September 30-October 2, 2015, Lyon: ‘three days to sketch out the future of public transport in France’
One aspect certainly in need of reviewing is financing for networks and infrastructure. We must focus all our energy on improving the balance of our economic model, which is running out of steam, said Jean-Pierre Farandou, president, UTP (Union des Transports Publics), in the run-up to the event. The Rencontres will also serve to identify all the avenues, to share experiences, and spread good ideas.
Increased travel congestion and pollution in cities are forcing authorities to rethink how to analyse and manage urban mobility, giving priority to public transportation. Other developments of concern are the implications of the recent opening up (note, partial) of the French coach market and the consequences of the energy transition law (adopted on July 22, 2015).
The roomy 14,000 square metres of exhibiton space showcased technical innovations and new services, as well as displaying over 30 vehicles – mainly hybrid and electric buses, cable cars, and bicycles – by all the big names in the business, i.e. Evobus, Man, Volvo, Deitrich, Solaris, Doppelmayr, and POMA. All in all a total of 160 exhibitors signed up for the event.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES – THE WAY AHEAD
Operator Keolis is on a digital mission. One only had to visit its stand to realise how important new technologies are to the group’s global strategy for boosting the appeal and performance of public transport. Just one example, its PlanBookTicket applications is designed to encompass the three stages of a journey: planning the route, purchasing the ticket, and validation.
In the coming years, subsidiary Kisio is set to play a key role in realising Keolis’ vision of ‘connected mobility’, whereby open data, open source, APIs (application programming interfaces), and responsive locomotion [which] entails rethinking transport networks on the basis of contexts, the needs and viewpoints of each traveller. Not the other way round – are the new names of the game. Divided into five expertise hubs, Kisio will develop a portfolio of integrated and modular solutions and services for mobility actors.
RUNNING THE ROADS,& MORE BESIDES
In urban transport, Colas constructs and maintains tramways, bus and BRT (bus rapid transit) routes, metros, and streets. We carry out feasibility studies and propose solutions for BRT projects – mainly for medium-sized towns of between 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants for which a metro or tramway is too expensive, says Michel Vendola, head of marketing & public undertakings, Colas.
Talking with Mr Vendola, Mobility realised that there is much more to road surfaces than meets the eye. They comprise a series of layers and are designed to provide good adherence, he explains. If these layers are not compacted correctly during construction, this is what might lead to potholes in the years to come. The service life of a road depends, of course on its usage, but fork lifts – due to their short, back-and-forth movement – and heavy goods trucks – due to their weight – are two types of vehicles in particular that do a lot of damage to a surface, i.e. accelerating attenuation of its adherence properties.
A subsidiary of construction giant Bouygues, multi-disciplinary infrastructure contractor Colas has plenty of strings to its bow. For instance, under an eight-year facility management contract worth £420 million (€569m), signed in 2013 together with VolkerHighways and URS-Scott Wilson, the company is responsible for maintaining the roads of central London. Furthermore, its rail segment is researching an innovative material possessing qualities between those of concrete and ballast, with a view to replacing traditional railway ballast in the years to come.
CABLE FOR THE CITY?
Moving away from land to air transportation, most striking when boarding the concept cabin displayed on the Doppelmayr France stand is the feeling of déjà vu, déjà vécu, of I’ve been here and travelled here before. The interior, which offers capacity for 15 passengers, of which 10 seated, is equipped with seats, grab bars, and a dynamic display screen all near-identical to those of modern metro and tram systems.
We’ve taken standard components, such as the seats, which come from a bus builder, and fitted them into the cabin, confirms Jean-Claude Georges, commercial director, Doppelmayr France. Such a familiarity factor must surely play in favour of the cable car, especially when seeking to gain public acceptance for operating within an urban context. Alas, it seems there is still some way to go before French cities follow the lead of others such as La Paz, London, Bogota, Koblenz…
Apart from the project in Brest, the only one in France [e.g. Nantes, Béziers] that might see the light of day is that of Toulouse, reckons Mr Georges. Quite honestly I don’t see more than one or two urban systems operating in the country within the next four to five years, he adds, putting this sluggish uptake down to a combination of factors, of which:
- the French are still very much in love with the car – to get them to use park & ride, for instance, is an uphill struggle. This car culture is too strong to let cable into cities
- the generally wide range of transport options on offer
- nimbysm (concerns over noise and privacy), and
- conflicting political and municipal interests
In other markets that have cities with high population densities and less modal choice, the cable car is welcomed with open arms since it opens up mobility opportunities that never existed before, expands Mr Georges. Plus the public and decision makers are less demanding than in Europe, he adds.
While European cities remain largely on the fence over urban cable, fortunately in the mountains the company’s activities are flourishing, with plenty of upgrading and development contracts with ski stations, reports Mr Georges. And no he isn’t concerned by climate change threatening this business segment. There’s still plenty of snow, he reassures Mobility. It’s just the winter season that’s shorter.
This September 2015, Doppelmayr laid the foundation stone in Vietnam for what will be the world’s longest cable car to date in a single section. The eight kilometre-long system will connect the holiday islands of Phú Quốc and Hòn Thơm to the west of the mainland in the south of the country.
TICKETING & PAYMENT – PRESENT & FUTURE
Pride of place on the Parkeon stand was TransFolio, the company’s centrally managed ticketing system conceived to provide the information required to better understand and improve transit operations. Its architecture encompasses ticketing infrastructure, administration (transport organising authorities, operators), third systems (SAE, SIV, etc.), mobility (e.g. park & ride), decison making (reports, data analytics), and customer relations.
The future of ticketing is card-centric, open payment and ID-based, reckons Gabriel Péquignot, sales director, transport business unit, Parkeon. However it’s still proving difficult for agglomerations to convince their towns and cities to offer modular ticketing, i.e. that combines the car and public transport in a single ticket, he adds.
Open payment with bank cards is the way ahead, albeit the switch from other payment media is proving slow on the uptake in France. Yet while paper may be on the wane, more and more cities are offering ‘city passes’, purely with a marketing objective in mind, offering transport together with access to all public city services, e.g. libraries, swimming pool, etc. The continued existence of this kind of pass means the bank card will not become the sole transport medium in the coming years. In any case the classic ticketing system will continue in use for at least another decade.
Click here to access dedicated ITS articles by Mobility
INDUSTRIAL DATA COMMUNICATIONS
Catching up with wireless communication solution provider Acksys, Mobility learned from Pascal Braconnier that the company is currently involved in a pilot of broadband Wi-Fi for passengers on board trams in France. Furthermore it is currently rolling out its equipment for a major high-speed rail project in Europe. Watch this space!
AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, awareness is growing of the need to increase ridership of the public transport system, whose staple modes here are the bus and metro. Situated in a basin surrounded by mountains, and home to over five million inhabitants, air pollution is an issue that is seriously rising. A further driver, 2005 marked the entry into force of Chile’s obligations vis-a-vis the Kyoto Protocol, following its signing in 1998.
In order to offer transportation that is reliable and affordable, more environmentally friendly than the car, and to create a stronger link between poorer districts and places of employment, initial improvements to the existing metro system (5 lines, 108 stations, over 103 kilometres) involved optimising the capacity of trains and their maintenance procedures, as well as lengthening them. Yet despite the gains subsequently obtained, e.g. headway reduced from 105 to 80 seconds, there still remained an urgent need to boost capacity. Hence Santiago Metro’s decision to switch metro Line 1 (opened in 1975) over to driverless operation,
Rendering the line automatic was partly down to French engineering consultancy firm Systra, which was brought on board the project, headed by Alstom, in 2012.
Despite having already worked on a number of other metro automation missions worldwide, e.g. Paris, Dubai, Busan-Gimhae, Ujeongbu, Toulouse, and Turin, each project is different, says Didier Le Roy, head of Santiago project and signalling systems, Systra. Successfully migrating an existing system is the real challenge. Migration must be managed as a project within the project, the strategy established as early as possible and tailored to the needs of the client.
In the case of delays during such an undertaking, it is important to take the time to analyse and understand them, he adds
Systra is currently conducting a technical assistance assignment for testing and commissioning two new automated metro lines, 3 & 6, for Santiago Metro. The company is also actively involved the mega transport projects Grand Paris and Crossrail.
Click here to access dedicated metro articles by Mobility
FLYING HIGH & WIDE
Active in four cable car segments – tourist (e.g. the i360 in Brighton, England), ski, urban, and industry (transporting goods) – the French POMA group has built 8,000+ installations across the globe over the past 80 years.
Cable systems are good for extreme conditions since they continue operating regardless, points out Jean Souchal, president, POMA. Plus, of course, there are all the environmental benefits such as a lower carbon footprint and attractive levels of energy consumption. Price is a differentiator too, he adds. Compared to a tram system, which costs between €20 to €30 million per kilometre to build, cable comes with a more modest price tag of €5 to €10 million.
While certainly not capable of carrying the same volumes of riders as a metro system, cable nevertheless offers a valuable means of mobility, points out Christian Bouvier, vp, POMA. Yet like Mr Georges from Doppelmayr, he regrets that acceptance of this mode in European cities is taking so long!
Every city claims ownership of their urban cable systems through the names they baptise them, says Mr Bouvier. For instance in New York the cabins are referred to as ‘flying buses,’ whereas in Medellin the service is called the ‘Metrocable’.
At the Rencontres, Poma announced it has won a contract worth €62 million to build the first urban cable system for Santo Domingo – three million inhabitants, and growing. Flying over road traffic congestion and twice over the winding river Ozama, the 5km system will provide a welcome, alternative link between the city centre and the north-east of the city, A maximum of 3,000 passengers can be carried per hour, and, importantly, the cabins will link up directly with the existing metro system.
Further to its aerial cable activities, POMA also delivers APM (automatic people mover) systems, e.g. MiniMetro for Miami airport. Furthermore, the group is diversifying into the production of wind turbines, to be manufactured from 2017 in its factories in Rhône-Alps, France.
TRAMWAY NAMED URBOS ST ETIENNE
To encourage its inhabitants to use public transport, St Etienne Métropole (centre-east of France) has invested over €100 million in the city network. In addition to introducing ticket fare initiatives and building a third tram line for 2019, part of this funding is being spent on 16 new Urbos trams by constructor CAF.
Bi-directional (with an eye to future operations), each 33-metre long unit has capacity for 248 passengers and six doors on either side, four of which are double. Francis Nakache, president, CAF France is particulary proud of the 100% low floor credentials of this particular vehicle, given the 2.15-metre metric gauge of the tracks. Achieving this low floor was a significant challenge, he points out.
Click here to access dedicated tram articles by Mobility
As well as ensuring accessibility for all, priority has been given to comfort – Wi-Fi on board plus design by Eric Rhinn from Avant Premère – and safety too. We paid particular attention to the braking performance, which is higher than the standards in force, on the request of our client, explains Mr Nakache. Also the angles of view for the driver are accentuated with the new driver cab, which will become the norm for all our trams henceforth, he adds. Another safety feature for St Etienne is the active protection device to prevent pedestrians from passing under the tram.
Elsewhere in France, CAF’s Urbos platforms are in service in Besançon, since September 2014, and in Nantes since 2012.
The next edition of
‘Transports Publics 2016 – the European Mobility Exhibition’
will take place in Paris on June 14-16, 2016