Barriers closed, curtains drawn. At Strasbourg station, access to the lower floors has been impossible since Saturday. Since two trams collided at the stop which serves this popular place of passage. The collision took place in an unusual way: a train went backwards from the rise leading to the city center, only to hit the one in front of it which was still at the platform. Results: 68 injured “in relative urgency”, according to the official count from the prefecture.
Three days later, traffic has still not returned to normal. Whether at the station, or at the nearest stops, no tram A or D runs. Replacement buses have been put in place on each side and allow travelers to take full advantage of the network. Finally…
“We must continue to live”
“It’s often full, there’s little space,” notes Chérine without complaining. The young girl admits, she has been “a little scared all the same” since this accident. “I am a regular on the line because my grandmother lives on the other side of the station. Now that it’s happened, we say to ourselves that it can start again,” she explains before taking a tram again. “I have no choice anyway, I will continue to use public transport. »
A little further on the square, Odette faces the same obligations. “We have to continue living and hope that it doesn’t happen again,” says the retiree calmly, visibly not more shaken than that. Unlike Bogdan, annoyed by the subject. “It’s very worrying, how could this happen with all the safety standards that exist today? », he asks without knowing the latest details of the investigation.
The general director of the Strasbourg Transport Company (CTS) gave initial explanations on Monday. The train at the origin of the accident did not have a device preventing it from going backwards, Emmanuel Auneau told Here Alsace. “It’s a train that dates from the 2000s, and this system did not exist at the time. [Mais] it is fully compliant and approved to circulate on the network. »
Soon “the extraction of the oars”
“So now they’re going to equip them all!” », Reacts Bogdan, strongly hoping so. The CTS has not communicated on the subject, just as it has not given a date for traffic to return to normal. “Several days will be necessary to restore circulation of lines A and D at this station,” she wrote in a press release on Saturday.
-It will already be necessary to extract the two damaged trams still on site… Here again, the timetable is not fixed but could quickly accelerate. “The technical teams were able to start this morning (Tuesday) preparatory operations for their extraction (..) Several days will be necessary to clear them from the tunnel,” the company wrote. Which also offers, to all victims of the accident, the opportunity to come and recover any forgotten personal effects.
Two investigations are underway
On site, that is to say at the lost and found service located at the Rotonde park and ride facility, few people have so far shown up. It was still very calm this Tuesday. “Like yesterday”, according to the very numerous agents on the ground. It’s indeed difficult to miss these fluorescent yellow and orange vests at the Homme de Fer, Gare and Rotonde stops. Everyone is there to guide the passengers, most of whom are a little disconcerted by the changes. “But we adapt,” smiles a traveler 20 Minutes. She will still have to take a moment: “a normal resumption of operations does not seem possible before the end of January”, indicated the CTS this Tuesday evening.
Two investigations have also been opened. One by the prosecution “on account of involuntary injuries”; another by the Land Transportation Accident Investigation Bureau. A long analysis work is already underway. Technicians “walk through the tunnel on the part that goes towards Place des Halles, and look at all the traces, on the rails, on the installations, to try to understand,” Emmanuel Auneau further detailed. “Secondly, they will analyze all the technical data recorded by the tram. We call it a black box, to know if the brakes worked properly, which button the driver pressed…”
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The two tram drivers, in fact, “were not injured, but they remain very shocked by what happened”, wrote the CTS again this Tuesday following its exceptional Social and Economic Committee. As much as this accident.
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