European Railroad Discussion > French trams in Antigone 34 TV mystery show

My wife likes foreign mystery shows that one of the PBS stations in Los Angeles airs. Antigone 34 is a street address in a Mediterranean coastal city in France (probably the police station). This evening's episode featured (from my point of view at least) the city tramway system, which uses modern low-floor articulated trams. One of the was blue with stylized birds (swallows?) all over the exterior, and another was decorated with multicolored graphics (flowers?). Could this be Marseilles or Nice?

It is set in Montpellier, which has its own modern tram network, so maybe it's filmed on location?

Sounds interesting and made me to dig into subject. Antigone 34 is indeed in Montpellier France. A city with an extensive fleet of Alstom Citadis 302, 401 and 402 trams and soon five tram routes. Model 400 is the typical French tram with over 2000 units built so far. Alstom makes nose sections of trams different from one city to another, probably to make them more interesting and recognized design. And like in France sometimes happens, some of the designs are really quite wild, imagination has clearly been used. Or what do you think about the tram below? It is a Citadis 300 series vehicle from Lyon.

I think the blue tram you mention must be a standard colored Citadis model 402 and the flowered tram Citadis 302. French just love all kinds of mostly colorful vinyls on their trains, trams, etc!

I also added one picture from Grenoble (third below) and another from Nice (second), just to show how different all of these look despite their often common components.

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Thanks for the quick follow-up, or should I say "Merci beaucoup!" That first tram looks like a giant caterpillar, and I notice that the Nice tram has its "pantograph" down and there are no obvious wires overhead. Is this one of the new models that can run on battery (accumulator) power for short distances?

DNRY122 Wrote:
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> Thanks for the quick follow-up, or should I say
> "Merci beaucoup!" That first tram looks like a
> giant caterpillar, and I notice that the Nice tram
> has its "pantograph" down and there are no obvious
> wires overhead. Is this one of the new models
> that can run on battery (accumulator) power for
> short distances?


Yes, the section through the major squares is catenary-free to preserve the look and feel of the public space. The trams have NiMH batteries that can cover about 1 km without external power with all systems running. It's a nice setup and (from what I've heard) less prone to failure than the Bordeaux on-the-ground-third-rail alternative, though I believe that some of the teething issues there have been worked out as well.

Also, the Lyon tram was designed to resemble a silk worm as an homage to the city's prominent silk industry.

The Wikipedia page on the Montpellier tramway shows an overview of the liveries in use. An interesting choice is that a unique vehicle livery was designed for each line, meaning there is no exchange of trams between lines (which from a service planning and fleet management standpoint must be a nightmare). The "flower power" design of line 2 is by far my favorite, by the way.