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A lot of the discourse surrounding rapid transit systems, especially in North America, is that some cities are “too small” for a comprehensive transit system or a metro, but Rennes – a French city with less than half a million residents, disagrees.
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46 Comments
Coming from Rennes I can say that the subway had a tremendous cost for the city that habitants payed through tax increase and transportation ticket increase.
Rennes is, as said, a tiny city. Therefore a huge part of the work force comes from the outer skirt which is desperately lacking of public transportation forcing people to use car. The few transportation offered now stop at the relay parking far from the city center, and are operated by a different company. People have then to pay double tickets to reach the actual city which is around 4€ one way.
The relay parking also shows problems: They close at 1 am and every remaining car are taken away, making it impossible to leave your car for a night out, to visit someone or simply during a weekend if you used train to leave the city.
The consequences of that urbanism is a massive gentrification. It had as a main effect to keep suburbs habitants out (which means less access to higher ranked school, medical facilities, interesting job position, etc…) And pushing the lower class out of the city as the habitation tax, rents and transportation fees are getting too high.
The center indeed has less car but the peripheric road is now crowded increasing gas emissions.
Rennes successfully moved it's emission and modest population out of the city but unfortunately it is very far from "the solution" it is presented as…
Meanwhile in Marseille, France (nearly 1M people) we only have 2 metro lines that barely changed since the 70's, cancelled buses everyday and a tram system that pretty much just follows the metro lines but slower
As a french person, I never thought "Rennes" was tiny lmao.
I study in Orleans, and despite "only" having 100k+ inhabitants (288k if you count the suburbs, which are also reached by public transport), the city has 2 tram lines, a great bus system and many bike lines.
Rennes has twice that number (and 457k with the suburbs), it doesn't surprise me that they have a metro.
If you can build a big road, you can build a train too.
not a tiny city, more like a medium to large one
Meanwhile, in the UK any hint of 'integrated transport' gets dismantled. E.g. Aldershot bus station (next to the train station) is now a car park. Yeah, that'll increase public transport use (sarcastic shake of head).
Could we get a video about Prague metro and overall public transport? I think its underrated. Specially the night transport is quite good and connections are done smart.
if you want a small city with metro, check Brescia in Italy
Maybe it's worth considering doing a video on why any public transport system is far more expensive in English speaking countries. Even Ireland has an appallingly bad system and any talk of updating it is ha impeded by cost issues.
As 24yo rennais you can’t imagine how much the 2 lines makes our life easier
Y a ça à Rennes ? Je savais pas. J'irai visiter.
You should also know that all residents of surrounding towns and villages who do not benefit from this metro (up to 30 km) have paid heavy taxes and pay for the maintenance of transport that does not serve them. Everything is very heavily taxed and imposed even when you do not benefit from the services.
I lived in Rennes for two years, and I am currently living in Paris. I have to admit that their Metro system is much better than the Metro system in Paris!
This type of metro has been build for the firt time in my town : Lille , in the north of france , and it was the first automatic metro in the world + security doors as you noticed.
Rennes is not Tiny man… learn geography
It i difficult to have a tram in Rennes because the streets are very narrow in the city center. Bordeaux did this mistake and they now think about a metro. Interesting stuff happening in France are the 'RER metropolitains' for the large French cities, on the same model as the Parisian one (Horizon 2030).
Rennes tiny city ?? Rennes is in top 6 bigger city in french dude 500k pop is insane not tiny
I'm french, i live near Bordeaux, and here the tram as become a symbol of the city. You often see it represented with popular places, like Place de la Bourse.
Northern amercian cities are so behind in terms of public transportation development, it's almost scary. It wouldn't be surprising if they face tremendous difficulties in the future because of that, because public transit system is not something that you can build/set in just a year or two…
Gotta say, as a French, I was expecting a city with 50 000 people tops :/
omg I lived here
Renne's metro system was first designed for the northern France metropolitan area of Lille in the early 80's. VAL litteraly meant "Villeneuve d'Ascq – Lille" at first
For most of Americans our cities in Europe are pretty small to have Public transport System
True story, it is deprecated. In France we used to have tramway in «village» small town. Less than 1000 inhabitants before.😂
We have black and white archive photo of this.
Rennes is in Brittany not France
Small Cities with all necessities Amenities are great place to live . 😊
in what world is Rennes tiny
No way there is an English video about Rennes 😂
I'm French and I just moved to Rennes this year
And yes our metro is really practical
I can add that there is almost a metro every minutes, so don't have to wait, and it's not full of people.
I don't want to give my address but I can see my building in the video 😂😂😂
Wtf do you mean tiny??
Is Toledo, Ohio as a tiny city ? Rennes and Toledo are about the same population size wtf…
well of course it has better metro system then mine, cus mine has 30 inhabitants so i REALLY doubt we will ever experience metro haha
Absolutely right, in france we love complaining about everything but we are lucky even if a lot of people still complain that it isn't enough ;). We have a good public transport system. In the 90's I did my university in Nantes about 1 hours away of Rennes. So in Nantes in the 90's the population was around 250.000 people. we not only had a super bus system but we had two tramway lines, and a new one was starting to be built. Today they have 5 to 8 lines and even more buses.
My actual town is less than 60.000 people and we have a great free bus system and a newly improved cycle roads (bicycle only). Free public transport all day long from 7:00 am to 9:00pm for a town of 43.732 at the last count in 2015. For once I am happy to be french. 😉
But not only France has a good system, look around Europe and you will find some very good if not better.
RENNES MENTIONNED
I guessed it should be Rennes when I saw the title ! That's where I lived for 5 years in INSA de Rennes, an Enginieering institute.
[Here goes a boring story of me and the Rennes metro lines]
When I first arrived in 2007, Rennes was famous for being the smallest city in the world to have a metro system. A 1st line was running, and a 2nd was being planned to pass by the university zone where I would stay for 5 years. I was happy to hear about the news.
Only didn't I expect, was that 5 years later, the only thing I witnessed about the 2nd line, was a neighborhood protest against it, with a group of old people showing photoshoped images of viaduc almost touching an INSA building.
Well, I signed on their paper against the project. Just could not resist. 😂
Fast forward to last year, summer of 2022 when I passed by Rennes with old college friends. We made a stop at INSA, and saw the 2nd line was being tested before opening. The viaduc does ruin the builty of the once pictoresque avenue (des Buttes de Coesmes), but it is far from touching any building at all.
This year I celebrate my 10 years at work. Coincidance or not, I work in a public transport engineering company.
And the 2nd metro line of Rennes is finally running.
Feels as if I were fresh university student again.
yasss i lived in rennes for years and i can 100% confirm it has the best public transport system ive ever witnessed in any city i've lived in. U never wait for a metro more than 6min and can travel accross town in like 20min max. Even the bus system manages to fill the gaps of the metro line and u never have to wait for a bus for more than 10min. its so efficient and suite cheap, i was so intrigued to see which french city u'd talk about and was so happy u mentionned rennes tbh
I remember something more from a case study of Rennes metro at an engineering exam : to stop at a station, the train obviously has to slow down, but instead of simply braking and converting its cinetic energy into (mainly) heat, accumulators are used to convert the cinetic energy into electricity, which allows the system to give the energy to another train that's about to start at the same time, and therefore to save a part of the energy.
(I didn't go on engineering, I love math too much)
I live in Rennes and I can say that our public transport is 💯
a yearly pass in brussels for minus 25 and plus 65 is 12 euros… 1 euro a month, for bus tram and metro, unlimited use, bicycle using is growing quickly, still the city is fully congested unfortunately., by cars. Lots of people are too proud and from origins where a car is still seen as a status symbol, hence refusing to cycle or mount pbulic transport.
Not gonna lie, I kind of prefer rubber tires. I realize they may be worse for the environment, but the screeching of metal on metal is very hard on my ears.
Since when Rennes is a tiny city ?
Wait, Rennes "a tiny city"? Never thought I'd hear that… Ah… 'Muricans…
Wow, that first b-roll is my little tram spot in the beautiful town of Meudon on the outskirts of Paris and that lady is my neighbor. What an amazingly small word.
And still, it could be way better than it is. If our french government wasnt composed of neoliberal politicians, this metro could be free for all, the lines could go even further to reach new area, the bus system could be more frequent and more dense… all this resulting in making the center of the city almost completly free from cars.
ROAZHON!!! Content de voir Rennes reconnue à l'international mdr
"surrounded by lovely public spaces"
shows footage of concrete everywhere.
no, our public spaces are not lovely, they are being covered with fridgin concrete everywhere, and it's horrible, and it frecks up the soil.
please freck off with the concrete.
A random French person who doesn't like such amounts of concrete.
As a student living in Rennes, I have 2 metro station next to where I live, and I just need 15 minutes to go to Gares. Also, Rennes is a tiny city ? It's one of the biggest in Région Bretagne (it's the regional capital !)