First line planned for “spring 2025”, postponements for budgetary reasons… The Montpellier bustram is falling behind schedule

This high-level of service bus was due to start circulating in Montpellier “at the beginning of 2025”, but the Métropole confirmed to France 3 a delivery “in the spring”. So, is there a postponement of a few weeks, or is the project on schedule? The four other planned lines are indeed delayed.

All along the construction site of the first B1 line of Bustram, the name of the future high-level bus service in Montpellier, the information panels have been promising for months that the first vehicles will be put into service for “early 2025“.

But on Thursday, December 19, the metropolis of Montpellier clarified to France 3 that the commissioning of this first route between Place de l’Europe and Notre-Dame de Sablassou was planned for “spring 2025“. Without saying if this is a slight postponement of the delivery date, or if the mention “early 2025” was equivalent to the first semester.

In any case, the work is not finished on a large part of the line’s route, a year after the launch of the bulk of the work. Although the majority of the work is complete, it is now time for the final layout of the roads and the finishing touches, particularly on the very long rue de la Vieille Poste, in the Millénaire business district.

On site, some are growing impatient with the lengthening of this work. This is particularly the case of Régis Julietti, who opened a grocery store in mid-2023 on the corner of rue de la Vieille Poste and rue Léonard de Vinci. For a year, cars have no longer passed in front of his business, isolated by the work. “Overnight, I lost 27% of turnover. And that turnover, it’s over there, it’s the cars that can’t turn into my street“, he laments.

According to him, a first date for reopening the street had been promised to him for September. Then finally, the deadline was postponed to December 23. For some time now, he has installed a slate in front of his business, displaying a countdown of the days separating it from reopening to traffic. But on Friday, December 20, behind the “D-3” a question mark was added: “I have no news, no information. I texted again this morning trying to find out“.

Because Régis Julietti has no illusions: given the state of the street, it is difficult to think that it will open in the coming days. “Already in November, workers were asked to give up their leave to return to work during the holidays. They already knew a month ago that December 23 would not be held.“

This B1 line is the start of the planned deployment of what is announced as “a new bus design” by the official project website. Four other routes, in addition to an extension of line B1 towards Castries, must also see the light of day.

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Except that the initial deadline, which anticipated that the majority of lines would be in service from 2025, is ultimately far from being respected. By the end of Michaël Delafosse’s mandate, in a little over a year, only line B1 will finally be operational. Line B2 has, for example, been postponed for the time being to 2027-2028, as our colleagues at The Montpellier Gazette.

The other lines will suffer a similar fate and the work will be spread out over time. “We are in the process of smoothing the program according to other works, so as not to completely block the city“, confirms Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole to France 3. In addition, “iIt is complicated to launch everything at the same time with the budgetary restrictions imposed by the State“.

A postponement regretted by Alenka Doulain, opposition advisor (MUPES) to the city and metropolis of Montpellier. Contacted by France 3 Occitanie, she believes that the establishment of “free service has postponed bustram projects indefinitely“who are nevertheless”exactly what to do” to improve the offer.

The argument is swept aside by the Metropolis, which dismisses any link between the postponement of bustrams and free access. It is justified by a “organizational choice“, especially since “77 tram trains have been ordered“, “which had not been done since 2012“.

With these postponements of the other four bustram lines after 2026, it is in any case a safe bet that their future will be widely debated during the next municipal elections.