bientôt le bout du tunnel pour les interruptions de tram cet été
It is now the turn of the users of the line A arm yourself with a little patience and flexibility for the next ten days. The time for the Mériadeck shopping center to rehabilitate the footbridges as well as the protective structure of the escalators. “Works so close to the tramway’s overhead contact line that it was impossible to maintain traffic,” explains Pierrick Poirier, general manager of the Keolis Bordeaux Métropole network.
From August 16 to 19, day and night, and from August 22 to 26 at night (from 9:30 p.m.), the service is interrupted between Gaviniès and Sainte-Catherine stations. As for the work sites of lines C and D, relay buses are set up between Porte de Bourgogne and Gaviniès, at the same frequencies as the tram (7 to 8 minutes during the day and 10 minutes in the evening).
This Tuesday, the first day of construction, users did not complain according to Guy, driver on the line. But he recognizes that the traffic change could have been announced earlier. Which would have suited Frédéric, seated in the front row, who is amazed at Sainte-Catherine. “I have to go back to take a relay bus. If I had known, I would have gone down earlier! Luckily I’m not in a hurry…”
Lacking information in the morning, Marine ended up walking to her office, tired of watching for a tram without certainty. “There was nothing written on the billboards,” she laments.
During the school holidays
In general, line interruptions are carried out during school holidays, mainly in the summer for major works. “The tram is almost twenty years old, it requires continuous maintenance, in particular overhead contact lines, explains Pierrick Poirier. The station construction site was particularly impressive and visible because it concerned the rails. We had to remove the cobblestones, disburse, replace the rails…”
The other major project concerns the extension of line A to the airport. “Most of the work is well advanced. The launch is still planned for the beginning of 2023”, assures the general manager.