About the territorial conditions of regional tram systems. Some case studies in France

Xavier Desjardins Maître de conférences – Université Paris 1

Panthéon-Sorbonne CRIA – UMR Géographie-Cités

Introduction

• Why is it so difficult to develop efficient railway services in french outer suburbs ?

Mulhouse Regional tram in the city centre

Introduction

• Hypothesis : the morphology of the french outer suburbanization is (most often) unfavorable to rail

Two parts : 1) A comparison between Kassel and five french

same size agglomeration 2) An assessment of four decades of outer

suburbanization in three french urban areas from a rail-oriented development perspective

Imitate Kassel ?

Kassel Rennes Tours

Railway or tram stations

57 23 31

Daily stops 2706 294 304

Railway services an ordinary working day – September 2011In a radius of 25 kilometers around the limits of the agglomeration

Methodology• The example of Kassel and five french urban areas

• Corine Land Cover data base on land use – 25 kilometers around the agglomeration– Two types of land use

Kassel

Agglomeration Urbanized settlements, partly or totally located less than on kilometer from the railways Other urbanized settlements

Angers

Agglomeration Urbanized settlements, partly or totally located less than on kilometer from the railways Other urbanized settlements

Dijon

Agglomeration Urbanized settlements, partly or totally located less than on kilometer from the railways Other urbanized settlements

Le Mans

Agglomeration Urbanized settlements, partly or totally located less than on kilometer from the railways Other urbanized settlements

Rennes

Agglomeration Urbanized settlements, partly or totally located less than on kilometer from the railways Other urbanized settlements

Tours

Agglomeration Urbanized settlements, partly or totally located less than on kilometer from the railways Other urbanized settlements

The size distribution

(Out of the agglomeration in a radius of 25 kilometers around the agglomeration limits)

« Adhérence » of urbanization to the railways

Density

Conclusion about territorial conditions

Second part 40 years of outer suburbanization and the railways corridor : a growing mismatch ?

Population in 2006

Amiens Rennes Strasbourg

City center communes 136 105 209 613 272 975

Suburbs 25206 72937 167289

« Periurban belt » 112504 289203 198406

… in « railways corridor » 56179 124055 112580

… out « railways corridors » 56325 165148 85826

Total 273 814 571 753 638 670

Amiens Rennes

Strasbourg

Share of the population growth

Share of the building permits delivered in communes in the railways corridor during the last decade

Amiens Rennes Strasbourg

Population into the corridor in 2006 56179 124055 112580

Density of population into the coordor (inhabitants per km²)

90,9 147,9 217,1

Population into the corridor if all the growth were located in the corridor

67086 214227

145180

Density in that scenario … 114,1 255,4 280,0

And if …

Conclusion

• A relative indifference between job and residential location and railways corridor

• Spatial effects of outer suburbanization are different in Alsace, Bretagne and Picardie

• Effects of decentralization of building permits to commune in 1982 ?

• Things could have een different if regional planning would have been more efficient : a result important in a country whose population will grow quickly (8 millions of housing have to be build before 2030)