planned for this year, the new Tzen 4 line will be put into service several months late

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According to the schedule initially announced, they should have already been in the testing phase on their dedicated route between Corbeil-Essonnes and Viry-Châtillon, but none of the 24-meter bi-articulated buses, which must equip the new line Tzen 4 in Essonne, has not been seen driving on the roads. Scheduled for the end of this yearthe commissioning of the line aura several months late.

Bus manufacturing at a standstill for six months and the bankruptcy of VanHool

And for good reason, while the first bus of the line was delivered to the Corbeil-Essonnes operational center last December, only four others out of the 30 planned have been delivered sincereports Ville Rail & Transports.

A few months after unveiling with great fanfare at the BusExpo show in Brussels, its new 100% electric ExquiCity bus, designed with Kiepe Electric and Alstom, intended to equip the Tzen 4 line, the Belgian manufacturer VanHool filed for bankruptcy on April 8, 2024.

The company was indeed taken over by its Dutch competitor VDL Groep, but the latter decided to abandon the bus component from VanHool to focus solely on the coach part.

A new manufacturer ready to take over

Enough to put Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) in a delicate situation. The Ile-de-France transport authority has invested more than 41 million euros for the purchase of buses.

A sum to which are added the approximately 123 million euros put on the table by the Île-de-France Region, the Department of Essonne and the State to finance the infrastructure works.

IDFM succeeded in finding an agreement with new partner to resume production, in this case the Hess company.

However, the Swiss manufacturer has, for the moment, no access to the 25 buses that remain to be delivered, stored in the VanHool factory in Lier, in the province of Antwerp.

According to Ville Rails & Transportsan agreement currently being finalized with the curators appointed by the Belgian courts could unblock the situation.

The CHSF underground car parks must be reinforced

To this hardware problem, there was also a setback in the deployment of the own site.

“During the preparatory work, the slab covering the underground car parks supporting the road dedicated to buses (and emergency vehicles) on the site of the South-France Hospital Center (CHSF) was identified to be reinforced in order to support the passage of buses in complete safety”, explains Île-de-France Mobilités tonews Essonne.

According to the organizing authority for Ile-de-France transport, additional work will take place during the year 2025 to resolve this hazard.

Line 402 buses will run on the Tzen 4 site in early 2025

Less late than bus production, the Tzen 4 own site will be put into service at the beginning of 2025 with the same deviation as that currently used by line 402 to serve the South Paris Hospital Center.

“Users will therefore benefit from a clean site allowing them toimprove travel conditions on the territory. This will also mark the end of the work for the towns it passes through,” says IDFM.

Enough to ease, at least a little, the wait for 26,000 daily users of the 402the busiest line in the greater suburbs, but which has reached saturation and which the Tzen 4 must replace on its central section.

Several months, even a year late

Highly awaited by usersthe Tzen 4 promises comfortable and efficient journeys thanks to buses with more capacity (140 people) and more frequent, but also thanks to dedicated lanes on a majority of the 14 km of the route.

If at Île-de-France Mobilités we do not wish to bring forward a new date of entry into service, it will certainly be necessary wait several months, even a year to see the new Tzen 4 buses transport the approximately 40,000 daily passengers expected between Viry-Châtillon, Grigny, Ris-Orangis, Évry-Courcouronnes and Corbeil-Essonnes.

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