In Reims, it is the excitement of major events. On 6 May 2011, the cathedral of Reims, where the French kings were crowned, will celebrate its 800th anniversary. On top of these towers, eight centuries contemplate the history of the city.
On Saturday, April 16, it will also contemplate the multicoloured ballet of trams. Nothing to astonish the famous smiling angel who has seen worse, but for the Reims inhabitants, the event is huge. A less spiritual event than their cathedral's 800th anniversary, but so much more convenient for their daily lives.
Allusion to the history of trams
Two tram lines are indeed seeing the day and the bus network is completely redesigned for operation on April 18. A tram that has borrowed its design to another item of the city's heritage: champagne. In Reims, the "nose" of Citadis by Alstom is in the shape of a flute of champagne with acid colors: pink, purple, yellow, blue, green etc.
In all, eight colors also appear on the city buses. Something to give a new youth to a cathedral whose statues were originally polychrome. Moreover, the city also planned for the festivities of the eighth centenary to recreate this colourful atmosphere through a colored light projection on the religious building.
Reims takes this tram opportunity for a facelift: complete renovation from façade to façade, plantations along the road to replace the 1,500 trees cut during construction, mineral environment for crossing the city center, reorganization of the station, tram stops designed by Sovann Kim, long grassed parts at the periphery and no catenaries in the center.
The two kilometers through the downtown core are equipped with the ground level power supply system (aka surface current collection system) by Alstom (APS). The tram will have its own site on 95% of its route and on the 5% shared with automobiles, it will always have right of way.
Right of way before automobiles
The tram tracks cross the city from north to south for 11 km (23 tram stops) between Neufchâtel and the TGV station of Bezannes. To that is added a "comma" of a few hundred meters to serve the Robert Debré university hospital.
Two separate services will be operated on this route with a long center section with a common core. Line A (9 km, 21 stops) starts from Neufchâtel north of the urban area, through the heart of Reims, serving large generators of travel: the central train station, the Cathedral district, the Auguste Delaune stadium, the regional train station of Franchey d'Esperey, the Red Cross campus, ending at the Robert Debré university hospital.
Line B (7 km 13 stops) starts from the central train station and is common to the line A until the multimedia library where it separates from line A to serve the TGV station of Bezannes. The running frequency is adjusted to the activity of the TGV station (17 trains per day).
These two tram lines are complemented by a restructured bus network hence a total of 7% of additional transportation.
It took nearly 30 years between the early reflections on the tram in Reims and its inauguration, but it took 64 years to build the cathedral.
Robert Viennet Read more in
Transport Public April issue (in French)
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Reims' new tram has been inaugurated April 16, 2011. © Ch. Recoura - Click to enlarge
800 years old Reims cathedral can now watch the trams. © Ch. Recoura - Click to enlarge
Reims' new tram has been inaugurated April 16, 2011. © Ch. Recoura - Click to enlarge
Multicolor trams in the champagne capital. © Ch. Recoura - Click to enlarge
