Trams in France After World War II, nearly all of the urban
tramway systems in France disappeared completely, leaving only
three network torsos in Lille, Marseille and Saint-Étienne. But
then, the tramway came back, beginning with Nantes in 1985,
followed by Grenoble in 1987, Paris in 1992, Strasbourg and
Rouen in 1994, Montpellier, Orléans and Lyon in 2000, Bordeaux
in 2003, Mulhouse and Valenciennes in 2006 and finally Le Mans
and Nice in 2007. More systems will open in the next few years.
In this way, France boasts about a quarter of all new tramway
systems built worldwide since the eighties. Nearly every French
agglomeration will have a guided mass-transit system in a few
years. Together with the implementation of the new tramway
systems, general strategies for the urban transport planning in
France have changed completely during the last twenty years. New
structures for organisation and financing of urban public
transport were created. The construction of new French tramway
routes went in nearly all case