A tram from the TCL network in Lyon.

(Illustration) -

Caroline Girardon / 20 Minutes

  • In 2026, three new tram lines should be put into circulation in the Lyon metropolis: the T6 north, the T9 and the T10.

  • Bypass lines, some in the project for a very long time, which should make it possible to serve forgotten and isolated districts and towns.

To see them circulate, it will take a few more years.

But the various projects, some expected for fifteen to twenty years, finally seem well and truly on track.

This Monday morning, the elected representatives of Sytral, the organizing authority for Lyon public transport, have approved the construction of three new tram lines in the metropolis.

These projects, which will be submitted this year to the consultation of local elected officials and residents, all meet a common objective: to open up neighborhoods and municipalities that have been forgotten in recent decades by the development plans of the TCL network and for some very isolated despite their proximity to Lyon.

The Doua campus better connected to the center of Villeurbanne

The most advanced project, the T6 North should be the first to see the light of day at the start of 2026. This operation, valued at 140 million euros, will connect in 19 minutes, in the continuity of the current T6 (Gerland -Hospitals East), the hospital center East (Bron, Lyon) at the Doua campus in Villeurbanne.

This 5.5 km bypass line should have 12 stations and cross Villeurbanne, serving in particular the Grandclément district and Gratte-Ciel.

It will also offer students a direct link between the huge campus and the city center of Villeurbanne.

The tram will be connected to metro A and to tram lines T1, T3 and T4, to Rhônexpress and to bus line C3.

About 55,000 travelers per day are expected on this link by 2030, according to Sytral, which provides for a four-week consultation on this project in the spring.

The work should be carried out in 2024 and 2025.

Villeurbanne will also see another colossal project start in the coming years: that of the T9 tram.

This 10.5 km link should have around twenty stations between Vaulx-en-Velin / La Soie (metro A) and the Doua or Charpennes campus, or even both, the final route to be finalized at the end. of the consultation phase.

The whole challenge of this project, long awaited by local residents, is to serve the Buers Nord and Saint-Jean districts in Villeurbanne and Grande Ile in Vaulx-en-Velin, which are poorly served today.

A line awaited for decades by the Vaudois

This line will cross Boulevard Laurent-Bonnevay and the Jonage Canal and will also be connected to one or two metro lines (depending on the route) and several tram lines.

From 27,000 to 36,000 travelers per day are expected by 2030 on this link, the cost of which is estimated at 224 million euros, according to Béatrice Vessiller, second vice-president EELV of the Métropole de Lyon and elected to Sytral, who presented this report Monday in union committee.

Once the consultation has been carried out at the beginning of the summer and the final route has been validated, the feasibility studies should be carried out this year and the work should start in 2023. “This is a very important project for Villeurbanne and Vaulx-en-Velin “, Estimated the elected ecologist, which was soon to join Hélène Geoffroy.

Elected in Sytral and mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, the latter recalled the strong expectation of its citizens for this project.

"This line has been expected since the creation of the Zup Mas du Taureau in the 1970s", she stressed.

Saint-Fons finally served by a strong line

To the south of the metropolis, line T10 should also be put into service in 2026 between Vénissieux station and Gerland (Debourg / Halle Tony-Garnier), via Saint-Fons, with a journey time of 24 minutes.

These 7.4 km will cost the mixed union around 200 million euros.

An essential investment, recalled Monday the elected ecologist of Sytral, Jean-Charles Kholaas, also vice-president of the Metropolis.

“This is a very important project which serves a city almost forgotten by public transport for a very long time.

It is a great project for the inhabitants who will be 10 minutes from metro line D in Vénissieux and line B in Gerland.

It's a revolution for them, ”he said.

For this line as for the other projects, the development of the tram tracks will be accompanied by the requalification and revegetation of the public spaces crossed.

The promise of simplified daily journeys and a more pleasant living environment supposed to offer a real alternative to the private car, an ambitious leitmotif of elected environmentalists.

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  • Tram

  • Transport

  • Public transport

  • Tcl

  • ecology

  • Lyon