TRAM DE BESANÇON

A hurricane seems to have passed in many parts of our city, the landscape of which is exploding by the work of a new entrant, 2015: The tram. A tramway called wishes for many elected representatives of the Grand Besançon, who voted the project by a large majority in June 2010. A project that shakes our habits for the next 50 years, first with some constraints, but to benefit from facilitated travel as well as economic dynamism and the improvement of the quality of life that is supposed to bring the project. This consists of the installation in Besançon of an electric rail tram line of 14,5 km, extending from east to west, from the Hauts-de-Chazal (Franois) to the Marnières (Chalezeule), including a branch that will go to the Viotte Station. A real backbone of the public transport system proposed by the agglomeration, it will be in direct connection with the bus network it will not replace but with which it will build partnership and complementarity; with the rail network, with which it will establish continuity relations; as well as soft modes and relay parks, 6 of which will be created close to the stations. Like 31 well articulated vertebrae, 31 stations will be created on this route, with an average time of 5 minutes between each rame in peak hour and an average expectation of 2 minutes 30 at the station. Of a turquoise design, with easy access for persons with reduced mobility, consisting of 3 articulated modules of 132 seats, 23 m long and 2,40 m wide, the tram will serve, at an average speed of 20 km/h, the whole of the city from 5 a. m. to 1 p. m., 7 days/7, or a fraction of 50 000 trips by day, for the next 30 to 50 years, if everything goes well. But to do this, a few chamboulements have to be done, disrupting our daily nuisance of traffic, noise, dust, like all the construction sites. So many had the tear and a pinch at the heart, seeing the slaughter of the old trees of the Old-Picard wharf, and destruction in the yard of the Battant bridge. For these, let them be reassured, if 620 trees were removed for the purposes of the route, 1170 will then be replanted, especially at the corbel level about 270 m from the Old-Picard wharf, as well as on the Flora Square. Furthermore, the Battant bridge will see its reconstruction completed around April 2013, with a gain of 7 m in width to increase the place reserved for pedestrians. At the same time, there will be a systematic set-up of bicycle routes along the tram to facilitate bicycle traffic in our city, and to supplement the ecological dimension of a low-gas project, which aims to reduce car traffic in the city centre, and thus, by means of the complementary laying of noise rails, to the reduction in the characteristic noise of life in town. If the city attempts to limit the disturbances by reducing the time and duration of the work, there are still many deadlines before the end of the work and the arrival of the tram scheduled for June 2015. Until the end of 2013, the workers will carry out archaeological recognition, the diversion of networks, the formation of lanes and the construction of the Battant Bridge. June 2013 should see the delivery of the first rame at the maintenance centre, followed in 2014 by the first tests and the start (blank) of a tra. Commercial commissioning planned for June 2015. An extensive project carried out in strict compliance with the financial balances of the Greater Besançon, at an estimated cost of more or less € 228 M, which should not result in higher taxes for households and should preserve the future of urban projects.