Patrick ALLEMAND
President of the “Changer d’Ere” group and Vice-President of the Paca Region:
The route of tramway line 2 presented on Wednesday by Christian ESTROSI does not solve the fundamental problem: the service to the western neighborhoods.
By ending line 2 at Saint Augustin, Christian ESTROSI is simply following the route planned by Jacques PEYRAT, minus the service to the port of Nice.
The Mayor of Nice has chosen not to serve, in the short term, the Moulins neighborhood, the Charles Ehrmann sports park, or the Nikaïa Palace, even though they are one of the main East-West travel axes within the city.
This is a serious mistake. It is unacceptable that these neighborhoods are excluded from the tram network by 2013.
For the Nice committee of the Alternatifs: Catherine Sackur, spokesperson, Bruno Della Sudda, former city councilor and leader in the March 2008 municipal elections
“With a haste that has become customary, the mayor of Nice decrees the route of the future line 2 of the tramway to pass through the Promenade des Anglais.
For more than ten years, the Alternatifs have been in favor of a tramway primarily serving an East-West axis from Ariane to Moulins. They remind the public authorities of the commitments made to first complete line 1 towards Ariane and La Trinité by passing through the Hospital Pasteur.
While line 2 is also essential, the main thing is that it connects the Port and the Eastern neighborhoods to the Moulins neighborhood and the administrative center.
The Alternatifs recall that a consultation has already taken place regarding the route of the future line 2, and, without initial hostility to the idea of the Promenade des Anglais, they warn the mayor of Nice against any authoritarian decision: the population must be involved in the decisions, as democracy requires!"
For the Nice committee of the Alternatifs: Catherine Sackur, spokesperson, Bruno Della Sudda, former city councilor and leader in the March 2008 municipal elections
Jean-Christophe Picard
Departmental President of the PRG
But what is Christian Estrosi doing?
While Christian Estrosi had announced launching a new debate—outside of any legal framework—on the extension of the tramway network, he has just delivered his conclusions on this issue based on the report he commissioned from a consulting firm.
Worse, he continues to ignore the public consultation—which is a procedure provided for in the urban planning code—that took place on the same subject from January 15 to March 31, 2007, and whose report was completed on June 18, 2007. This document has mysteriously disappeared from the Canca website.
Relying on this amnesia, which he no doubt wants to be collective, he pulls projects out of his hat that had already been announced at the end of the public consultation: extension of line 1 to the La Trinité station, creation of line 2 to Saint-Augustin, building a dedicated bus line to Cagnes-sur-Mer while waiting for the tramway.
In fact, the only novelty is the announcement of the tramway passing through the Promenade des Anglais. However, this scenario had been formally rejected in the public consultation report for several reasons: “impact on the tourist events that usually take place on this segment”; “less service for residences and businesses”; “impact on car traffic: where will they go?”; “the dedicated site ‘prefigures’ the tramway.” Therefore, the report concluded: “the path through Avenue de la Californie, very consensual, is the one that appears ‘natural’.”
Consequently, we can only regret the method used, which consists of making citizens believe that their opinions will be taken into account while leaving everything to be decided by a consulting firm. Especially since the retained solution is precisely the opposite of what the population desired!
