What if Avignon also had its urban cable car?
Ten years after having evoked the project of realizing an urban cable car during the electoral campaign of her previous mandate, Cécile Helle, mayor of Avignon, relaunched the project during her greetings at the beginning of the year. The new version would connect the Avignon Confluence district and its TGV station, near the Opéra Confluence, to the city center, near the Saint-Roch terminus of the tram line. Cécile Helle emphasizes the low cost of such equipment compared to the construction of a tram and its low land holding.
Avignon: the public transport revolution underway
This solution could unclog a traffic jam, the south-west of the old center being served only by a road blocked between the Rhône and a railway right-of-way. The route would include intermediate stations. The idea is only at the project stage since for the moment the technical services of the municipality have not been seized of the file.
The success of urban cable cars
This type of transport has a certain success. Toulouse inaugurated in May the longest urban link over 3 km for 82 M€ with 8,000 daily passengers. Cities like Brest, Grenoble, Toulon and Saint-Denis de La Réunion have their own equipment, even if some have mainly a tourist function. In some cities, the projects have been abandoned as in Lyon in the face of opposition from local residents. That of Avignon would cross only industrial installations of Courtine and a rail-road construction site.
In 2013, Cécile Helle’s first project aimed for a completely different route: that of connecting the alleys of Oulle, near the ramparts, to the Angles plateau, in the Rhone Gard. This route will soon have a relay car park linked to the historic center by a bus, partly on its own site, for a total amount of €17 million.