Through Nicolas gosselin
Published on 26 Nov 20 at 17:25
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Since 2018, the construction of a cable car to connect the right bank and Left Bank from Bordeaux (Gironde) comes back regularly among the proposals of elected officials of the Metropolis, in order to improve and facilitate travel in the heart of the agglomeration.
During the report on the revision of the mobility strategy on October 23, 2020, we could also read that the cable car was “under study” at the meeting. What happened to it? For now, the file has not progressed much and elected officials remain silent on the subject but the hypothesis of a cable transport project has not been abandoned therefore.
Toulouse and Grenoble have succumbed to the “trend”
In France, on the other hand, certain cities or communities have procrastinated less. Of course, there is the historic Grenoble cable car, inaugurated in 1934, which allows you to climb to the top of the Bastide hill, over a drop of 266 meters.
“But it has more of a tourist vocation. Like the one in London, which overlooks the Thames, built for the 2012 Olympic Games, ”recalls Jean Souchal, CEO of Poma, a French company considered to be one of the world leaders in cable transport.
On the other hand, in the southwest, Poma is working on a project anchored in the public transport network for the general public in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne). The French manufacturer has started work on a cable car that will span the Garonne.
From the Oncopole, the Toulouse cable car will cross the Garonne and then the Pech-David hillside before serving Rangueil University Hospital and Paul Sabatier University (and its metro station), in just ten minutes. A technological feat and a considerable saving of time for those used to the automobile in a poorly served sector.
In Bordeaux, one talks about a project estimated at 70 million euros
“The cable car is not a means of transport that seeks to compete with the tram or the metro,” explains the company manager to actu.fr, it’s more of an intermodality solution. “
Also, we have just won a call for projects for the construction of a cable car in Grenoble by 2023. We pass over two highways, a railway line and two rivers. If it had been necessary to build a tram or bridges, the site would have been much longer and much more expensive. This wired transport system is really the epitome of simplicity in getting around obstacles.
To connect the right bank and the left bank of Bordeaux, the cable car could therefore be an interesting solution, knowing that the Simone Veil bridge is still under construction and that the closure of the stone bridge to cars has congested the other axes.
Why would this be a good solution? First, because the cable car is a cheaper means of transport than the tram, the metro or the construction of a bridge between Bordeaux-Nord and Bassens, for example, as proposed by Nicolas Florian in his electoral program.
“Half the price of the tram” according to the mayor of Bègles
“It’s at least 20 times cheaper than a bridge,” exaggerates Jean Souchal, since extensive studies would be required to establish a precise estimate. “And it is 100 times cheaper than a metro under the river”, he continues, citing the example of Istanbul, where a tunnel of more than three billion euros for a kilometer long crosses the Bosphorus.
Should we deduce from this that a cable car above the Garonne would cost around 30 million euros? For comparison, the Toulouse cable car, three kilometers long, cost 82 million euros. Or roughly speaking, as much as the Simone Veil bridge.
–In this case, we would rather be around 70 million euros if we rely on the route project carried by the mayor of Bègles Clément Rossignol-Puech in 2018, with a line connecting the station of Bègles to Bouliac, with a stopover possible on the island of Arcins.
“It is half the price per kilometer than the tram, with almost no impact on nature and little on the living environment because the cable car would cross sparsely populated areas”, said at the time the environmental mayor in front of the elected officials of The city.
An ecological means of transport?
Obviously, Jean Souchal will not contradict him. As a good sales rep for his company, he is riding the green wave:
In terms of mobility, society expects something other than conventional means of transport. The last elections proved it. Our cable cars run on electricity, with clean energy and energy-efficient systems. And on noise, we have managed to reduce noise pollution by three compared to ten years ago. It is a product that really meets the expectations of society, an eco-friendly product.
Yes, but a cable car above the Garonne, rather than the charm of the stone bridge, spoils the postcard a bit …
“No, not necessarily,” replies Jean Souchal. This is what I call acceptance. You know, the cable car includes the notion of travel. Imagine in Bordeaux, being 20 or 30 meters above the Garonne, the panorama that you would have in a gondola. “
In New York, the cable car is part of the postcard
The entrepreneur gives the example of New York. The Big Apple and Roosevelt Island, which has a population of approximately 10,000, have been linked by a cable car since 1976. In 1989, the inauguration of an underground tunnel allowing the metro to cross the East River could have sounded the death knell of wired means of transport. But New Yorkers are strongly attached to it and in 2010, Poma was given the mission of renovating it.
To listen to Jean Souchal, the cable car will be the new fashionable means of public transport. Gone are the days of the tram or metro? He says he is in discussion with the cities of Paris, Orléans, Créteil, Ajaccio and even Lyon for cable car projects.
Abroad, the urban cable car is already attracting many followers. Especially in South America or in the overseas departments and territories, where the reliefs are sometimes too steep for the bus, tram or metro. From Mongolia to Colombia, via Algeria or Russia, Poma has clients all over the world.
The Nizhny Novgorod cable car, an example for Bordeaux?
Above the Volga, which freezes in winter, the French manufacturer, for example, has succeeded in connecting the two cities of Nizhny Novgorod and Bor without planting a single pylon in the middle of the river. Or cables pulled over 900 meters long. It would therefore be possible to fly over the Garonne, without encumbering it with a pylon, confirms Jean Souchal.
–Last argument, which he addresses to elected officials, the work of a cable car is extremely fast compared to other transport sites. A cable car above the Garonne, he estimates it will last from one to two years maximum.
The cable car is modular and removable
Knowing that a cable car can be easily dismantled, the CEO of Poma intends to convince the skeptics of the interest of his mobility solution: “Where the metro, bus or tram cannot pass, the cable car is the logical next step. of the mass public transport network… ”
With an extreme modulation (number of cabins, pylons, removable structure, etc.), a limited cost, a fast and not very restrictive site, or even a reasoned consumption, the lobbying of the cable transport does not lack arguments. Will the elected officials of Bordeaux Métropole be sensitive to this?
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