The president of Bordeaux Métropole Alain Anziani delivered a nice balancing act this Friday on the occasion of the presentation of the mobility plan for the next ten years. Because he had to explain that “no, we have no anti-tram religion” while confirming a first-class burial for the two extension projects towards Gradignan and Parempuyre. Only the project towards Saint-Médard-en-Jalles is still breathing, but its days seem numbered. Gone are the extensions of tram lines, considered not profitable enough and generating breakdowns, place for the metropolitan RER, the bus and express bike networks but also on foot.
The express bus network [que la métropole ne veut plus appeler bus à haut niveau de service] will consist of “104 km of express bus lines” by 2030, “including three circular lines: one on the boulevards, a line between boulevards and bypass on the route of the current Corol 35 and an extra line. ring road ”announced the vice-president of mobility Clément Rossignol-Puech. “They will be supplemented by four radial lines, including Bordeaux-Saint-Aubin-de-Médoc in 2024, or peninsula-Campus for 2025.” All these lines “will not be 100% own site”, warned the elected.
150 million euros for the bicycle express network
“We are also going to double the number of bus lanes, from 80 km to 160 km,” he continues. And there will also be the creation of eight express coach lines to link the extra-metropolitan area and thus succeed in getting out of autosolism [personne seule en voiture]. A 250 km express bicycle network “with wide cycle paths and secure parking” will also be created. The budget is in the order of 150 million euros.
At the same time, Alain Anziani announced the launch of a vast “walking plan”. The idea is to create walkable areas through road improvements and to “de-clutter the sidewalks.” “All of these measures, which only concern the metropolis, should make it possible” to eliminate 10% of the flow of vehicles on the road. “
“A navigo pass for the whole of the metropolis”
There is also the metropolitan RER, which goes well beyond the metropolis, with a circular section and three branches (Libourne-Arcachon, Saint-Mariens-Langon, Bordeaux-Macau). “If it works, it’s a real revolution,” announces Alain Anziani, “because it considerably reduces travel times. It would take fourteen minutes to go from Cenon to Pessac against thirty minutes or even an hour by car and fifty-three minutes by public transport currently. But for that it will take a sufficient frequency, of the order of a train every fifteen minutes. And there is the tariff issue. I want a single transport ticket, a sort of navigo pass for the whole of the city. “
At the end of the Metropolitan RER (planned for 2028), a potential of 55,000 travelers per day is envisaged (i.e. + 73% compared to the current situation) which would save 117,000 km traveled by car each day, according to a study of the metropolis. Seven additional park and ride facilities are also planned at the gates of the Bordeaux conurbation, to allow you to leave your car there and use public transport.
No to the metro
The objectives “are to arrive, modal share level, at 32% of trips in the metropolis made by walking, 17% by public transport, 18% by bicycle and 33% by car (against 50% currently) », Hopes Clément Rossignol-Puech. And this would, according to the metropolis, absorb the 600,000 to 700,000 additional daily trips expected by 2030. As for the metro, which an association has been trying to revive for three years, it is no. “The metro is a billion euros, says Alain Anziani. [deux milliards selon l’association]. I believe more in the metropolitan RER than in the metro. “
The entire project is costed at 3.3 billion euros. “We will thus double the credits for mobility” insisted Alain Anziani, anxious to show that even without tram or metro, this is not a plan at a discount.