FRENCH engineering consultancy Systra announced on January 14 that it had been awarded a contract for project management on the first two sections of Lyon tram line T4. Totalling 9·5 km, these sections are expected to cost €177m.
The contract has been awarded by Lyon transport authority Sytral. Detailed design is to get underway immediately, with construction starting in mid-2006. As lead contractor, Systra will work with civil engineering and trackwork builder Arcadis and architectural consultants Attica and Ilex.
Due to open at the beginning of 2009, the first phase of Line T4 will run from an interchange with route T2 at Jet d’Eau via Avenue Berthelot and Boulevard des Etats Unis to meet Line D at Gare de Vénissieux, where a new interchange is planned. The second section to open by the end of 2009 will run from Vénissieux to the densely-populated suburb of Les Minguettes. There will be 18 stations, including two park-and-ride interchanges. Sytral plans to order 13 trams to provide a 7min interval service.
In the longer term, T4 will be extended north from Jet d’Eau to the main station at Part-Dieu, where interchange will be provided to tram route T1 and the Lea line to Mézieu expected to open at the end of 2006. On January 19 Sytral held a ceremony to mark the start of work on Lea, for which three contracts have been awarded to Alstom (RG 9.04 p524). The company is supplying 17 km of track for €28m, 10 low-floor cars for €24m and signalling equipment worth €2m.
- Sytral expects to open the first three stops on its 1·8 km extension of route T1 in October (RG 1.05 p14), but the new terminus at Confluences will not open until reconstruction of the museum it serves is completed in 2007.
