INSTITUT Veolia Environnement

• Home
• Report n°6: Urban Public Transport

Report n°6: Urban Public Transport

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Next page

The tram's role in city centre dynamics

The role of UPT/ERW in the dynamics which affect city centres is difficult to grasp. After a period of relative decline in the attraction of city centres, mainly because of the emergence of peripheral commercial poles of attraction and the weak reactivity of a social and economic population in decline (the nature of business and the average age of city centre tradesmen acted in favour of a lack of reaction to consumer desertion of the centres) so that city centres were affected, with or without the tram, by a change in the type of commercial activity (in particular through the establishment of many franchises) in a way that was somewhat comparable to what was also on offer in the periphery's shopping centres. This change was partly brought about by the intervention of local authorities to achieve a regeneration of the infrastructure and of public space and the creation of pedestrian streets and quarters. The pedestrian areas were made accessible by the creation of underground parking lots which made public space more appealing and improved traffic and parking conditions. The dynamics which affect city centres served by UPT/ERWs must be viewed in the light of this general context, which qualifies considerably observations made in the heat of the moment immediately after the entry into service of tramlines.

In Rouen, Strasbourg and Bordeaux, the city centre does represent a considerable share of the commercial offer of the area. In Rouen, as in Strasbourg, the city centre is "worth" 40% of the town's commercial turnover (and close on 30% in Bordeaux, i.e. 600 to 800 million euros per year) as compared to 60% for the peripheral poles of attraction, dominated by hypermarkets.

In Rouen, for example, the city centre is an important part of the town's commercial offer. But it is almost impossible to isolate the tram's role. The commercial offer is stimulated, as measured by the appearance of new shops, in a part of the city centre which is slightly peripheral to the real centre (near the cathedral), but this is in a way catching up with a regeneration movement which had started earlier along the town's two main intersecting shopping roads, which are partly car-free.

However, these changes must be viewed in the light of a city centre revitalisation policy. The arrival of the tram in the city centre at the end of 1994 certainly played a role in the decision taken by the community and the local economic actors to start on a renovation of the shopping area and a little later on the shopping centre on the opposite bank of the Seine. But in this instance also, it is difficult to evaluate the direct effect of the tram on the economic factors. The decline of the Rouen city centre in any case demanded some action to counterbalance the commercial offer in the periphery.

The only analysis of the evolution of commercial activities in the centre of Rouen which would show some signs of revitalisation connected to the tram line concerns a geographic breakdown of changes in shop ownership in a period of time related to the tram. Planning was completed by 1991 and the line entered into service in 1994. The areas directly impacted by the tram increased their share (by 25% on average) in the number of new shops, to the detriment of areas in the more remote parts of the city centre.

• Previous page
• Table of contents
• Next page

• Jump to content

• The Institut Veolia Environnement
  • The permanent staff
  • The Bureau
  • The founding members
• Foresight Committee
• The network of international experts