STRASBOURG – Beautiful City – Beautiful Trams

The French city of Strasbourg (Ai??Ai??populationAi??Ai?? 276,867Ai??Ai??Ai??Ai??in 2006),Ai??Ai??which its historic city centre was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, decided in the early 1990’s toAi??Ai??build a modern tramway system,Ai??Ai??using theAi??Ai??innovative and attractiveAi??Ai??ADTranz Eurotram rolling stock .Ai??Ai??In 1994 Line A opened, with a north-southAi??Ai??route running from Hautpierre-Maillon (north-west) to the city center (where a tunnel section runs under Gare Centrale railway station) to the south, passing through the main hospital, the stadium, the university and Baggersee suburb). So successful was Strasburg’s initial light rail line that it was extended in 1998 from Baggersee to Illkirch Lixenbuhllatter and with more lines to come.

Line B-C started its operations in 2000; their track is articulated in 3 branches converging in the city center (Place de la Republique). Line B runs south (Lingolsheim terminal, opened in May 2008 after Elsau-Lingolsheim extension) – north (Hoenheim Gare), While Line C connects suoth-western (Elsau) to south-eastern (Rodolphe Reuss terminal, opened in August 2007 after Esplanade-Rodolphe Reuss extension) areas. Line B and C serves many important urban polarities, the tramway depot area (Elsau), the university (south-east), the congress center (north), the suburbs of Schlitigheim, Bischheim (north) and Ostwald, Lingolsheim (south).

Line E opened in 2007 running from Baggersee (south-east) to Robersau Boecklin (north-east), serving the European Parlament.

Line F should will open in 2010, as the urban section of a new tram-train line connectin the railway station to Entzheim airport and to Vallee de la Bruche (Gresswiller, Mutzig) and Piemont des Vosges (Obernai, Barr) agglomerations; LRT and tram vehicles will share the existing TER Alsace railway tracks by 2014. Line F will connect Gare (with a new tramway surface stop) to Robersau Boecklin (serving the European Parlament) and Vauban, running along part of Line B-C (Homme de Fer-Republique section) and Line E (Republique-Wacken) tracks.