The extension of the Caen tramway will take a year longer than expected

The Regional Environmental Authority Mission (MRAe) has issued several recommendations to best assess the environmental impact of the project to extend the lines of the tram network in the Caen area. It must be said that the imagined route, which passes within the grounds of the Malherbe high school, requires the embankment of approximately 1,500 m3 of the main bed of the Orne. Work to artificialize the land which will have to be compensated. Caen la mer plans to develop this area upstream of the Exhibition Center. But to validate its project, the community needs to carry out additional studies and an inventory of the fauna and flora. Procedures which will take a full year, requiring a review of the entire work schedule, up to commissioning.

A delay in a context of a sharp increase in the number of passengers

Thus, the start of the public inquiry has been postponed until September 2025 while the excavations requested by the regional directorate of cultural affairs will take place in the summer of that same year. Work to extend the storage center of the Tramway Operation and Maintenance Center will begin at the same time and be completed at the beginning of 2026. As for network rerouting and development work, it will begin in the spring 2026. The commissioning of the network extension is planned for the summer of 2029, a year later than planned.. Bad news as this extension is expected in a context of sharp increase in network attendance. Projections show a 31% increase in attendance on the three tram lines by 2029. This would then increase to 29 million passengers transported each year, compared to 22 million today.