Lausanne starts testing new tramway

The Swiss lakeside city of Lausanne started test runs on its first new tram line for over 60 years on 3 May, using the first two of 10 double-ended 45m air-conditioned Stadler Tramlink that are on order. Each tram has a capacity of 300 passengers (80 seated). The new line will connect Lausanne-Flon metro interchange to Renens station in the western suburbs. This 4.6km section, with a journey time of 14 minutes, is part of a line T1 that will extend by another 3.1km to Villars-Ste-Croix within four years (requiring a further two trams). The city council is providing CHF 20M and the canton of Vaud CHF 453M to finance the project. 13M passengers/year are expected with a tram every six minutes. The new trams were unveiled to the media at Renen-Perrelet depot on 2 March, where there will be a public open house on 2 May. Passenger service is expected to start in December. Tramways in Switzerland have traditionally been metre gauge, so Tramway Lausannois 1001-1010 are the first standard-gauge 2.65m wide low-floor trams in the country (in reality TL broke the mould when it opened a standard-gauge 7.8km light rail line in 1991). 

 

Lausanne had a first-generation tramway from 1896-1964, but has relied on a trolleybus network in recent times, before the arrival of the 6.5km rubber-tyred metro in 2008.