WestStart Trip Report: "BRT in Paris"

A trip in January 2002 was planned by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to support the efforts underway for the FTA Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Demonstration Program. This was an information-gathering trip, so trip delegates met with Paris transit officials, BRT vehicle manufacturers and the Ministry of Transport.

The focus was on understanding how the French authorities and manufacturers relate and perform testing for the vehicle reliability, performance, lifetime as well as how they establish test protocols and verification protocols. The main technology under review was the in-situ Rubber-Tired Tram testing conducted in France in Val-de-Marne, a suburb of Paris. That project is called the Trans Val-de-Marne (TVM) Bus Demonstration Program. The intent was to capture lessons learned from the French regional transport operator, RATP, and the manufacturers of the vehicles planned for the test. Although safety and certification of these systems was touched on, it was not the main topic for this trip.

A second objective was the review of the Paris Mobilien Project. Mobilien is a BRT plan for Paris and the suburbs in Ile de France. The trip participants received briefings on Mobilien plans and status. The RATP hosts took the trip participants on a brief tour of an express bus while operating in revenue service on an exclusive right-of-way that is part of the Mobilien network.

CALSTART participated in the trip and prepared a trip report to summarize the information. For more information, please contact: Fred Silver, Director, New Business Initiatives, WestStart-CALSTART, 2181 E. Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107; email: fred.silver@caltrans.org; Phone: (626) 744-5600.