3. Advantages of the tramway

Compared to the traditional metro

Hardly financially accessible for medium-sized conurbations, the tramway is a winner, despite its lower average speed, because the possibility of building light stations at 200 or 300 metre intervals makes medium-sized journeys attractive, as passengers stay on the surface and don't waste time getting in and out of underground passages.

The construction of a high-speed metro line continues to be justified in very large conurbations. But in medium-sized cities like Nantes, Grenoble and Strasbourg, the cost of building a metro line was around 5 times that of a tramway line on an equivalent route.

Compared with rubber-tyred road vehicles

The main advantage of tramway-on-rail technology is the ability...