(France )SAINT-ETIENNE

Saint-Etienne
Saint-Etienee first tramway line opened in 1882 and was electrified after 1887; the historical network was articulated in many routes in order to connect the city center to Raspail, le-Soleil par Chateaucreux, La Riviere, La Terrasse and Bellevue districts; in years '20 another connection to Firminy was completed.
At the beginning of years '30s network total lenght was about 80 km, with 38 millions passengers carried per year. After the second world war many lines were closed, as weel as in many other european towns; however, in years '70s Saint-Etienn, Lille and Marseille were the only French towns to mantein at least one tram line (and Saint-Etienne was the only one with a radial route passing through the city center).
The elder line 4 (La Terrasse-Bellevue) was modernized (new Alstom rolling stock) and extended in 1983 (up to Solaure) and 1991 (up to Hopital Nord): nowadays it carries 70.000 pax/day (45% of the public transport ridership).
Works for a new eastern branch (2.5 km of new tracks from Place du Peuple to Gare TGV de Chateaucreux) have been completed in October 2006; it created a second line (line 5) sharing most of the tracks with the existing line 4. This new branch reinforces Chateaucreux role as multimodal point and trade center.
STAS (official site)

CHRONOLOGY
17-02-1983	Bellevue–Solaure (L4)
07-12-1991	Terrasse–Hopital Nord (L4)
06-10-2006	Peuple-Chateaucreux (L5)

Country	France
Line	Ligne 4, Ligne 5
Inhabitants	City 180.000, District 320.000
Date opening	1983
Future development:	--
Length (km)	11.8
Track sections	ground level (Line 4: 9.3 km; Line 5: 2.5 km)
Stops	33 (Line 4: 27; Line 5: 25), average distance m 350
Platforms	--
Platform doors	--
general characteristics	height cm 35
n. of vehicles	35
n. of cars per vehicle	3
Type	steel wheels mono-directional
Vehicle dimensions (m)	length 29.4, width 2.30
Vehicle capacity (pax)	178 (52 seated)
Frequency	3'/10'
Current/Voltage	overhead
Guide/gauge	metric (1000 mm) gauge rails
Speed Km/h	Comm. 16.5, Max 70
Accel./Decel. (m/sec2)	--
System capacity	--
Ridership	70.000 pax/day
Total cost	30 M Euro/km (Line 5 without further rolling stock)
Staff	--
System builder	ALSTOM
Model	TFS
NOTE	--