GRENOBLE - La Place Grenette et le Saint-Eynard

The Historic Tramway of Grenoble was a urban and suburban electric tramway network from the Grenoble region of France, created in 1894 and operated by the société grenobloise de tramways électriques, which has today entirely disappeared. At this time of industrial and demographic growth, the old

Hippomobile The Hippomobile is an automobile invented by Étienne Lenoir in 1863 which carried its own internal combustion engine. It was based on his 1860 invention, the Lenoir gas engine. History In 1863 the Hippomobile, powered by one cylinder internal ...

modes of transportation, fiacres and

horsebus A horse-bus or horse-drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed, and sprung horse-drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe ...

, established since the end of the 18th century, were no longer sufficient to ensure smooth transport in cities. The urban and suburban lines developed continuously until the 1920s. At this point there were three main operators: the , which operated the urban lines; the , which served from Grenoble, the Left Bank of the Isère up to Froges as well as the valley of l'

Oisans L'Oisans () is a region in the French Alps, located in the départements of l'Isère and Hautes-Alpes, and corresponding to the drainage basin of the River Romanche and its tributaries (Eau d'Olle, Lignarre, Sarenne, Vénéon and Ferrand). Betw ...

; and the , which linked the center of Grenoble to Chapareillan and serves the whole Right Bank in the valley of Grésivaudan. With the rise of the

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

, the

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or trol ...

and the private car, ridership and profits declined and the tramways were replaced by buses. The last line was closed in 1952 after 52 years of service, and the current tramway of Grenoble was only launched 35 years later in 1987.

See also