History of public transport of Nantes

First joint grid system in the world

The first joint grid system of the world was created with Nantes, in 1826, by Etienne Bureau.

Etienne Bureau conceives itself a vehicle to transport the employees of the seat of the company of his grandfather, ship-owner, with the Salorges warehouses where are the Customs authorities. It created the first then Bus, which owes its name with the shop of hatter “Omnes”, located place of the port at the Wine (become Place of the Trade), where the vehicles were parked.

At this same time, Stanislas Baudry, a former officer of the Empire, wishes to attract customers in the district of Richebourg where it installed an establishment of hot baths. The baths are fed starting from the recovery of condensed water of a boiler which it uses to actuate a Minoterie. It places a car at the disposal of its customers. He realizes that its customers prefer to attend her car that her establishment of hot baths. He thus asks for the municipality the authorization of establish a service of public cars between the district of Richebourg and the Salorges warehouses, thus succeeding Etienne Bureau by creating the first line of urban Omnibus. The August 10th 1826, it founds a company comprising two suspended cars being able to receive each one 16 people. One connects the street of Richebourg to the Salorges where the warehouse of the Customs is, the other connects the bridge of the Fish shop to the Tour of Pirmil.

The same year, Stanislas Baudry takes as a starting point the success of the Op3era Comique of Boëldieu, “the White Lady”, to baptize its attachments of the same name.

In April 1828, Stanislas Baudry creates with Paris the first two lines of the Entreprise general of the slow trains of Paris (ancestor of the RATP).

Edme Fouquet, another Nantes, develops in September 1828 with Paris the Compagnie of the White Ladies. Of return to Nantes where competition is hard between the companies, Edme Fouquet, takes the monopoly of the slow trains by eliminating all its rivals and obtains the creation of new lines. The Company of the White Ladies perdure until the end of the XIXe century.

As of 1840, three new companies attack its monopoly, Nantes the, Favorite the (also called “Chantenaisines”), and Breton the. In 1845, W. Derrien becomes owner of the Bretonnes. In 1852, a fourth company arrives, the Swallows. On the whole about thirty slow train circulates through the encumbered streets pedestrians, diligences, etc

The municipality tries to regulate the use of the public highways by local by-laws, and supports the fusion of the companies, thus is born, in 1857, the general Compagnie of the slow trains whose garage was located street of Olivettes . Only Breton the does not amalgamate with the other companies.

The first tram

In 1875, the municipality chooses the tram whose realization is entrusted to the Société of the compressed-air engines. The November 7th 1876, the city authorizes Louis Mékarsky to exploit a tram line connecting Doulon to the harbor station , via the Place of the Trade. Nantes becomes thus the first city to exploit this new kind of locomotion for public transport. The February 12th 1879, is open the line connecting Saint-Denis to Saint-Ouen. Louis Mékarsky assists with the inauguration of the first Locomobile compressed-air with Nantes and presents has Paris, in front of the marshal of Mac-Mahon, chair Republic, this novel mode of locomotion. The Nantes ones adopt from the start the tram Mékarsky and the municipality programs one second North-South line crossing the bridges of the Loire. And in 1898, the horse slow trains disappear from Nantes. Angers, Clermont-Ferrand or Zurich follows the Nantes example. In 1911, these are 39 kilometers of line which serve the city, transporting twelve million travellers already per annum.

The May 5th 1911, that the mayor, Paul Bellamy, announces the electrification of the network. The war is declared when work has just started. In 1915, 8 lines are in service, and work was completed only in December 1919. “In 1924, the first buses make their appearance, they are eight to furrow the city on lines with weak traffic. Thus Nantes, as of 1932, has a network of 20 lines serving 14 routes. The pole of exchange is located place of the Trade (which is today always the largest pole of exchange of Nantes). With Nantes as in the majority of the towns of France, the bus replaces the Tramway gradually, become decayed, noisy and uncomfortable. The last oars which traversed the city cease their activity the January 27th 1958.

Revival of the tram

In the years 1970, Nantes lance the modern Tram under the mandate of Alain Chénard elected mayor in 1977. At the time, the city has one of the wide-area networks of bus of France, exploited by SEMITAN. At that time, certain experts who estimate that the city will count a million inhabitants in 2000. In 1979, is installation an engineering team for the project of tram. March 15th 1980 the invitation to tender is launched near the French manufacturers.

February 10th 1981: catch in consideration of the project of first line.
November 1981: signature of a convention enters the State and the union of the manufacturers.
April 2nd 1984: delivery of the first oar.
December 1984: free opening of the line to the public, after a few months of interruption of the building site, related to the arrival, in March 1983, of a new municipal team.
January 7th 1985: beginning of the exploitation commercialede the first line, connecting Bellevue to Haluchère.

In September 1992, a second line is open connecting Orvault to Pirmil. In 2000 a third line is open connecting Plaisance to Hôtel-Dieu , as well as the prolongation of the first two lines.

Today Nantes has 36 km of ways of Tramway distributed on 3 lines.

FOR THE THIRD TIME

Since the beginning of the Years 2000, Nantes Métropole wishes to re-use the Nantes railway network in order to jointly pack the grid system urban and perish-urban. Thus, the SNCF and SEMITAN developed a bearing partnership on the service road of the 11 stations of the agglomeration by the FOR THE THIRD TIME local. The users of the TAN could borrow them with their transport document of the TAN.

Busway

November 6th 2006, the first line of Busway in France is brought into service. It is about a BHNS (Drunk with High level of Service), therefore the principle is already used in other agglomerations like Ottawa with the Canada.

Reorganization of the termini

In September 2007, the new terminus Gare of Bridge-Rousseau which allows a connectivity with the station FOR THE THIRD TIME is that of the line 2. The old layout of the line 2 is taken again by the line 3 which thus goes until the terminus of the Neustrie .

Projects in prospect

Second Busway borrowing the boulevards outer and crossing the Île of Nantes is currently being studied.

In order to avoid passing by the center town, the connection of line 1 with line 2 of tram to the north of Nantes east to the study. The date planned for the installation of this project is September 2009.

The creation of a new airport with Our-Lady-of-Moors.

A Tram-train connecting Nantes to Châteaubriant is planned for 2010, with the reopening of the stations of Suck-on-Erdre, Nort-sur-Erdre, Abbaretz and Issé as well as the creation of several stations with Nantes and the Vault on Erdre.

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