[FR] Trip to Lyon: Métro, Trams and a great station

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kcp

New Member
Bonjour,

I spent a few days in Lyon. Apart from a lot of sightseeing, I managed to catch some rail-related impressions.

Let's start with the Métro. The network consists of four lines. Lines A, B and D use rubber tires, linie C uses toothed rack rail for a steep section

Métro C

A few pictures from Croix Paquet station show the need for rack rail. Additionally, line C is the only line of the network that is not running completely under ground.

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Some artwork in Henon station

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Métro A and B

Lines A and B use the same rolling stock and are controlled by a conductor. A train of Linie A

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The tail tracks in Perrache (the terminus of line A)

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Some stations had pretty impressive designs: These metal pillars in Debour station give it a nice touch.

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How about a metro under palm trees? Terminus Vaulx-en-Velin of line A.

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Right around the cornder: The maintenance yard for lines A und B.

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At Gare d'Oullins (line B) a piece of the tunnel boring machine used during the extensions is kept.

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This may look like a rusty container, but in fact its one of the entrances to Gare d'Oullins.

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Reminded me of church windows: art work Place Guichard station

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Métro D

Line D has no conductor, it is runnning fully automated and its running much more frequently than line A and B (headways of about 3 minutes throughout the day). The rolling stock has an orange paint job.

A train in station Vieux Lyon located next to the Lyons old town. Right around the corner is the cathedral St Etienne.

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View from the overpass down to the tracks

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A piece of art or just a thing to keep people from climbing between the cars? I have no idea - maybe both.

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Some more pillars: This time made of stone (station Parilly)

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My personal favourite: blue and orange meet in Valmy

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or just blue

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Aéroport Lyon St. Exupéry

A took a friends advice to heart that the TGV station at the airport is worth a visit. In retrospect I fully agree. It was worth the 30 minute ride on the Rhônexpress tram and the 25€ I had to pay for the return ticket.

On the train I was told that there is 4h return ticket for 17€. I had checked fares in advance on the website and booked the ticket online, because there is online discount. Unfortunately, the 4h ticket was not mentioned on the website (or I just missed it).

The station hall

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The red tram in the foreground is the Rhônexpress on its way back to downton Lyon

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Regular guest at the station: Ouigo-TGVs. SNCF low cost trains linking Gare de Marne La Vallée Chessy TGV to various destinations in the south of france

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I spent quite some time there, because I wanted to wait for the sunset to get a glimpse of the station in the dark too. As this took much longer as expected I had to buy expensive airport food, because I got pretty hungry. But the reward was worth it.

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Shot of the interieur (taken more or less at the same spot) at three different times of the day.

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Look down unto the platforms

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Tram

Since the year 2000 trams are running on Lyons streets again. The fleet consists of Citadis 302 by Alstom. I did not like the design of the trains that much.

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My favourite location for tram pictures: The bridge in front of the Musée des Confluence

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I liked the museums architecture: Its quite different from your usual museum complex

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Tram on the wall of Perrache station

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Trams in the green

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All trams but one look alike (I have no clue why this one has a special look. As I did not catch it until the last day of my trip there was no time to check it out some more).

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Mixed stuff

Lyons public transportation network consist of several trolleybus lines and two funicular lines.

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Train of funicular F1 in station Fourvière

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We are going down

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The Fourviere offers a great view over the city: on the left in black the opera house, in the middle in red the Crédit Lyonais tower and on the right the cathedral

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A view up the Fourviere: The basilica Notre-Dame de Fourvière and Tour Métallique de Fourvière

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More or less by accident I stumpled upon these TER tram-trains in St. Paul station. Seems to be the same rolling stock that is used in Nantes

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To sum the trip up some more architecture: The opera house and the headquarters of TV station Euronews

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Thats it for today folks. I hope you liked the report. Looking forward to your feedback.

This was my first trip to Lyon but definitely not my last. The city has a great vibe that I liked from the minute when I stepped off my TGV train in Part Dieu station.

À bientôt
Charly
 




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