Talking about trains in Nice is a sensitive topic. In fact, between the regional trains that are insufficient in number and often delayed due to the overload on the outdated line, and the high-speed trains that are only high-speed in name… Nice and its region remain a tangled mess not easy to unravel.
As Prefect Alfred Colrat rightly said in his speech, and as can be read on the faรงade, the train station in Nice was built in 1865, five years after the city was joined to the former Empire. Today, plans are presented for 2030, 2050…
In the meantime, while awaiting a railway line worthy of the name, Nice will have a comfortable station in a better location than the previous site, which was in poor condition.
Yesterday’s inauguration in the presence of authorities makes available to travelers a forecourt entirely dedicated to pedestrians with shops and a branch of the Tourist Office, while waiting for a direct connection between the station and the tram, which will also be pedestrianized.
Furthermore, with the development of the Villeneuve-Durante underpass, a new pedestrian connection between the neighborhoods to the south and north of the railway line will be facilitated.
For Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice: “This pedestrian forecourt requalifies all the public spaces of the site. It is the third public space in Nice, after Massรฉna and Garibaldi squares. This place must become a place of life and not just a place of transit, an area open to the city, which will not just be a station.”
Other lateral redevelopments have been carried out to facilitate and streamline the passage of travelers, from 7 million today to 11 million in 2020 according to forecasts.
The cost of 61.5 million euros was shared by various stakeholders, with SNCF, the PACA Region, and the NCA Metropolis being the main contributors.
