Thread by @fuenareva

On the year 2000, the city of Nancy🇫🇷 opened its TVR. The 1st ever "tram on rubber tires" seemed a promising new form of public transport

In March 2023, the Nancy TVR, the last system of its kind, will be shut down

This public transport "fail" well deserved a visit & thread📸🚎

TVR stands for "Transport sur Voie Réservée", although it is also known in English as GLT Guided Light Transit

Conceived by 🇧🇪 company BN in the 80s, it was finally developed commercially by Bombardier in the 90s

The bi-mode vehicle can run on a guided track or without guidance

TVRs are hybrid, able to run on electric ⚡ mode & with a diesel ⛽ auxiliary generator

40% of the route is actually done with manual driving (no guidance rail), but all of the line is driven under ⚡, at least on normal circumstances

Diesel mode is for rides to depot & detours

One of the supposed advantages of the TVR system was the flexibility, but as much as the vehicles can "de-cable" anywhere, the procedure to "reattach" to the guiding rail can only be done on places specially adapted for it.

🎥 Short video of the "dropage" (dropping the guiding wheel) manoeuvre at Essey Roosevelt stop

The vehicle stops, lowers the steel wheel and then proceeds slowly

The device on the floor centres the guiding wheels (2 for each axis) and "realigns" the TVR as it passes through it

🎥 Another short video of the manoeuvre at Callot stop

Let's continue the thread with a compilation of videos and pics that I took as I explored the single-line TVR network at Nancy 🚎

My day started at Nancy Gare, where the TVR has to navigate a couple of tight curves.

The TVR at the "Vandoeuvre CHU Brabois" terminus loop.

The vehicle attaches itself to the guiding rail, just for the reversing procedure.

Note the temporary bus stands already installed at the ending stop.

The TVR will end, once and for all, its short life of service on the 12th of march.

While works are underway for reconverting the infraestructure into "normal trolley", a temporary bus line will operate.

🎥🚎 The TVR running full speed and downhill near Doyen Roubault stop.

We could say that here, one could confuse this #gadgetbahn for a trolleybus. And still, it insists on calling itself a tram 🤷🏻‍♂️

The views are quite nice from the top of the Avenue Jean Jaurès, that climbs Brabois hill from Nancy

The steep incline of this street (up to 13%) was one of the reasons that tipped the balance, in the 90s, in favour of rubber-tired trams. Rubber beats steel on (only?) this issue

🎥🚎 Up up up the hill ↗️

🎥🚎 Down down down the hill ↘️

These rather suburban neighbourhoods get a really good service, with a "tram" roughly every 7 minutes on weekdays.

Note the the lower part of the Avenue Jean Jaurès is made up of just a single lane.

The TVR may have to wait for the opposite TVR to cross first. Not ideal, but I guess that local mayors were unwilling to take away parking spots 🙄

🎥🚎 One TVR waits for another one to clear the way, before it continues downhill.

🎥🚎 Another shot of the short single lane section at Avenue Jean Jaurès.

Note how the overhead wires don't merge. The flexible trolley offers this possibility that simplifies aerial infrastructure.

Ceci n'est pas un tram

A fairly standard stop setting at Mon Désert.

Between Kennedy and MON Désert stops, construction works forces the westbound TVR into the "wrong" track.

(Note that the works here seem rather long-term, since overhead wires were also moved to the other side)

The TVR in non-guided mode proceeds slowly through the temporary two-way track.

Once the closed sections ends, the TVR returns to its right track.

However, it must use a specially installed surface on the track to "drop" the guiding wheels once again and continue on guided mode.

🎥⚙️A fairly good quality video (the light helped) of the guiding wheel (called galet in French) joining the track at the temporary Zone de Dropage after the construction site

Note the hard noise of the 1st contact, which apparently has even lead to complaints of local residents

Error 404

Aiguillage not found

I guess this is one of the places where the funding for future TVR expansions just ended.

🎥🚎 TVR number 20 running between Kennedy and Nancy Gare stops.

Note how, even on the guided areas, and particularly on curves, the ride can get a bit bumpy.

The comforted seeked by rubber tires was never achieved.

Uh, eh, normal buses? That's boring 😂

5 km/h limitation as the TVR departs from Nancy Gare stop.

[this thread will continue tomorrow 😴]

The trip continues, riding the TVR all the way to the eastern end of the line at Essey Mouzimpré.

Note how they is a passing track on the left, but a single set of wires above the vehicles 🤔

🎥🚎 Slow departure from Essey Mouzimpré

🔎 close-up look at the guiding wheels

One of the TVR units on its way to the depot, powered by the auxiliary diesel engine.

Guided mode in one direction, manual mode in the other one.

Near Essey Mouzimpré terminus, one can see one of the main disadvantages of these rubber-tired systems.

The wear of the wheels on the pavement is rather problematic. Passing exactly through the same part of the asphalt over and over again creates such wear.

Ironically, curves can be taken with higher speeds when driving on the non-guided mode, like here in Essey Roosevelt.

One of the (few 😅) advantages of this system over a regular trolleybuses, is that the guiding allows for exact location and ensures the the vehicle is as close as possible to the platform.

Level boarding ✅♿

Of course, in this somewhat retro vehicle, tickets are also a bit retro 😅

Magnetic stripe tickets, it was a long time since I last used one of those.

The 24h ticket costs just 3,90€, and on weekends (like many other french provincial cities) public transport is free.

Some pics of the inside of the vehicle.

The interior design is quite ok, but those big chunks (probably the wheels) at the rear of each module are very inefficienct when it comes to space usage (classic #gadgetbahn). They also make the corridor between modules rather narrow.

The information screen and line map, on the other hand, are really good and easy to read. As tends to happen almost always in France 👍🏼

🎥🚎 A rather lucky shot of two TVRs crossing each other, just west of G. Barrois stop.

As much as the TVR may look cool, nicely integrated in a pedestrian street, don't forget: this is a #gadgetbahn. An unnecessarily complicated system.

Nancy had trolleybuses. They scrapped them 23 years ago. And now they're getting rid of the TVR to bring the trolleybuses back.

The promise that such a system would be cheaper, was not kept.

Furthermore, the (lack of) reliability of the TVR is one of the main reasons for its dismantling.

And that's without even talking about the whole issue of it being a "licensed" product, property of Bombardier.

#Gadgetbahns may look quirky, or cool, but we need public transport that is efficient, not simply cool.

And with this clarification/rant made, let's end the thread with some night photos…

🌃📸🚎 Some night shots of the TVR, near Cathédrale stop.

Well, that was fun Nancy.

The TVR, what in the late 90s seemed a futuristic mode of transport, will end up its short existance in 2023.

Ironically, the replacement chosen for the TVR (trolleybuses), is the mode of transport that the TVR was meant to overcome 🙃

🚎 /ends/ 🚎

P.S. It's 2023, and the receipt of @ReseauStan tells you that a day ticket worth 3,90 € would be 25,58 French Francs. In 2023. 🤷🏻‍♂️😂

P.S.bis

I went to Nancy for the TVR, but I ended up discovering a really beautiful city!

Place Stanislas, Nancy, at night.

So elegant. Absolutely beautiful.