With 31 000 travellers per day, the Angers tramway traffic may not be a record

During its first months of running the Angers tramway has transported 31 000 travellers per day. Is that figure, announced by Bernadette Caillard-Humeau, the indication of a success or not? The answer to that question depends on the affluence recorded in cities having the same size of Angers (148 000 inhabitants). Clermont-Ferrand, Le Mans, Nancy, or Valenciennes are points of comparison because they only have one line of tramway.


In Le Mans (143 000 inhabitants) for example, the tramway transports around 45 000 passengers per day on a larger line, 15 km (Angers line is 12 km) with 30 stations (25 at Angers). In Clermont-Ferrand (148 000 inhabitants), the tramway transports 45 000 persons a day while in Valenciennes, a Northern city smaller than Angers, the unique line tranports 29 000 passengers a day. In Nancy (106 000 inhabitants), the average number of travellers is 50 000 persons daily.


So its not sure the Angers tramway does better than the others. But it's not sure the traffic will not increase. On some part of the line, especially between Avrillé and Angers, the wagons are quite empty. The affluence is more important inside the Angers town itself. According to some business man and inhabitants, a route linking the industrial zones of Beaucouzé and Saint-Barthélémy, through the Belle-Beille and Saint-Serge campus wouold have been more buoyant. Suggested by the economic authorities of Angers, it could never take place.