11.France-2013 Nantes
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11. France 2013 – Nantes – Part 1 Saturday, August 31 One day would not really be enough to cover the entire Nantes tramway. But like Lyon, I had visited this city before and mainly wanted to see the changes and additions that had occurred since my last trip. This included establishment of the tram-train and line 3, plus the new CAF rolling stock. My first visit to Nantes was in July, 1985 with Jeff Moreau, right after the opening of the first of what would come to be over two dozen new tramways in France. At that time only one segment of route 1 had been built, but this was an exciting enough development to whet our appetite. When walking the line we came upon Jim Buckley, who approached us from the other direction. He indicated he was just back from Estonia and Latvia, and with Nantes now under his belt he had finally covered every system in Europe. With a great deal of foresight he indicated a concern that he wouldn't be able to keep up with new operations in the future. Sadly, both Jim and Jeff are no longer with us. [A quick Jim Buckley story. One of the first ERA Conventions I arranged was in the early 1970s in Cleveland. I tried to locate someone who had movies or slides of electric traction in Cleveland from the period prior to the rapid and the Shaker PCC cars for our "annual free movie night." I was given a name, and when I contacted him I found out he was rather young, but he convinced me he had the goods. And he did, but almost all were copies of original slides. While he was projecting an excellent view of some Kuhlman cars at Public Square in a light snowfall, Buckley jumped up and yelled, "that's my slide, I took it, how d'ya get it?"] Nantes: Population: City 280,000; Metro Area 545,000 Distance: 240 miles west southwest of Paris, 2 hours 15 minutes City System Length: 27.5 miles No. Lines: 3 No. Stations: 83 Year Opened: 1985 Rolling Stock: 91 CAF, Stadler, Alstom Tram Train (SNCF) Length: 60 miles No. Lines: 2 No. Stations: 18 Year Opened: 2011 Rolling Stock: 24 Citadis Dualis Dual Voltage: 25,000 v. AC and 750 v. DC I think it's fair to state that Nantes was the first city of France's light rail revolution. Interestingly enough France started after North America (1978 in Edmonton and 1981 in San Diego), but passed us by – much, I should say, as China has surpassed France in the construction of High Speed Railways. But that's probably of little importance. I'm very pleased that some of our initial LRT projects have grown into a network of lines, like in San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, Salt Lake City and Denver. Note that this is not true east of the Mississippi. But my point is that the light rail system in Nantes has grown into an interconnected network, with 3 lines and 83 stations on a little over 27 miles of route. Because it opened before the perfection of low-floor cars (at least in Alstom's eyes), the first order of rolling stock was somewhat traditional. This was later rectified through the purchase of 100-percent low- floor cars and the installation of a low-floor center section in each of the original units, much like what was accomplished in Dallas a few years ago. The Nantes system, with its three lines, now has three different types of rolling stock. As it turned out line 3 was equipped with Adtranz Incentro cars, line 2 with the original Alstom TFS-1 cars, now modified with low-floor center sections, while line 1 had a mix of equipment, including some of the new CAF Urbos 3 units. The weather was a mix of sun and clouds on this day. We first rode line 3 to its northern terminal at Marcel Paul and then rode back to Orvault- Morliere, where we took an orbital bus to Orvault-Grand Val, the terminal of route 2 (see http://www.urbanrail.net/eu/fr/nantes/nantes-tram.htm for map). After some photos we returned to the Gare via the 2 and the 1 in order to ride the tram-train to Clisson. At that time the SNCF was operating only 6 round trips on the 20-mile long line, with service being supplemented by TER (Regional) eMU trains that went further. Now the operation is much more robust, with almost hourly service provided by 18 round trips on weekdays, albeit with quite a few short turns. We returned on the same equipment, which did not ride much differently than a typical eMU. Like our observations in Lyon, this is not a tram-train in the true sense, because service is totally confined to SNCF railway tracks, with no operation on the streets or in concert with the city tramway. But the purchase of the dual voltage equipment (25kv AC and 750v DC) bodes well for future through routing. A second tram-train, to Chateaubriant (40 miles), was under construction, and we then rode tram route 1, which it will parallel and cross it, in order to see how the work was proceeding. (Since our visit this line has opened with a full schedule, although it too has many short turns.) The lines cross at grade at Haluchere Batignolles station, where we encountered the new CAF cars running on the 1, and were fortunate that the sun came out briefly while we had paused for photos. We then proceeded to ride the rest of the system, noting how busy the city center was getting as the afternoon was giving way to evening. We then discovered that part of route 2 was closed off for a concert that was attracting hordes of spectators, mostly all arriving on public transit. Having skipped lunch, we found a nice Italian restaurant where we shared a pizza for an appetizer, and then I had a magret of duck to cap off a great day of railfanning. Photos: One of the 46 modified original Alstom TFS cars in a park-like setting at the Facultes stop of route 2, in the midst of the university area. This probably never could happen at Princeton. View at western end of route 1, among many sculptured bushes on a beautiful grassed right-of-way. The 100% low-floor Adtranz Incentro car, one of 33 that were delivered starting in 2000, approaches the Francois Mitterand terminal. A view from a parking deck, shows an Adtranz Incentro car heading outbound on route 3 just beyond the Orvault-Morliere station. Alstom TFS car at Ranzay terminal, one station beyond Haluchere. Barriers serve as bumper blocks at temporary terminal of this branch of route 1. Line is in the process of being extended to reach route 2 at the Recteur Schmitt station. An inbound Adtranz Incentro car is shown leaving the southern end of the Haluchere station. The right half of the train shed's roof now provides protection for the patrons of the tram-train service]. My only image of the brand new CAF Urbos 3 rolling stock. A little over half of these twelve slick units were on the property at the end of August, 2013, when we were in Nantes. An inbound route 1 car is shown just north of the Haluchere station. The track on the far right now carries tram-train cars. An outbound Incentro car on the two-station branch of route 1 to Beaujoire, is shown crossing the future (now current) tram-train line. This is the only location in Nantes where the overhead serving the tram-train is energized at 750 volts, DC, rather than 25,000 volts, AC. The new tram-train right-of-way turns away from the SNCF mainline tracks three stations south of Haluchere--at Landreau. An overpass at that station allows good views of the parallel tramway and railway. This new line is Nantes' second tram train. The one to Clisson, that was already in operation is the subject of Nantes-Part 2. .