THE French government has revealed funding worth a total of €900m for 12 urban transport improvement projects that will commence by the end of 2025.

In December 2020 the government called for proposals for the improvements, with the winners announced on October 6. These include:

• Lyon light rail lines T6 Nord, T9 and T10 – €69.57m
• Brest light rail Line B – €17.09m
• Tours light rail Line 2 – €40m
• Strasbourg light rail Line 5 western extension – €15.12m
• Le Harve light rail extension – €40m
• Caen west-east light rail line – €40m
• Bordeaux light rail Line A extension – €7.63m
• Nantes new light rail lines 6, 7 and 8 – €17.95m
• Avignon light rail Phase 2- €7.83m
• Nice new light rail lines T4 and T5 – €49.25m

Of particular note is a proposal for a light rail line to the airport in Saint Denis on the French island of La Réunion, which will receive €40m. A previous project for a light rail line over the disused narrow-gauge line around the island’s coast was abandoned in favour of a motorway.

Another major project is the modernisation of the metre gauge tram system from Lille to Roubaix and Tourcoing, plus extensions to Roncq, Hem and Herseaux in Belgium. An additional 30km of new 1435mm-gauge light rail lines will be built from Wambrechies in the north to Lille city centre to Hallennes-les-Haubourdin in the west and Seclin in the south. These will cost €1.4bn although the French government will provide just €120m via this programme.

The 187 projects accepted also include 84 multimodal interchanges and a number of bus routes on reserved ways.

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