Three months of consultation for a controversial gondola lift project in Lyon

This "urban cable car" project between the municipality of Francheville and Lyon arouses the opposition of neighboring municipalities concerned by some of the four routes defined by feasibility studies, such as the LR town halls of La Mulatière or Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon , as well as several groups of inhabitants.

But the Mixed Syndicate of Transport for the Rhône and the Lyon conurbation (Sytral) wants to highlight the strengths of the project, such as the possibility of crossing the Rhône, the Saône and the "contrasting relief" of western Lyon to open up a road saturated with automobile traffic.

Sytral and its president Bruno Bernard, also ecological president of the metropolis of Lyon, judge this mode of electric transport as "the most suitable" to meet the needs of these municipalities and the imperatives of appeasement and ecological transition, even if he recognizes "obstacles" such as the presence of imposing pylons and an overflight which can pose a problem for residents.

Ultimately, this cable transport costing 150 to 165 million euros is supposed to provide 59.000 daily trips between Francheville and the south of Lyon for a journey time of 25 to 30 minutes from one end to the other. of the line.

The consultation announced on Monday provides until mid-February 2022 to collect the opinions of citizens on the advisability of the project, the possible routes, the different technologies envisaged, the principles of insertion of stations and pylons, but also on the possible alternatives, such as the high level service bus (BHNS), also called electric trolleybus.

In front of the press, Mr. Bernard assured Monday that his "conviction that this project (of cable transport) is the good one is not worth a decision", and that its realization would depend on the results of the consultation.

On the internet and in town hall, registers have been set up to collect observations, opinions or contributions and public meetings will also be organized in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Francheville, La Mulatière, Lyon 2 and Lyon 7, specifies the Sytral .

The results of the exchanges carried out under the supervision of two guarantors appointed by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP) will then be sent to the Organizing Authority for Mobility in the Lyonnais Territories (AOMTL), which will replace Sytral on January 1, 2022. The latter this will decide in the spring of the continuation of the project.