Railway Gazette
A weekend of ‘modest celebrations’ marked the inauguration of Besançon’s 14·5 km tram line on August 30-31, with local residents attending wearing turquoise-blue to match the trams’ colour scheme.
The tramway has been explicitly developed as a low-cost project by the Grand Besançon municipality, which had hoped to reduce construction costs by up to a third compared to recent light rail schemes in other French cities. It serves 31 stops from Marnières in the east of the city to Hauts-du-Cazal in the southwest with a short branch to Besançon-Viotte main line station.
I like how losing the rolling stock contract got Alstom motivated. ALSTOM had been offering 5 section trams, and Besancon was looking for something smaller. They brought back the three section Citadis, rebranded it as the Citadis Compact, and won two contracts.
