Montpelliers fifth tram line opens

Citizens of the French city of Montpellier received an early Christmas gift with the opening of tram line 5 on 20 December. This 17.5km line with 27 stations brings tramway service to a further 100 000 of the city’s residents; it connects the west (Grés de Montpellier) with the north (Clapiers)via the west side of the city centre, on a 45-minute trip and has two P+R sites with 450 spaces. The theme of the line is Science and Botany with campuses and parks and gardens along the route. The western arm serves the sports complex Yves du Manoir with its rugby stadium at Ovalie stop. It uses existing tracks between Gambetta Saint-Denis and Corum. 20km of new cycle routes have also been created as part of the project. Trams run every 12 minutes, trough as more of the new CAF seven-section 43.2m 100% low-floor air-conditioned trams are commissioned it is hoped to reduce the headway to every 7.5 minutes by September. 22 of these will work on line 5 and as always in Montpellier they carry a dedicated livery, a plant-inspired design by Cameroonian artist Barthélémy Toguo. Work on the EUR 440M project started in 2019 and it is expected to attract 80 000 passengers/day. Michaël Delafosse, President of Montpellier Métrople, said ‘I want to thank the TaM teams who have achieved a remarkable feat in Montpellier; the France of projects prevails over the France of procedures! We are honouring our commitments; on 20 December line 5 transforms the city. We will have the largest network in France, in the largest city in Europe to offer free public transport’. 

 

Montpellier opened its first tramway of the modern era in July 2000 and prior to the opening of line 5 the standard-gauge system had reached 60.5km operated by 80 Alstom Citadis trams. A first-generation tramway operated from 1880 to 1949.