Brest tramway

The Brest tramway (French: Tramway de Brest, Breton: Tramgarr Brest) located in Brest, Brittany, France consists of a 28-stop, two-branch, 14.3-kilometre (8.9 mi) line connecting Porte de Plouzané in the west with Porte de Gouesnou and Porte de Guipavas northeast of the city centre. The end-to-end journey takes 38 minutes. It's operated by RD Brest, and it's part of the Bibus network. The system began service on 23 June 2012. It is expected to serve 50,000 passengers per day.^[2] The line is the successor to a tram network that operated in Brest from 1898 to 1944. The network has the distinction of being trilingual (French, English and Breton).^[3]

Brest tramway
Overview
Native name	Tramway de Brest
Locale	Brest, Brittany, France
Transit type	Tram
Number of lines	1 (2 branches)
Number of stations	28
Annual ridership	10.50 million (2018)[1]
Operation
Began operation	23 June 2012[1]
Operator(s)	Keolis[2]
Technical
System length	14.3 km (8.9 mi)
Top speed	70 kilometres (43 mi)
System map Map of Brest tramway

History

The old tram of Brest, around 1907

Old tram of Brest

In 1898, the first line of the Brest tram opened. The network was in operation until the city was bombed in 1944.^[4] In 1947, it was replaced by trolleybuses, which operated on three lines, with 30 vehicles. From 1963, diesel-powered buses were purchased to modernize the vehicle fleet. From 1965, one-person operation was introduced on the buses, while the trolleybuses still had to be operated by two drivers. For reasons of personnel savings, the trolleybus operation was therefore discontinued on November 9, 1970.^[5]

Revival plan

In 1984, the Urban Community of Brest (CUB), then chaired by Georges Lombard, evokes the return of the tram as part of the development of its urban transport plan. In the following year, a state subsidy completed a finance study for the project. On December 19, 1988, the Community Council of the CUB unanimously votes to create a two-line network.^[6] Next year, newly elected mayor of Brest becomes president of the CUB, and Pierre Maille takes over the file. On October 1, 1989, the urban community decided to continue with the technical and financial studies leading to a project of two lines with a total length of 13.5 km (8.4 mi). However, in 1990, over 80% of the population have voted against the project in a referendum, which buried the project until the following decade.^[7]

In the municipal elections of 2001, François Cuillandre, who succeeded Pierre Maille as mayor of Brest, becomes the president of the CUB and launches studies concerning a new tramway project.^[6] His new project intended to complement the North-South TCSP on a commercial axis of 8 km (5.0 mi) long, plus 2 km (1.2 mi) of service roads.^[7] By the end of 2002, the project was subsidized at 30%, the first consultations and preliminary studies were launched, and back then the start of work was set to be in 2010. Next year, the start of work was set to start in 2009.^[8][9] In November 2003, when the preliminary consultation was about to end, the mayor of Brest announced that the line would link the Technopôle Brest-Iroise to the Kergaradec business park, serving the streets of Siam and Jean-Jaurès.^[10] It was also announced the transport payment, then set at 1.05%, one of the lowest in France, will be gradually reassessed in order to finance the line; it reached the rate of 1.65% in 2007.^[11][7]

In 2006, a new step was taken with the creation of SemTram, the mixed economy company which will be responsible for the project management of the line. The SemTram is a group of companies made up of the SEM companies of the TCSP (SEM of public transport on its own site of the urban community of Brest ) and Egis Rail. The SEM of the TCSP is a local mixed economy company with a capital of €150 thousand, created in April 2006 on deliberation of December 16, 2005, which aims to ensure the project management of the work of the first tram line in Brest. It brings together seven partners who are: Brest Métropole Océane (53%), Caisse des dépôts et consignations (15%), Departmental Council of Finistère(10%), Brest CCI Brest (7%), Crédit Agricole du Finistère (5%), Caisse interfédérale de Crédit mutuel (5%), and Caisse d’épargne de Bretagne (5%).^[12]

In February 2007, the community council of Brest Métropole Océane voted to build the Froutven branch at the same time as the rest of the line, bringing its total length to nearly 14.5 km (9.0 mi), for an amount estimated in July 2006 at 298 million euros.^[13] Completed in May 2007, the consultation presenting the project to the public made it possible to add two additional stations, one in the city center and one in Kergaradec, for a total of 27 stations.^[13]

Construction

Construction work on the platform began in early 2010, followed in June by laying the foundation stone for the maintenance center. The site of the maintenance center is marked by shell demining operations from World War II when the city had been bombed for nearly four years.^[4] The demining operations that took place from August 2009 to March 2010 were necessary to remove 16.5 tons of explosives and demolish 11 blockhouses.^[14][15][16] The first rail was laid and welded by the end of August 2010.^[17] Overall, the work in 2010 was devoted to the construction of the platform and the laying of the tracks, while the work in 2011 was devoted to the installation of equipment and the electrical supply, signaling and the development of stations.^[18]

In February 2010, a controversy broke out over the choice of the supplier of the granite slabs that decorate the public spaces within the tram network, Eurovia, the Chinese company that won the tender for supplying the granite, was chosen because it was more competitive in price, which was seen by some as ignoring the local granite providers and affecting the sustainable development plans. In May, the metropolis announced that local companies would win part of the contracts, in particular the paving of the Place de Strasbourg.^[19]

On the night of August 22 to 23, 2011, a major stage of the work was completed with the installation of the new deck of the Recouvrance bridge, the old deck dating from 1954 with limited tonnage (3.5 tonnes) was replaced for a new structure, making it possible to support the 40 tonnes of a tram train, and equipped with cantilevers for pedestrians on either side. At the end of November 2011, it was announced that the tram would have 28 stations, with the entry into service in 2012 of the Kerlaurent station, whose name was initially attributed to the Eau Blanche station, originally defined as a "reserve" station of the branch of Guipavas, but whose construction of 300 homes nearby motivated the metropolis to build it immediately.

The final phase testing the line operation took place from 5 June to 22 June 2012.^[20]

Inauguration

The line was inaugurated at 11 am, on June 23, 2012, at the end of the Rue de Siam, in front of the Recouvrance bridge, in the presence of the mayor François Cuillandre and the president of the Brittany region Jean-Yves Le Drian, marking the start of two days of festivities including a giant parade and a flashmob on the evening of June 23.^[21][22] The Bibus network was offered for free during the inaugural weekend as well as for the first day of operation.^[23]

On October 4, 2012, Tramways & Urban Transitmagazine named the Brest tram the second "best international tram project of the year" tied with the Casablanca and Zaragoza tramways at the Light Rail Awards.^[24]

Rolling stock

The line is operated with 20 Alstom Citadis trams, which were jointly purchased with the Dijon tramway to reduce cost. The tram sets are numbered from 1001 to 1020.^[25] The first train was delivered on September 7, 2011, from the Alstom factory in Aytré, on the outskirts of La Rochelle.^[26] The other train sets were delivered and put into service from November at a rate of around two to three trainsets per month until June 2012.

Cost

The cost of the project was estimated at €290 million euros in July 2006, distributed as follows:^[27]

• Engineering services and project management: €60 million
• Construction of the maintenance center: €15 million
• Purchase of rolling stock: €55 million
• Construction of engineering structures: €10 million
• Construction of track and equipment infrastructure: €158 million

In 2010, the cost increased to €338 million,^[28] and eventually to €383 million in 2012.^[29]

Trilingualism

The network has the distinction among French trams of being trilingual; French, English and Breton. This trilingualism is found in audio announcements, card headers, station names, timetables, ticket distributors and various technical information on board trains.^[7][30][31]

The organizations affiliated with the promotion of the Breton culture such as the Aï'ta and Sked argued that the Brest metropolis has not kept its commitments, particularly with regard to audio announcements, whose versions in Breton are rarely broadcast or only at the terminuses, or even tickets where the choice of Breton was still not active one year after commissioning, and that it even disappeared from certain equipment in 2013.^[30][32][33]

Stations

Line A
Overview
Native name	Ligne A
Status	active
Locale	Brest, France
Termini	Porte de Plouzané Porte de Gouesnou Porte de Guipavas
Stations	28
Service
Type	Tram
Operator(s)	RD Brest
Depot(s)	1
Rolling stock	20 Alstom Citadis 302
Ridership	12.1 millions (2018)
History
Opened	23 June 2012 (2012-06-23)
Technical
Line length	14.3 km (8.9 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Route map Legend km meters above sealevel 0.00 End of track 89 m 0.12 Track switch 87 m 0.16 Porte de Plouzané 86 m 0.21 Track switch 86 m 0.24 Depot and maintenance 85 m 0.27 Track switch 85 m 0.95 Fort Montbarey 91 m 1.48 Keranroux 96 m 2.10 Coat Tan 97 m 2.60 Vali Hir 95 m 3.24 Polygone 84 m 4.00 Dupuy de Lôme 62 m 4.57 Les Capucins 52 m 4.77 Track switch 52 m 4.94 Saint-Exupéry 51 m 5.23 Mac Orlan 40 m 5.63 Recouvrance 23 m 5.72 Track switch 17 m 5.87 Pont de Recouvrance Penfeld 4 m 6.02 Track switch 17 m 6.18 Château Téléphérique (station Jean Moulin) 32 m 6.59 Siam 41 m 6.92 Prebuilt crossing with Line B 50 m 6.97 Liberté 53 m 7.00 Prebuilt junction to Line B 53 m 7.26 Jean-Jaurès 61 m 7.31 Track switch 68 m 7.55 Saint-Martin 76 m 7.93 Octroi 90 m 8.29 Pilier Rouge 99 m 8.80 Place de Strasbourg 102 m 9.35 Menez Paul 84 m Track switch 72 m 9.93 Europe 70 m 10.35 Pontanézen 83 m 10.66 84 m 11.08 Mesmerrien 82 m 11.62 Kergaradec 84 m Track switch Track switch 12.34 Porte de Gouesnou 94 m 11.35 Eau Blanche 72 m 11.87 Kerlaurent 79 m Track switch Track switch 12.54 Porte de Guipavas 74 m

Network Map

Around the tram

Fort Montbarey

Tourism

Line A serves, from west to east, the following places of attraction and monuments:

• Fort Montbarey
• Iroise-Carrefour shopping center
• Brest Arena
• Dupuy-de-Lôme high school
• Église Sainte-Thérèse-du-Landais
• Workshops of the Capucins plateau and the Brest cable car
• Recouvrance district, with many remarkable buildings including the Tanguy tower
• Recouvrance bridge
• The castle, home to the National Maritime Museum
• the Le Quartz performance hall
• the Place de la Liberté and the town hall
• Augustin-Morvan hospital
• Saint-Louis Church
• Saint-Martin district
• ENSTA Bretagne

Artistic approach

On June 29, 2009, Brest métropole decided to allocate a budget of one million euros for the realization of works of art at the network, while there was already three existing installations.^[34][35][36]

The seven works produced as part of the construction of the tram are:^[34]

• “Les Tickets collection” by Mrzyk & Moriceau (decorated tickets)
• “The Empathic Tree” by Enric Ruiz Geli, at the Château station.
• “Les Jetées” by Didier Faustino, at Strasbourg station
• “Signs of Life” by Olivia Rosenthal and Philippe Bretelle, between the Europe and Pontanézen stations
• “The Recouvrance Generator” by Pierre di Sciullo, between the Recouvrance and Les Capucins stations
• Hughes Germain's “Vibrating Cylinders”, at Dupuy de Lôme station.
• “Data Horizon” by Sylvie Ungauer, at Porte de Plouzané station.

These three installations existed before building the new network:^[34]

• “The lakes” by Marta Pan, at the Siam station.
• "Recouvrance" by Marcel Van Thienen at the Fort Montbarey station (formerly located at the bottom of the rue de La Porte when exiting the Pont de Recouvrance).
• “Palaver tree and bulwark” by Bénédicte Klène at the Europe station.

Second line

In February 2010, the local authorities announced they have started preparing studies for the construction of a second line. Mayor François Cuillandre also said: "We are convinced that the second line will be requested once the first is operational."^[24] During the construction of the first line in 2011, various preliminary work was carried out to enable the construction of the second line without serious disruption to operations on the first line.

See also

• Trams in France
• List of town tramway systems in France

References

1. "Rapport annuel 2018 sur le parc, le trafic et les événements d'exploitation des tramways" (PDF) (in French). STRMTG - Service Technique des Remontées Mécaniques et des Transports Guidés. 20 December 2019. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
2. "Brest inaugure son tramway". L'Express (in French). 23 June 2012.
3. "Brest tramway opens". Railway Gazette International. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2012.
4. "Cuillandre : " Le chantier du tram se passe plutôt bien "". brest.maville.com (in French). 7 October 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
5. Courant, René. (1982). Le temps des tramways. Michel Braun, André, ... Jacquot. Menton: Ed. du Cabri. ISBN 2-903310-22-X. OCLC 405630131.
6. "Accueil".
7. "Le Tram de Brest fête ses 1 an !". 25 June 2013. Archived from the original on 22 July 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
8. "Brest lance les consultations pour son tramway". Le Moniteur (in French). 9 December 2002.
9. "Transports : les aggloméra tions maintiennent leurs projets OUEST BRETAGNE, PAYS DE LA LOIRE ET BASSE-NORMANDIE Disparité des projets de transport en commun en site propre" (in French). 7 November 2003. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
10. "BREST Aménagement urbain Un tramway et un nouveau quartier" (in French). 21 November 2003. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
11. "BREST Augmenter le versement transport" (in French). 16 January 2004. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
12. "Brest Le tramway sur les rails" (in French). 16 February 2006. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
13. "Finistère Brest prépare son tramway" (in French). 24 May 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
14. "Brest : pose de la première pierre du centre de maintenance du futur tramway" (in French). 21 June 2010. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
15. "dépôt et centre de maintenance du tramway en chantier". Le Moniteur (in French). 2 July 2010.
16. "Déminage terminé, Brest peut construire son dépôt". Rail Passion (in French). 30 June 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
17. "Le tramway de Brest soude son premier rail". 2 September 2010. Archived from the original on 1 July 2015.
18. "Brest Début des travaux du tramway en juin". Lemoniteur.fr (in French). 27 February 2009.
19. "Il y aura du granit breton sous les rails du tram". brest.maville.com (in French). Retrieved 29 November 2021.
20. "Le tram de Brest entame la dernière ligne droite des essais". Archived from the original on 30 November 2021.
21. "Brest, fière et émue, pour l'arrivée du tram". Ouest-France (in French). 23 June 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
22. "Brest entre dans la danse pour sa fête du tram..." Ouest-France (in French). 16 June 2012. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
23. "Et c'est gratuit". Ouest-France (in French). 22 June 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
24. "A Brest, le tramway redessine toute la ville". Le Moniteur (in French). 15 February 2013.
25. "Brest and Dijon award joint tram order". Railway Gazette International. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
26. "[Vidéo] La première rame du tramway est arrivée à bon port". brest.maville.com (in French). Retrieved 2 December 2021.
27. "Le futur tramway". Archived from the original on 26 March 2010.
28. "LE CHIFFRE 338 millions le coût de construction du tramway de Brest" (in French). 2 October 2009. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
29. "Un tramway pour redessiner la ville de Brest". 24 June 2012. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015.
30. "Quelle place pour le breton ?". actu.fr (in French). Retrieved 11 November 2021.
31. "Noms des stations du tramway. "Un enjeu" selon l'UDB". Le Telegramme (in French). 25 May 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
32. "Actualité Brest - Finistère 29 - Bretagne". Le Télégramme (in French). Retrieved 11 November 2021.
33. "Pas assez de breton dans le tram. Aïta interpelle les élus de BMO". Le Telegramme (in French). 24 June 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
34. "Les œuvres d'art du tramway". Brest.fr. 29 June 2009. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.
35. "À Brest, 11 œuvres d'art sur la ligne du tramway". Archived from the original on 5 December 2021.
36. "À Brest, sept œuvres d'art contemporain pour le tramway : " une collection à ciel ouvert "". 22 April 2011. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021.

External links

• Brest tramway – official website