The Bordeaux Tram
The story of the Bordeaux Tram (the tram for close friends) is not new, and it is a story that sticks to the skin of this magnificent city.
The beginning of the story...
The first tram line was built with the help of horses. In 1880, the first line opened, and by 1891 the city already had 8 tram lines: around 39 kilometres. 1,200 horses were needed to run 15 million annual journeys.
How about going electric?
In 1897, in the middle of the electric revolution, animal traction started being replaced by electric traction. This drove urban change, allowing locals to live on the outskirts of Bordeaux and work in the centre... Distances get longer, but shorter... you get it...
Stop! Cancel everything!
Following technical issues from a poorly mastered technology causing many incidents, in 1946 mayor Jacques Chaban-Delmas hit the brakes and stopped tram operations in favour of the bus. In 1958, the last Bordeaux tram line closed.
OK, shall we restart?
By 1970... Traffic saturates! So the modern Tram idea comes back. From 1975 to 1995, study after study, checking, thinking, but with a mayor deeply hostile to the Tram... Nothing really moves forward.
It took Alain Juppé's arrival in 1995 to immediately launch the tram project. And that is why today you can have a nice tram (almost) all to yourself.
OK, we have compressed all the events that led to the beautiful tram we have now. As you can guess, the Bordeaux tram unleashed strong feelings before being fairly well accepted by locals. It still sparks some debate and controversy... But that is another story.
So to the famous question: the Bordeaux tram, was it better before?... What would you say?
