The decision seemed inevitable. The opposition, which felt the blow coming, had even spoken of a “first class burial”. This time, it’s official. The E metro project in Lyon has indeed been abandoned in favor of an “express tram”. The decision was taken on Monday by the elected officials of Sytral, public transport manager.
“The union council today approved the continuation of the studies for the West Lyon express tramway, confirms Vincent Monod, vice-president of Sytral. Partly underground, it will be very efficient and fast to serve western territories by 2031 and will be connected to metro lines A and B”. The route should link the Jean-Macé district to Francheville via Perrache, Sainte-Foy and Tassin.
“This new mode would offer optimal service to the 5th district with very competitive travel times while meeting the needs expressed in the ongoing consultation of the E metro”, indicates Bruno Bernatrd, president of Sytral. This solution, “combining the performance of the metro in the tunnel and the fine service of the tram on the surface”, will make it possible to connect the Point-du-Jour district to that of Perrache in “less than 10 minutes” and to reach Jean Macé “ in less than 25 minutes,” he says.
Subway too expensive
The cost of building the – now buried – metro line E, estimated at two billion euros, was the main obstacle. Launched under the mandate of Gérard Collomb, the project never really won the support of environmentalists, preferring, at first, a cable link so contested that it ended up being abandoned in turn.
The construction of the tramway, newly baptized TEOL, is valued at 750 million euros. Almost two and a half times cheaper than the metro. But its transport capacity will be much lower: from 45 to 60,000 trips per day, against 120,000 for the metro. “Be careful not to confuse theoretical maximum capacity and estimated attendance. Even with the metro E, the estimated attendance did not exceed 60,000 passengers per day, indicates Vincent Monod. This is a perfect order of magnitude for the tram mode”.
It is now time for consultation, which will be supervised by the National Commission for Public Debate. It should be launched in the fall of 2023. As for the works, they will not begin before 2026.