The idea would not be new, as it already exists in Belgium or the Netherlands, but it would be, in its scale and its deployment at around fifty stations in the Grand-Est and various regional train lines, a first in France. This idea is to be able to rent an electric bike when you get off a train. Self-service operation to remedy the famous “last mile” and reach a slightly off-center business area, a school, a city center, a business park, or even your home or a neighboring town…
A rental system “which allows you to do a series of journeys, without interruption and without the constraint of having your own bike and transporting it on the train,” explains Thibaud Philipps, vice-president of the Grand-Est region in charge of transport. This is the assurance of having one available, with complete peace of mind when leaving the train, by reserving it, via a dedicated application, half a day or a full day in advance. »
If there are, in certain French cities, classic bicycle rental stations and some electric bicycles near train stations, a generalization of electric bicycle stations would make it possible to respond more easily to the diversity of demand and topographical diversity of the Grand region. -East. “Providing additional comfort via a combined TER, Bus + bicycle subscription, to those who travel daily to work, to a meeting, a medical appointment or even to high school, by bicycle. Let this be fluid and not complicated if we want public transport to become a real alternative. This could remove certain obstacles,” assures Thibaud Philipps.
A big budget already voted
To launch this experiment, but also to make it truly informative, the Grand-Est regional council pulled out all the stops and voted by a large majority on October 12 a budget of 1.8 million euros of investment for the launch and 600,000 euros of operation per year. A full-scale experiment included in the Region’s cycling plan in June 2022.
Electric bicycle stations should initially be set up in front of around fifty stations, out of the 300 in the Grand-Est region. “Stations or railway stops not yet defined but representative, of different uses and of all sizes, well distributed throughout the territory and not just on a single line, where this service will bring a real plus, which will also facilitate intermodality at station level,” explains Thibaud Philipps.
A letter to local elected officials will soon be sent to make the system known and to invite them to apply. A letter that some mayors of the Grand-Est, such as Laurent Furst, mayor (LR) of Molsheim, a small town located around thirty kilometers from Strasbourg, have already not expected. The elected official intends to seize this opportunity of an additional station service for his citizens. “We have a city of 10,000 inhabitants with more jobs than inhabitants,” explains the mayor. A station which is in the top three passenger stations in Bas-Rhin and we constantly have companies or employees telling us “how do we get from the station to our company?” while we have an activity zone completely served by a network of cycle paths and which passes by the station. It would be obvious to us and a real opportunity for our common note to have this complementary service and satisfy a significant proportion of employees and businesses. There is an obvious wait in our city. »
“An advantage which would also make it possible to respond to the 25% increase in the number of travelers on trains in the Grand-Est since 2020,” adds Thibaud Philipps, also mayor of the commune of Illkirch-Graffenstaden, a town bordering Strasbourg and who, unsurprisingly, is interested in this device. “Since Covid, we have realized that people take their own bike to go to the train, then put it on the train, and finally continue their journey. Hence a certain saturation on the train bicycle spaces and a lack of spaces. » A situation which also pushes the Region to send 60% of its TER trains to the workshop to be reconfigured and modernized, notably with additional bicycle spaces. Nevertheless, “there is really a need to be able to offer an additional offer to users to replace the car,” concludes the vice-president. An offer which should really be effective at the start of the 2024 school year.