“Usually, we come by car…” Free weekend transport validated by users


In a tram on line 1 in Nantes, on Sunday April 25, 2021 – J. Urbach / 20 Minutes

  • These Saturdays and Sundays, passengers on the TAN network have discovered free weekend transport.
  • The information was not yet known to all but seems well received by travelers this Sunday.

“No need to compost today Madam, it’s free”. This sentence, this driver of the chronobus line C2 has already said it dozens of times this Sunday. Because until this evening, and for all the weekends that will follow, it is no longer required to validate your transport ticket to get on the buses and trams of the Nantes metropolis.

Campaign promise of Mayor Johanna Rolland (PS), at a cost of nearly 10 million euros per year, free transport came into effect on Saturday. If all users were not aware, the vast majority of them seem won over.

A “super good news”

For Marine, who discovers the information thanks to a sticker affixed to the Chantiers Navals tram station, this is “great good news”. The young woman, who lives in the city center and does not have a car, will no longer need to pay to “go see her grandparents in San Sebastián”.

Ditto for Inès, crossed in a bus of line 12, who already explains having made her subscription “unlimited” for a “tailor-made” because of “distance learning”. “I didn’t know it was getting free, it’s cool, it’s a bonus,” smiles the student. On the other hand, it is not likely to bring back too many people? It’s not terrible with the Covid… ”

“I hadn’t taken the tram for ten years! “

This Sunday, it is difficult to know if the measure had already had an effect on attendance, which was rather good on this sunny afternoon. In any case, this is what made Jules lean, who accompanies his mother to be vaccinated at the Beaujoire exhibition center, to opt for the tram. For Alix, who came with his wife and children to “visit the new SNCF station”, free transport (and P + R car parks in this case) was also decisive. “I had not taken the tram for at least ten years!” Says the father of Carquefou. Usually, you come by car, but you have to find where to park. There, it was the occasion and it is going very well in the end… ”

Like many walkers, Sylvie also took the opportunity to treat herself to a little Navibus trip on the Loire with her husband, Patrick. But if the latter recognizes “appreciate free”, it will take more to change his habits. “In the center, I move on foot or by bicycle but as soon as I want to go a little further, like in Atlantis, it’s by car, details the septuagenarian. Me, the tram, it swells me, we are crowded … Frankly, paying or not, it’s not the most pleasant! “

For Lucas either, met at the Gare Maritime station, the measurement will not change much, and for good reason … “For me, it’s free every day, loose the young man, who doesn’t hide from ever pay ticket. This is my conception of what transport and public services should be: free, all the time, and for everyone. “



Source link