The Nantes Busway (line 4) is a bus rapid transit line operating in the city of Nantes,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The service was inaugurated on November 6, 2006 and is operated by

Semitan Semitan is the company responsible for the comprehensive public transport network of Nantes Métropole, the urban community of the French city of Nantes. The network operated by Semitan is marketed under the name and logo TAN and this abbreviat ...

. The line runs from Place Foch to Porte de Vertou on a dedicated right-of-way, and interconnects with line 1 of the

Nantes Tramway The Nantes tramway (french: Tramway de Nantes) is a tramway system operating in the city of Nantes in Pays de la Loire, France. The first tramway in Nantes opened in 1879 and closed in 1958 due to bombing damage during World War II, while the pr ...

at Duchesse Anne Château station. Four

park & ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...

facilities have been built along the construction of the line to encourage passengers to use public transport. Nantes Busway line 4 is NF certified (NF stands for French Norm). A victim of its own success, Busway line 4 attracts higher ridership than

expected, pushing the system to saturation. Buses are overcrowded at peak times and nearly full off-peak. Semitan tested the Hess LighTram in November 2009 to eventually increase capacity of the system and relieve overcrowding at peak times. Though that solution wasn't implemented, Semitan decided to increase passage frequencies to less than 3 minutes at peak times. If saturation recurs, Busway line 4 may be converted into a Tramway line in the future.

Operation

The network is operated by Semitan, known as TAN for short. Semitan is responsible for the whole public transport network throughout the Nantes Metropole (Greater Nantes), and the Metropole has a majority shareholding in the company.

Stations equipment

All stations are built with all the services that a Tramway station has. All have real time passenger information LED displays showing real time estimated arrival of the next bus, automatic ticket machines, seating and large unified shelters made of glass.

Hours of operation

Nantes' Busway does not run 24 hours a day. Service starts at 5am and goes until 0.30am on weekdays and Sundays, and from 5am to 2.30am on Saturdays. Delays are rare and service generally runs smoothly.

Fares

The

TAN Tan or TAN may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Black and Tans, a nickname for British special constables during the Irish War of Independence. By extension "Tans" can now also colloquially refer to English or British people in general, es ...

network in Nantes uses paper tickets and passes, though in the near future contactless smartcards will replace it. There are no travel zones on the network in Greater Nantes. Tickets and passes allow free transfer and are universally valid on the Tramway, Busway, Nantes

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 ...

es, Navibus, and suburban trains within Nantes Métropole. Tickets are not sold inside the trams, but ticket machines (which accept cash and credit cards) are present at every Tramway and Busway stations. Tickets must be validated inside the trams when boarding. There are also some staffed ticket offices opened for limited periods only.

Single trip and day tickets

issues singles trip tickets (Ticket 1 h) valid for one hour, a 10x saver ticket booklet (Carnet de 10 tickets 1h) valid one hour each, a discounted 10x saver ticket booklet (Carnet de 10 tickets 1h - Tarif réduit) valid one hour each, an airport transit ticket (Ticket navette aéroport), a 24 hours ticket (Ticket 24h) valid an entire day for one traveller and a 24 hours ticket valid an entire day for up to four persons (Ticket 24h/4 personnes). Semitan also sells Lila and Métrocéane tickets. Lila: Single trip tickets (Ticket unité Lila) valid two hours on the Lila network (departemental buses in Loire-Atlantique) and one hour on the

or STRAN ( Saint-Nazaire buses) networks when transiting from Lila, a 10x saver ticket booklet (Carnet de 10 tickets Lila) valid two hours each on the Lila network and one hour on the TAN or STRAN networks when transiting from Lila.

Monthly and annual passes

Semitan issues a wide range of monthly and annual passes for different categories of travellers depending on their age and working conditions. Free transportation is granted to travellers with low incomes. Semitan also sells monthly, termly and annual Lila, Métrocéane and Pratik+ passes, for several categories of persons depending on their age and working conditions.

Rolling stock

Citaro G

20 Mercedes-Benz Citaro G are running on Busway's line 4 on a dedicated right-of-way. Those articulated buses are 18 meters long, 2.55 meters wide and are

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

powered only. The driver is isolated from the rest of the bus in a separate cabin. Each bus features: * 4 sliding doors all with manual opening * Double glazed windows * Dynamic maps (LED display) showing stations * Colored floor pattern, and wall colored LED lightning (additional to basic lightning) * Four information flat screens showing connexions with buses and the Tramway * Vocal station announcement * Seats with better comfort than those found on conventional buses.

Rapid Charging Hess by 2018

600 kw flash charging at selected station
will reportedly power new buses by the end of 2018

References

{{reflist

External links

TAN official site
Transport in Nantes Bus transport in France