The not so stupid question: only two metro lines in Marseille, the fault in the basement?
By Writing Marseilles
Published on
Why Marseille does not have more than two metro lines ? Why do these two lines follow the tram route to the letter? Why don’t they have Wifi? Why is the waiting time so long? In terms of public transport in Marseille, there would be material to write a notebook of grievances as heavy as a dictionary.
Because you have to start the question at the end, News Marseille today looks at a rumor that is very present in the minds of Marseille: the basement myth. Namely, the myth that the basement is too “hard” to be “drilled”. Really ?
Blame it on the sea?
First, a bit of history. The current metro network was put into service in 1977. The first section to be delivered is that which connects La Rose to Saint-Charles station. This is the famous line 1, the blue one. Ten years later, line 2 is delivered in turn. She rests Bougainville in Sainte Marguerite.
You shouldn’t be too disoriented by this leap in time: since that time, the Marseille network has hardly changed a bit. And the last station stopped, Captain Gèze, several years late, raised the question again: why it’s so complicated to dig the basement marseille ?
According to the data collected by News Marseille, the answer is not to be found in the composition of the soil. But that does not mean that the topography of Marseilles has nothing to do with it. Indeed, it is rather the presence of the coast to the west, the mountains and the Huveaune basin to the east that are responsible for these difficulties.
Marseille, capital of the car
That being said, Marseille is not the only major city in France to be so close to the coast. This is why the slow development of the Marseille metro is above all to be found on the side of political will.
More than other cities, the city of Marseille has long favored the development of the car. In the future, the “Marseille en Grand” plan, will focus more on the development of the tramway. It must be said that Marseille’s delay in terms of public transport is such that decision-makers are now forced to opt for the fastest solutions.
By way of comparison, the city of Lyon has 4 metro lines and 40 stations, Lille has 60 stations, Toulouse has 37. To find a network equivalent to that of Marseille, you have to go to Rennes (2 lines and 28 stations ). And recalling that the Breton city has four times fewer inhabitants than the Marseille city.
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