Angers down town is recovering from the tramway line works

Ralliement square (Credit Picture Angers city)

Sometimes, future is different of what is foresaw. Since the beginning of the works on the Angers first tramway line in march 2008, it was said that the stores located in down town would not survive to the difficulties for pedestrians or drivers to come, to walk or to park one's car during the works. On the opposite way, the same stores of down town had feared that the opening of L'Atoll, the giant commercial park, near Angers, would definitively ruin their prospects of good turnover.

But, first, the pedestrians who left down town Angers for shopping between march 2008 and june 2011, came back. According to a survey of the Maine et Loire Chamber of Commerce and Industry realized last November, "Even if a decrease of the number of passers-by is noticed between 2009 and 2010, the flow increased again and even reached a peak with 311 823 daily transits". More : the flow of pedestrians is more important in some streets than it was before the trolley, that's particularly true in Roë street. And the passers-by are more numerous in the bottom of the left bank than they were formerly.


On the opposite, it was widely predicted, even by the stores owners of Angers down town, that L'Atoll would hurt their turnover. According to some observers, the commercial park recorded a good affluence on the first weeks. But recently, the activity would have slowed down. One element could explain that trend (even if the management of L'Atoll foresees 6 millions visitors while only 3 were predicted) : the offer of products and services which is not very different of what it was before L'Atoll because many stores already in Angers joined the commercial complex.