2.4K 
Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its outstanding ensemble of intact 18th century architecture and streetscapes, Bordeaux is also home to a fleet of sleek modern trams that roll through the postcard-perfect avenues and boulevards. Somehow these trams don't look out of place, as the ancient Aquitaine capital has been at the forefront of transit technology and innovation for more than 135 years. Today home to an extensive modern streetcar network that is equipped with 44 kilometres of track spread across three distinct lines served by 74 cars, the Bordeaux Tramway boasts one of the world's only "wireless" electric street rail systems. The homegrown ground-level power supply in use throughout the city centre is part of a legacy of innovation and invention that dates back to 1880. An integral part of the success of Bordeaux's current tramway network, the technological legacy left behind by the city's original system left valuable lessons not only for today, but for generations to come. This edition of Once Upon a Tram will explore the fascinating history of the Bordeaux Tramway, looking to its past, present, and future.
Begun in 1880, the Tramway de Bordeaux, or Bordeaux Tramway, was first constructed throughout the city centre and riverfront as a means of reliable transportation for the growing city. Though the trams were pulled first by horses and then for a short time by steam engines, Bordeaux's experimentation with electric street rail began early. The city's innovative approach to delivering power to its sizeable fleet became a marker of Bordeaux's inventive spirit for years to come.
Designed from the start to run without overhead wires, which the public viewed as an eyesore then as now, especially in as picturesque a setting as Bordeaux, local French engineers came up with a system of subterranean power delivery that involved burying electric cables directly beneath the trackbed. The system essentially provided power for a hidden "third rail" to which cars were connected via a mechanism known most commonly as a "plow." The arrangement was similar to modern slot car tracks or model train sets, and allowed cars to travel without need of cumbersome overhead wires while keeping pedestrians, horses, and other creatures safe from the hazard of electrocution.
Before long, however, early technical issues with implementation and the more cost-effective nature of traditional overhead transmission lines caused the underground conduit supply system to give way to a hybrid system whereby new lines built outside of the city centre used overhead wires, a move that required the bulk of the fleet to adapt to using both systems simultaneously. Viewed in operation above, the hybrid system quickly came to define the Bordeaux Tramway along with several other similarly equipped networks that were by then running in Paris, London, and New York.
By the early 20th century, the Bordeaux Tramway had grown significantly, with a network that included 38 distinct lines spread across 200 kilometres of electrified rail that carried more than 160,000 passengers per day at its height. Criss-crossing the historic city centre, traversing several ancient stone bridges, and whisking suburban commuters to and from work, the Bordeaux Tramway operated for nearly 80 years, coming to an end in 1958 after a decade of decline and gradual abandonment in favour of the motor coach.
Following the Second World War, at a time when streetcar networks around the globe were being dismantled to make way for the automobile, Bordeaux's longterm Mayor Jaques Chaban-Delmas — who was in office from 1947 to 1995 including stints as both Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly throughout — made the decision to abandon trams upon election, and gradually phased them out over the course of the 1950s until the day of the last tram run in 1958. Visible in the colour photograph below from the early 1960s that was captured from a similar vantage to the colour postcard included above, it was not long before all evidence of the Bordeaux Tramway was lost, as the tracks were pulled up and the transmission lines removes, then the streets paved over to make way for cars and buses.
With its once marvellous tramway abandoned in favour of "progress," Bordeaux entered into a decades-long civic debate about which direction the city ought to take in terms of the future of mass transit after the limits of a bus-only system became evident within years of its debut. With city streets clogged with buses and cars, and the once beautiful edifices of Bordeaux's historic city centre besmirched by soot caused in large part by car pollution, the coming decades witnessed a progression of public thought about how the city should proceed. With the mayor not willing to give an inch, and a proposal dating to the 1970s to build an underground metro coming to nought thanks to Bordeaux's troublesome sandy soil, the city would have to wait until the election of their first new mayor in 50 years to begin planning their next move.
Beginning in the late 1990s, Bordeaux once again embarked upon the design and construction of a citywide electrified tramway. The modern successor to the original network operated in many cases along the exact same routes that had been abandoned more than four decades prior, with a system of power delivery highly similar to that which had first been invented in the city at the turn of the last century.
Today comprised of a comparatively diminutive network consisting of just 44 kilometres of rail spread across three lines, and with a much stronger focus upon commuter travel, the modern Bordeaux Tramway still functions in a similar fashion to its predecessor. A popular sight on the streets of Bordeaux, the sleek dark blue trams contrast nicely against the stately 18th century edifices of the historic city centre, bringing together two technologically disparate worlds.
Built between 2000 and 2003, the Bordeaux Tramway has been a runaway success, and the city is now embarking on a series of expansion plans for the network, including the addition of a fourth line, "Line D," which is set to open in 2017. Today part and parcel of the highly urban metropolitan culture of numerous French cities and towns from one end of the country to the other, light rail has entered the civic consciousness of French urbanites once more, and the current generation is more than happy to travel in much the same way as their parents and grandparents before them.
SkyriseCities will return soon with a new edition of Once Upon a Tram, which will take an in-depth look at the transit legacy of a city near you. In the meantime, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below. Got an idea for this series? Let us know!
