THE second light rail line to be built in the city of Brest in the western Brittany region of France entered service on February 14, following an official opening ceremony the day before presided over by the city’s mayor, François Cuillandre.
Line B runs for 5.1km from Brest railway station via the city centre and the university to the teaching hospital at CHU La Cavale. There are nine intermediate stops, including Liberté where interchange is provided with light rail Line A.
Services run from 05.00 to 01.00 Sunday to Wednesday, and between 05.00 and 01.30 from Thursday to Saturday. The service frequency is every 10 minutes.
Line B has taken three years to build, including the construction of two new bridges, reflecting Brest’s location on the River Penfeld. The Toullic-ar-Ran Bridge is 56m long and 15m wide, and the Francis Le Blé Bridge which 205m long and 12.25m wide. The existing Villeneuve and Clémenceau bridges have been reinforced and widened to accommodate the new light rail line.
Line B has cost a total of €225.5m to build, of which the greater Brest authority has provided €168.4m. Funding has also been provided by the French government, the European Union (EU) and the Loire-Brittany Water Agency.
T6 extended in Lyon
A 5.4km extension to light rail line T6 in Lyon also opened on February 14. The line runs from Hôpitaux to La Doua with 10 new stops. Interchange is provided with light rail line T3 at Villeurbanne, metro Line A at Gratte-Ciel, and lines T1 and T4 at La Doua.
The end-to-end journey time is 20 minutes and 23 new drivers have been recruited to operate the extension. It is expected to carry 55,000 passengers a day in 2030.
The total cost of the project is €175.8m. Following preparatory and utility diversion work, main construction began in January 2024. The installation of overhead electrification equipment began at the start of 2025, with tracklaying completed last autumn enabling testing to begin.
Track was laid with low-carbon rail, comprising 97% recycled material and reducing emissions by 1.84 tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of rail produced. Low-carbon concrete was employed for sleeper production, using a small-scale facility that avoided over 14,000km of lorry movements.
Other measures to reduce environmental impact have included planting 500 trees and providing channels beneath the track that enable rainwater to drain away naturally. Installed over 8ha or 55% of the new alignment, this measure helps to prevent the pollution of water courses and reduce water treatment costs, with the project receiving €2.4m in funding from the Rhône-Mediterranean-Corsica Water Agency.
For detailed data on European light rail projects, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
