–263 (French, from the perspective of architecture and urban development).

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Successful tram in Nice . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 12, year 2012, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 616.
  2. ^ Christoph Groneck: New trams in France. The return of an urban mode of transport. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2003, ISBN 3-88255-844-X , p. 159
  3. ↑ News in brief in: Stadtverkehr 10/1982, p. 423.
  4. ^ On the history of planning: Groneck, New Tramways in France , p. 159; Christoph Groneck: Nice tram in operation. In: Stadtverkehr , 3/2008 (53), pp. 11–15; here p. 12.
  5. ↑ "Le Tramway en chiffres": Presentation of the financing of the construction of the Tramway de Nice on the official website ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tramway-nice.org
  6. ↑ Un ex-dirigeant dénonce un système de corruption chez Thales (An ex-manager discovers systematic corruption at Thales). In: Le Monde , September 26, 2005
  7. ↑ "Les caractéristiques": data on line 1 of the Tramway de Nice on the official website ( Memento of the original of March 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tramway-nice.org
  8. ↑ Groneck, Nice tram in operation , p. 14f.
  9. ↑ Groneck, Nice tram in operation , p. 13f.
  10. ^ "La ligne 2 du tram: tout de suite, plus tard, jamais?": Report of the newspaper "Nice Matin" from May 30, 2008 ( memento of the original from June 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link became automatic used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nicematin.com
  11. ^ Christoph Groneck: High quality public transport in France. In: Stadtverkehr 12/2012, pp. 46–49, here p. 48
  12. ↑ [1] railwaygazette.com of December 18, 2019 (English), accessed on December 18, 2019
  13. ↑ [2] metro-report.com of July 2, 2018 (English), accessed on July 2, 2018
  14. ^ [3] a homepage of the Nice Metropolitan Region (French), accessed on December 23, 2019
  15. ↑ Le tramway de Nice se dote de 8 nouvelles rames. (DOC; 186 kB) Press release from the city of Nice. (Accessed April 11, 2013)
  16. ↑ Nice Matin: Tram ': les rames from t être rallongées de 11 mètres . Accessed November 20, 2011.
  17. ↑ Les nouvelles rames du tramway à Nice s'allongent de 10 m  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Accessed September 14, 2012.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nicematin.com  
  18. ↑ Groneck, Nice tram in operation , p. 12f.
  19. ↑ Groneck, New Tramways in France , p. 8.
  20. ^ Christoph Groneck: Nice: Tram and modern art. In: Stadtverkehr , 3/2008 (53), p. 16.
  21. ^ Stefan Göbel: France promotes local transport projects. In: Stadtverkehr 6/2009 (54), pp. 42–46.