Brest invites crowdfunding to co-finance new tram line

The French city of Brest (population 210 000 )in Brittany is offering its residents the chance to invest EUR 1 to EUR 5000 each over five years (with a 4% rate of interest) in order to raise EUR 1M towards the EUR 220M cost of a second tramline and a high-performance bus line. 

 

The fundraising started on 27 September and runs until 25 December. Yann Guével, Vice-President of Brest Métropole said, ‘Citizen funding at this level has never been done before, it’s a first. The logic of citizen investment is also, and above all, a way of involving the residents of the city to make them actors in energy transition by placing their savings in a project where their funds are directly invested locally. It is a symbolic participation that would correspond, for example, to the greening along the new lines’. 

 

Brest opened its EUR 383M, 14.3km, tramway in June 2012 and it carries 10.5M passengers/year on 20 Alstom Citadis trams. 

 

In April 2023 construction was started on a second line, 5.3km from Gare Gambetta to Hôpital Cavale. It is due to open in 2026 at a cost of EUR 130M plus 10 new Alstom trams.