Great Western Coffee Shop

I mentioned a while ago (in a quiz) that the Bombardier TVR (or Guided Light Transit) system in Caen had been shut down in 2017, to be reborn as a proper tram. The vehicles were sent off to the only other system, in Nancy, but only to act as donors for spares. That's because the two systems - the only two ever built - were incompatible: one wire in Caen and two in Nancy.

Now the Nancy system has closed down, to be reborn soon as ... not a tramway, after deliberation, but trolleybuses (https://www.sustainable-bus.com/trolleybus-tramway/nancy-trolleybuses-hess/) (which it also was before the TVR). Officially a tramway is still being planned, it's just been impossible to agree on where and how to do it before the current machinery gave up altogether. And the Nancéens are evidently a picky bunch, which is why their system was as it was. Trams, on rails, were ruled out both times round because of the hills. But only half the length of the single line was guided; it was steered not only over the outer parts of the route but at the two points the directions swap sides too. And at one point a long narrow one-way road has trams in both directions! (I'm not sure how that works - they are/were unguided there.) And finally, they had diesel engines as the only way to get to the depot.

Those Nancéens are still being picky, so found only two suppliers to suit their requirements and chose Hess in Switzerland. This time they will have batteries for the off-wire sections (which I think will be longer than before). Odd to think that I've visited Nancy, but both times were so long ago that this thing has been and gone in the interval since then.

So no more of this Bombardier design of trolleybus/tram/thingy. The other version, Translohr, survives in Clermont-Ferrand and two lines in Paris, as well as some outside France. For now.

The Tim Traveller (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr4EZwZbxwQ) has done a Youtube video on this.