The Saint-Étienne tramway (french: Tramway de Saint-Étienne) is a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

system in the city of

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the ...

in the

Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône a ...

(

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 ar ...

) that has functioned continuously since its opening in 1881. The first tramway line was steam-operated and was opened by the (CFVE) on 4 December 1881, stretching for 5.5 km between and . The CFVE took over the lines and discontinued the use of steam in 1912. Lines with small patronage were replaced by

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 ...

es in 1932 with all but one line closed in 1956 as a result of the impossibility of running these buses on the busiest line of the network. The decision to keep the tramway in the 1950s saw the introduction of the famous PCC tramcars to replace 1932 rolling stock and the Vevey- Alsthom tramcars in 1991-1992. The system is operated by the

STAS Stas or STAS may refer to: People *Stas (given name), a reduced form of Stanislav, Anastasius or Eustachius *Stas (surname) *Stasia "Stas" Irons, musician Other uses *School of Technology and Applied Sciences, Kerala, India *Short Term Air Suppl ...

Network

The Saint-Étienne tramway now runs from to after an extension of the original line from Bellevue station to Solaure in 1983 and from La Terrasse station to in 1991, with a length of 9.3 km. The old terminals are now where some trams turn back during peak hours and others continue to and . A line from Cinq-Chemins de Terre Noire to Saint-Jean-Bonnefonds opened in 1907 and closed on 1 April 1932 after being replaced by a

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 ...

service. Lines from the town centre to Le Pertuiset,

Saint-Genest-Lerpt Saint-Genest-Lerpt () is a commune in the Loire department in central France. Population Twin towns Saint-Genest-Lerpt is twinned with Palau, Sardinia, Italy, since 2005. See also *Communes of the Loire department The following is a list o ...

and Roche-la-Molière opened between 1907 and 1909. A second line to supplement the main route opened in 2006 to serve the Chateaucreux station. Trolleybuses were put into service on 1 January 1942 between and .

Tram carhouses

The current and only carhouse is on the site near

's northern hospital; until 1998 it was at . The carhouse as well as the PCC streetcars were demolished. The new carhouse was built south of and north of . It is the STAS depot for Saint-Étienne and houses buses, trolleybuses and trams.

Rolling stock

Saint-Étienne tramway currently runs a fleet of 35 tramcars built by Vevey and

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Av ...

, and 16 CAF Urbos. There have been four large fleets of tramcars to operate on the network, the largest being the fleet of PCC cars introduced in 1958.

Type A tramcars

Type A tramcars were built by Grammont in 1897. The 28 cars circulated from 1897 to 1952, were 7.50 m long, 2 m wide and were capable of transporting 40 passengers.

Type H tramcars

The Type H tramcars were introduced in 1907 at the start of the electric traction services. The cars were 10.21 m in length, 2 m wide, weighed 12.3 t (empty) and developed 100 hp (2 x 5t) hp. They were operated by a wattman and a receiver (ticket collector) and could carry 48 passengers. The cars lay on a Brill 79 Ex2 truck.

Type R tramcars

Type R tramcars were built by the

CGC CGC may stand for: Companies * Computer generated character * Co-operative Grocer Chain Japan, known as CGC Japan * Cambridge Gliding Centre * Canada Games Centre * Canada Games Company * Canopy Growth Corporation, medical marijuana company in Sm ...

of Saint-Denis in 1912. All eight of the cars circulated from 1912 to 1959 and were capable of carrying 47 passengers. The tramcars weighed 13 tonnes empty and were 9.35 m long and 2 m wide.

PCC tramcars

The PCC streetcar fleet was composed of 30 single-car trams built in Strasbourg which were introduced in 1958 after the decision to keep the busiest tramway line was made, with the last one withdrawn in 1998.

PCC trams in preservation

Société de Transports de l'Agglomération Stéphanoise still has 6 PCC streetcars: * 5 two-car PCC streetcars, numbered 551 to 555, awaiting a buyer; * 1 PCC streetcar, numbered 586, used for maintenance (unusual for having a pantograph instead of a trolley pole).

Alsthom-Vevey-Duewag articulated tramcars

This class of tramcars, a variation of the Tramway Français Standard, exists in two types, tramcars introduced in 1991 and those in 1998. The first class was introduced between 1991 and 1992 at the time of the line extension to . They are numbered 901 to 915 and have a seating capacity of 43. In 1998, more tramcars were introduced with only minor differences, numbered 916 to 935. The first class of modern tramcars (15) was equipped with

trolley pole A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector. ...

s since the PCC trams were still in use. These were subsequently replaced by

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...

s as the PCC trams were withdrawn and the second group of modern cars was introduced. The second class of Alsthom-Vevey tramcars (20) are capable of reaching a maximum speed of 70 km/h. They were built on 23.24 m long ''H'' chassis and have an empty weight of 27.4 tonnes. The electric current is conveyed by pantograph rather than the trolley poles used on the PCC trams. The current delivered is 600 V DC.

CAF Urbos

In order to replace and expand the fleet, in 2014 a €42m contract was signed with CAF for delivery of 16 Urbos trams.CAF tram enters revenue service in Saint-Etienne
''

Metro Report International ''Metro Report International'' is a business journal for urban transport professionals which covers the metro, light rail, tram and commuter rail industries worldwide. It includes news and articles looking at urban transport around the world, ...

'' 4 May 2017 These were delivered between 2017 and 2018.

Network Map

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tramway de Saint-Etienne Saint Etienne Transport in Saint-Étienne Railway companies established in 1881 Saint Etienne Railway lines in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 1881 establishments in France 600 V DC railway electrification Saint Etienne