On Tuesday evening, during an extraordinary conference, the President of the Nice Côte d’Azur Agglomeration Community and Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, explained the reasons.
“On Tuesday evening, we received a message from the Technical Service of Cable Cars and Guided Transport: the organization in charge of tramway safety in France. This message indicated that an incident had occurred in the air conditioning network of the Grenoble tramway, causing a small explosion due to the overheating of electronic components. As a safety measure, all Alstom trams with the same air conditioning model, including those in Nice, have stopped their air conditioners.”
A communication problem
Last week, the first technical incident occurred in Grenoble with the air conditioning. Risks were taken, as it took more than 8 days for the information to reach the ST2N.
Crisis management
1 out of 2 trams, without air conditioning (8 trains out of a total of 16), was the situation Ligne d’Azur had to face. Not all trains are equipped with the same air conditioning systems.
The solution found was to alternate an air-conditioned train with a non-air-conditioned one. Traffic disruptions ranged from five minutes and thirty seconds to eight minutes, and up to 1 hour by the end of the evening. Drivers were instructed to open all the tram doors at each stop to circulate air.
Return to normal expected Thursday evening
Since Wednesday evening, the trams are being serviced by Alstom at a rate of 4 per day.
Initially scheduled at 2 per day, CANCA negotiated for a faster repair timeline.
