Tramscape Tramway Photographs

Lille - Roubaix - Tourcoing, France
Lille is the "capital" of northern France, in the Flanders region and with a long history associated with the textile trade which flourished here and across the nearby border with what is now Belgium. It is part of a conurbation of almost 100 communities, many developed around coal mines, nestling up to the border, the largest of which are Roubaix and Tourcoing. It is now carving out a new image for itself, as a transport hub for new high speed train lines linking Paris, Bruxelles and London, and as a cultural centre, being awarded the status of European City of Culture for 2004.

Six-axle articulated trams acquired from the Vestische Tramways in Germany provided an interim solution to the modernisation of the "Mongy" whilst a final decision on its future was made.

The communal authorities decided to retain and refurbish the line , including the construction of short subways under busy road junctions, and re-equip it with new low-floor trams bought from Italy and put into service in 1994.

Large municipal tram networks developed in Lille and Roubaix/Tourcoing (horse tram lines being inaugurated in 1874 and 1877 and electrified from 1902 and 1894 respectively) but the only line which remains was developed separately to link Lille with it's two main neighbours and opened late in 1909. To this day the line is affectionately known as the "Mongy" by the local population, a reference to Alfred Mongy, an engineer who promoted not only the construction of a wide boulevard from Lille to Roubaix and Tourcoing, branching at Croise-Laroche, but the formation of a company to run trams on a special reserved alignement along it.

Unlike the existing urban networks, and some of the branches off the "Mongy" line, the main axis of the Compagnie L'Electrique Lille-Roubaix-Torcoing (ELRT) was a highly eficient light rail line equipped with large bogie tramcars, covering the approx 12 km to each destination in around 30 minutes. It was an immediate success and the ELRT set about expanding its network with new branches and even the acquisitin of the tram operating company in nearby Armentieres. World War I put an end to these ideas, and in the case of Armentieres, the entire tramway operation, but in 1922 the ELRT did take control of the financially insolvent Roubaix-Tourcoing operation and in so doing extended it's track length to around 120 km. Such a large network proved ultimately to be unsustainable and whilst the main boulevard line and the short branch to Marcq-en-Baroeul were re-equipped after the Second World War, local routes were converted to bus operation in the early 1950s. The ELRT's concession, granted in 1908 expired in 1968, by which time Lille's urban tram network had disappeared, the last tram running in 1966. A successor company was formed to run the Mongy (the Society Nouvelle ELRT) and this company embarked on a renewed modernisation programme, refurbishing the immediate post-war cars, and improving punctuality and reliability with an innovative traffic-light priority scheme.

The efficiency resulting from the reserved alignment and the relative modernity of the trams tipped the balance in favour of tramway retention when it looked as if closure was a real possibility. In 1980 the SNELRT re-equipped once more with second hand trams from Germany when it appeared that the line might fall victim to Lille's committment to it's new automatic light metro technology (the VAL system developed by Matra). The city took the major decision to pioneer this technology for an urban environment in 1975 and by the end of the 20th century had established two routes, being the largest such network in the world. The "Mongy" route was identified as the natural alignment for a VAL line, but ultimately an alternative route to Roubaix was chosen and subsequently extended via Tourcoing to terminate for the time being at the Belgian border.

The cars acquired in 1980 were six bogie cars of the well tested "Grossraumwagen" design of Germany's famous tram maker Duwag, which had operated for the Vestische Strassenbahnen company in the Ruhr area which was in the process of reducing and ultimately closing it's operations. A further 19 operational six-axle articulated cars of standard Duwag design were purchased and delivered in 1982, along with numerous spare parts no longer required by the German operator. 1982 was the same year in which the SNELRT was merged with the main city transport operator (the CGIT) and the new entity became branded under the "TCC" name, although officially COTRALI. The TCC, which was not responsible for the VAL system, continued with the SNELRT's modernisation plans which involved substantial track renewal and improved maintenance facilities and thiese developments took place in tandem with the on-going expansion of the VAL, the first stage of which opened in May 1983. That the "Mongy" was to be seen in the medium term at least, as complementary to the VAL, was illustrated when the tramway was diverted from it's city centre loop to a new underground station at Lille-Flandres station where direct interchange with the VAL system was available.

The second hand German trams, whilst still in decent condition, all dated from the second half of the 1950s and needed to be replaced before too long. Finance was, however, an increasing problem, especially with the city's resources being diverted to the relatively expensive VAL system. Nevertheless, from 1991 a complete renewal of track, overhead (including uprating the voltage from 600 to 750 V), tramstops and rolling stock was embarked upon and a new depot built at Rouges-Barres, situated between Buisson and Brossolette tram stops. The underground terminus at Gare Lille-Flandres was totally revamped, with the old platform area given over to an extension of the VAL line 2. At St Maur and Clemenceau-Hippodrome, stations were relocated into short subways under busy road junctions.

The new 32-metre long platforms are built to a height of 35 cm to allow level access to the new low floor trams ordered from Breda in Italy and styled by the famous Pininfarina design house. The 2.40 m wide trams are "one-offs" and it was somewhat surprising that Lille went outside France for it's cars especially as Alsthom was promoting a "French Standard" car for the new tramways being built in the country at the time. Some commentators have suggested that the cars are noisy and have poor rides and this is because of corners cut with costs on both rolling stock and track work, but operating low-floor cars of this width on metre-gauge track was, inevitably, going to involve compromises and less than perfect results. Despite this, the new trams were in operation from 1994 and Lille, for whom transport operations were vested in the TRANSPOLE company (a subsidiary of Keolis) from May of that year, got itself a new "Super Mongy" in double-quick time.
Photographs

Lille to Roubaix boundary : 1997 : 25 photos
Tourcoing centre : 1999 : 5 photos

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Lille Tramway - Strassenbahn Lille