Chaos with the new T5 trambus: students and parents are desperate!

Chaos with the new T5 trambus: students and parents are desperate!

On September 1, 2023, the T5 trambus was officially launched in Nîmes. It is hoped that its introduction will provide faster and more efficient local transport between the city center and the suburbs, in particular by connecting Nîmes with Langlade via Caveirac. The trambus is intended to be an answer to the everyday challenges of public transport, which is often overloaded, especially during rush hours. That sounded promising, but the first problems arose from the first day of operation. According to a report by midilibre.fr, Caveirac students struggled with delays and overcrowded buses as some drivers did not stop due to the high number of passengers.

Tango, the operator of the trambus, initially announced that it would deploy an additional vehicle at 7:04 a.m. from Clarensac from September 4, 2023 to improve the situation. But this vehicle also arrived too late and was overcrowded, so not all of the waiting students could be taken. This led to dissatisfaction among parents, who regretted that only one trambus was available instead of the previously existing five buses, which was seen as insufficient for the high number of students at rush hour. Many hope for a quick solution to the problems and an improvement in the reliability and efficiency of the new transport system.

Test phase and challenges

The introduction of the Trambus T5 is planned as a test phase in which user acceptance will be monitored. The service is active Monday to Saturday, between 6:15 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., with a frequency of 20 minutes during peak times and 30 minutes during the day. To improve connections, shuttle buses have been set up to take travelers to Clarensac, Saint-Dionisy and Saint-Côme. According to lereveildumidi.fr, there are lines N51 and N52, each of which offers additional stops and is intended to make it easier for users to use the connection to Nîmes.

The overall goal of the T5 project is to reduce car traffic and promote the use of public transport. Around 20,000 vehicles per day use the D40, highlighting the need for better public connectivity. Park-and-ride parking spaces will also be created at certain stops to increase the efficiency of the system. Although the situation looks promising, the positive picture is currently clouded by the difficulties encountered in the first week.

Ready, set, go!

The hope remains that the problems, particularly those with ticket validation, will be resolved soon. Many families report difficulties where the tickets do not always work despite correct payment. Tango has already announced that it is working on solutions to improve user experience. The introduction of the T5 trambus could be a decisive step in the right direction in the long term, even if the first few days were a rocky road.

Overall, it remains to be seen how this project will develop further. The feedback from the first week is an important lesson for Tango to plan the next steps and really make the new system a success. midilibre.fr and lereveildumidi.fr continue to report on developments in the area of ​​public transport in Nîmes.