I’m French and I would have never thought that Rennes could be considered “tiny”

From a German perspective it sounds absurd that someone could think that a city of a few hundred thousand people could be "too small" for public transport. One of the cities here which is famous for its good public transport is Karlsruhe with "only" 313,000 people.

Interesting case: Toulouse with 1 million inhabitants is currently building around 30 kilometers of subway while it already has 20 km of light rail and 27 km of subway

Rennes is a city with a lot of students (this explains why the metro runs late :) ). This is the same for my home town: Toulouse, we also have a Val metro system (larger than the Rennes one I think) with 2 lines and we are currently builing a new 23km long line.

I find it so hilarious that an isolated, car-free mountain village like Wengen, Switzerland, has trains that run more often and more reliably than anything in the US or Canada 😂

Brings back memories of a discussion I had with the deputy mayor of London (Ontario - population 400,000) 25 years ago about protecting a transit right-of-way when doing a major development project. His response: "We're not as big as Toronto. We'll never have a subway." Sigh...

Rennes line b cost US $1.4B, only $100M/km! Despite being 85% underground. In comparison, Montpellier, France, built its 60km long system for the same cost. Rennes chose to have less but higher quality transit coverage, which is as valuable. Fun fact, 30 years after the initial opening of its system, Toulouse, another French city smaller than Edmonton AB with 2 VAL metro lines just started the construction of its first 27km 80% underground heavy metro line, it is set to open in 2028. A 2.7km 2 stations extension is also under construction on one of the existing line to allow better connections with the new one! So Paris isn’t the only French city doubling the size of its existing metro system !

And here's the thing about Rennes doing all this: Mayor Henri Fréville wanted the return of the city's tramway which had been dissolved by his predecessor Yves Milon in the 1960s, but the public didn't like this because of it not being car-centric. And when Charles de Gaulle visited, he remarked "When you have a million inhabitants, you can have your metro". Then the 1980s came along and Mayor Edmond Hervé wanted a new system to solve congestion and after several studies, Line A opened in 2002. Rennes and other smaller cities like it show you don't need a million to have a good Metro system, no matter what de Gaulle says. Charles may have been a war hero and good strategist, but even a strategist like him underestimated Rennes. If the Rennes Metro can move hundreds of thousands of riders a day, easily so could an American or Canadian small city. But what brings it all together is land use. With the right transit-oriented development, not to mention street design to handle excellent bus and bike lanes, a lot more people will switch to walking, biking, and taking transit!

I'm from Rennes, and let me tell you, we LOVE our metro. Everything is thought around it. When and where you go out, where you live, where you do groceries... I know maybe 3 or 4 people max that owns a car and it's for really specific reasons (a nurse, a delivery guy, etc). The metro runs till 1h30 on Thursday cause it's the day when students party, and it's like, a whole thing. And for the part of the city that's not covered by the metro, there's a huge bus system, and it's mainly big supermarket and things like that. God I love my metro. Thanks for talking about it

I am from Slovenia. Our capital Ljubljana is about the same size (300.000 urban inhabitants, 500.000 in the wider metro area). Besides an outdated bus network it practically does not have public transport. It used to have a tram system in the early 1900's, but it was destroyed after WW2 because it was deemed uneconomical. There was a lot of talk about building a new urban railway system, but the ideas were put off since Ljubljana was always deemed to be too small for such a system. I wish we would take a look at examples such as Rennes and Lausanne and learn from them. Slovenia (and the wider Balkans area in general - think about the never realized projects for a Zagreb or Belgrade metro) really needs to step up efforts to enhace transit. Otherwise, we'll suffocate in endless traffic jams in the motorway - which are getting worse every year!

Hi RM Transit ! I'm French student and i'm living in Rennes. The opening of the second metro line in Rennes last September changed the daily life of thousands of Rennes residents. In addition to being very modern, its regularity, cleanliness and efficiency really make mobility a revolution. Rennes is a medium-sized city, so you can cross the 4 corners of the city in a very short time and thanks to very well thought-out connections. It is a real impact for everyday life, studies are being carried out but it is estimated that more than one inhabitant in two uses the metro for their daily journeys. It is important to note that the city is also very well equipped for cycle routes, which makes it a second factor in sustainable mobility. Rennes is a city whose good quality of life is partly due to mobility which is very accessible and developed. It's a huge cost for an average city which is not as big as other French cities, but it's an investment that pays off for the economic attractiveness and sustainability of the city !

Having grown up in Rennes during the 1rst line construction, this video is very special to me. Thanks Reece!

4:47 the Korrigo card is even better ! It work with EVERY transit option in Brittany. From bus to train and ferrys. Many french régions have cards like that, and it extremely cool. I've been 10 days there and it change so much your transit experience

Yaaaaay Rennes ! I take both line everyday and they're very convenient.

Here in France, half the cost of your work season ticket/monthly or annual pass is paid by the employer, making it even cheaper

A few facts to complement this interesting video * When line A was build, I heard Rennes was the smallest city in the world to build a subway line * Line A was very successful and attendance actually exeeded the forecasts, thus accelerating the building of line B

Victoria and Halifax have a similar metro population size as Rennes, and I think they would both benefits from a two line automated metro! In the case of Victoria, one line could connect downtown Victoria to Langford via the Uptown area of Saanich, which that municipality has designated as its urban core. The second line could connect central Victoria with the airport and ferry terminal via UVic with a transfer station at Uptown!

Basel Switzerland has a population less than 200,00 and has wonderful public transportation! I was so impressed!

I don’t know to what extent this is actually true, but I remember hearing that one of the main reasons why Rennes built a metro rather than a tramway system is because the streets in the historic city centre of Rennes were considered too narrow for trams. I suppose they could’ve built a tram line underground in the city centre and above-ground elsewhere, but then they would have spent money to dig the tunnel without getting all of the benefits of automated metro. I also once read that Rennes doesn’t sprawl out much further from where the metro lines were built, so there wouldn’t be any need to build (expensive) extensions of existing lines. In other medium-sized French cities with tram networks like Strasbourg and Montpellier, they often open new extensions of existing tram lines every few years, and this can be done affordably since trams are cheaper to build.

The metro of Rennes (more like 1h30 by TGV to//from Paris) is GREAT ! The thing with VAL systems is that they can have extreme frequency, like 60 seconds, which even with the best regular types of metro trains is quite difficult to achieve (and without reducing speed). The rubber wheels also help to gain several seconds of travel between each station. They offer more precise stopping and given the much increased acceleration and braking capabilities, it enables very short train spacing while maintaining speed. The VAL lines in Lille, Toulouse or Rennes can move tons of people with 1 minute frequencies at peak with small trains. A "normal" steel wheeled train would require a larger infrastructure and longer trains to move the same number of passengers. "Normal" trains would also be heavier, as the rubber wheels on a VAL allow for less axles to be motorized while retaining better acceleration. So, VAL : snappy, precise, lightweight and small footprint. That's the right choice for a metro with frequent stops, winding path (in all dimensions, they climb easily high gradient ranps from tunnel to elevated) and smaller tunnels in an old city. Paris metro can go as low as 80 seconds between departures on some of its automated rubber lines. But the steel wheel ones are limited to 100 seconds (1min40) at the very best. Toulouse's 3rd line currently being built will use Alstom Metropolis trains on steel because station spacing is increased, the line is less winding, will serve as a semi-circular / tangential link and it will not require such high frequency as the 2 lines with smaller footprint that run in the center. Most underground parts will be semi-deep bore and turns have a wider radius than the 2 first ones. As for the acceleration, I've recently used Paris M11 with the new MP14 trains : tourists have the ride of their life... It was a strike and quite amusing to see a whole group losing balance due to the strong acceleration. They then help onto bars like koalas onto an eucalyptus tree.

Line B is the first urban implementation of Neoval, marketed by Siemens today. That technology incorporates the Translohr single rail guidance system, but the central guiderail sits proud of the roadbed unlike the embedded street track version used elsewhere. The two rails either side of the guiderail are power conductors carried on insulated supports. The vehicles have moderate capacity traction batteries onboard which allow them to negotiate quite large conductor rail gaps through junctions, saving cost and complexity. They can also move around depot yard areas safely without the need for comprehensive conductor provision throughout and the reliability of the system as a whole is boosted by this feature as they can move through significant lengths of track where the power has been isolated, either deliberately for maintenance or during failure or emergency scenarios.

Rennes choose VAL deliberately. On this occasion rubber tyre or low vibrations was a key planning rule. The core thing to remember above Rennes VAL is a Medieval city and a city of pre roman heritage. A tram system was considered but decided against. VAL isn't really gadgetbahn it prooved itself in Lille and Toulouse. It is a more cost effective micro metro than say the Scarborough RT line in Ontario or Vancouver's Skytrain both of which have their merits. I think Rennes prooves that VAL works as solution to an issue (small city, small trains, less vibration, shallower tunnels) like an airport people mover Rennes VAL shifts people across the city efficiently and given it is a city with a young demographic there's a large percentage of non drivers in town and its only 2-3 hours from Paris with onward connections leaving Rennes University and businesses very accessible to the rest of France and it's Northern neighbours (even London is within 8 hours by rail, or an overnight Ferry and less than 2 hours by rail connection. The port of St Malo being virtually an outer suburb of Rennes less than an hour away by TER train)

0:16 In 1959, Winnipeg hired Norman Wilson of the Toronto Subway to design the Winnipeg Subway. All that's left now is to build it 😅

A tramway was initially proposed before the construction of line A, as it was cheaper than VAL. But it was eventually discarded because of height differences around the main train station, which made it difficult to integrate a tramway there, as well as the city center streets being too narrow. The French Wikipedia article on Rennes' metro has a good explanation on the topic.

I was a student in Rennes when the first metro line was built in early 2000s, at the time it became the smallest city in the world to have a metro line. The tram was not chosen because of the historic center, so an underground Val was chosen instead. The digging took years and cost lots of headaches to the engineers as some streets collapsed in some areas while digging, they had to be ultra cautious in order not to make old buildings fall to the ground. They also had to dig under the river and canal. Once it was finished, it was all joy for users, we had so much fun riding at the front window during the famous Thursday student parties. At the same time, they modernised the main place downtown and made most of the centre car-free. There were obviously opponents to this remodelling but they stayed firm. Before that, we also had free public bikes, the system was financed by JC Decaux, now all the bikes are rental bikes.

Thank you for an extremely informative video. Perhaps the most important point is the cheap fares completely integrated with other modes of transport including buses, local trains and even hire bikes! Almost every urban 'agglomeration' in France over a quarter million population has some form of railed rapid transit, usually modern tram or metro + tram. The only exceptions I can think of are Toulon, and Metz. (Metz has Bus Rapid Transit.) Nancy has ordered 25 double-articulated trolleybuses to replace its ill-fated TVR 'gadgetbahn'.

I'm from Rennes, great to hear about the city on your channel ! In France all cities are trying to ban cars out of city center because of pollution (visual, noise and air) so we try to have bus, bikes and metro/tram even in "small" city. As public transport are public : no shareholders, no profit expected = the subscription fees are not too expensive

3:00 Party in Rennes ? Not a single chance your heard that Rue de la Soif (nickname of Rue St Michel, namely Street of Thirst) in Rennes had the denser Bar packed in a single street of France I presume 😂 So going there and getting by public transportation is mandatory 🎉

Romania isn't known for good transit, but Cluj a similarly small city started building a metro line.

The fares are low in France, but some of the costs are transfered to the private sector. By law, half of the cost of a public transport subscription paid by and employee must be paid by the employer. That's why in Rennes or anywhere in France these subscriptions are pretty low. The population is a bit low (200'000) but Rennes is also one of the fastest growing city in France. Large universities and a lot of tech companyies have changes the city and its suburbs in the last 40-50 years. So you build for the city, but you also take into account population grow. One last aspect, population density is key when making the choice between bus/tramway/metro. I'm not sure comparing the population of a city in Canada and in France is relevant. City centers are heavily packed in France.

For its first line Rennes made the choice of a Métro an not a Tram because : - Tiny streets in downtown (near the city hall and St Anne place) - 10m difference in altitude between the north and south of the main SNCF station A tram would have been underground for several stations like in Rouen.

The Brescia Metro is a little jewel. You should try also the Perugia mini metro. Perugia also sports a dense network of public escalators, hosted in medieval vaults under the hill the city is built on. Spectacular.

Toulouse is also a great example of almost exactly the same type of system. A third metro line is also in construction in addition to the existing 2, extensive bus and tram routes as well as the new aerial tramway. It was also the first city in the country to get full 4G metro coverage in 2017.

Historically virtually every city/town in America with a population greater than 10k had at least a streetcar of some sort.

My city which now has an official population of 285000 in 2021 and is growing rapidly, had a very useful streetcar system that connected the industrial center to downtown to the suburbs where the owners lived, and to the worker neighborhoods, and to the local amusement park. This was in 1914 with a population of 56000. If this existed now my mother would be able to get it from her back door to half a block from my house. Instead now she has to drive the 1.5 miles(2.4km). With massive population growth in our downtown this would be amazing now. Fun fact, many of the tracks still exist and can be seen in deep potholes which are caused by heavy cars and trucks driving these routes now. I say they tear up the layers of poorly laid asphalt and but those trams back!

I lived in Lille for about two years. And they have the same automatic system. I NEVER waited for transport for more than 5 minutes. Ever. Was super happy with it. (Yes it didn't cover the entire city) but it worked well for most trips I would want to make.

400 000 is BIG for Europe, in Poland id expect a city of this size to have at least trams and some sort of S-bahn

Reminds me of Bilbao, in Spain. 350,000 inhabitants, 1 million in the greater metro area. Has 3 metro lines (97 million passengers in 2019 with 49 stations), a tram line, multiple suburban lines (narrow-gauge & broad-gauge) and even a funicular.

Is saw comments saying 400000 is big for Europe. That's right BUT it is not big for the USA. However, 400000 inhabitants, overall (it takes account the urban area, not just the city) is unusual for a metro system, even in Europe and I think that's the most important. Rennes managed to build a cost effective and efficient subway system adapted to its size and requirements, which is great. Rennes metro is one of the most reliable automated metro in the world: 99.7% of reliability for line A (which is the best score in the world with Turin) and 97% with line B after only one year of operation. Line A only got this score at its fifth year!

The integrated regional ticketing is what makes the PASMO system so extremely useful in Tokyo: one fare card to access all the private railway, JR East and subway lines in that city. This is something the whole New York City metro area should adopt, with one payment card to allow access to all subway and commuter rail systems easily.

The shot at 7:44 is so nice!!!

“Hour of TGV ride” should be the new standard unit for distance.

A city of a similar population size with solid rapid transit is Jersey City with the PATH system, which also goes to Newark, Harrison, and Hoboken from NYC. It pre-dates the NYC Subway's first underground line as it was planned in 1874, but it was not possible at that time to safely tunnel under the Hudson River. Construction began on the existing tunnels in 1890, funding ran out, and then resumed and opened in 1908. The goal was to connect the NJ waterfront with NYC as before the dominance of NY Penn Station, railroad companies had their terminals on the NJ side of the river, and thus the H&M Railroad was meant to connect them all (a branch to Communipaw Terminal in what's now Liberty State Park was proposed but didn't happen) and make it easy to cross. Jersey City has four stations on the PATH, and thanks to the convenience of the PATH to NYC on top of Hudson-Bergen Light Rail having multiple stops downtown, Jersey City's downtown district has experienced exponential growth. On weekdays, the PATH has four services, between Journal Square and 33rd Street (yellow), Hoboken and 33rd Street (blue), Hoboken and WTC (green), and Newark and WTC (red). However on weekends, there are only two services, with the blue and yellow services combined to go from Journal Square to 33rd via Hoboken, and the red line staying as is. So those in Hoboken who want to go to WTC would have to transfer at Grove Street.

Great video! As a former Rennes inhabitant, I need to add also that Rennes has an efficient bus network with good frequencies, some buses at night which replace metro and a (kind of) BRT project with 4 lines! Initially, they wanted to build at least 1 tramway line besides metro but they transformed the project into a BRT network.

Winnipeg really could use rail transit tbh

Nice video ! Although if I remember correctly being tiny was one of the reason given for a metro, Rennes being considered as more dense than many French cities like Bordeaux, Toulouse, especially new trams pioneer Nantes

We’re building our fifth tram line here in Montpellier! Two TGV high speed train stations and massive road building for bicycle lanes. 25 years of investing and never stops

So glad RMTransit finaly talk about my hometown! 😃

That's the thing that bums me out about America so much, II don't exactly want to live in a bigger city, but there's basically no chance of having a remotely useful transit system unless you live in a big metro, and even then you should live closer to the center. I'd love to live in some kind of street car suburb or village that's got easy access to the big city nearby while being more peaceful and quiet. Living in LA, I think if we re-zoned the entire metro area to have much denser city centers for all the cities in LA, and reduce road widths to prioritize buses and bike lanes to shuttle people to the center, then we could slowly but surely rework the city back to what it was before it got so sprawled out.

We have ok public transport in the Netherlands but every time I watch videos that name the price I’m shocked. For the price of the year pass of this metro you’ve barely felt one city for a month in the Netherlands. It’s crazy expensive.

having lived here I can confirm that Rennes has a great public transit system. the metro is fast and clean, busses have a good range to outer neighborhoods with large Time schedules on morning and evenings and they have a revenue-based discount for young, students (there are about 50 000 students in rennes), elder ppl and poor families

4:00 “double cross design” is definitely one way of describing that metro system’s shape

It’s not about the total population of a city or metro that drives ridership, it’s about the population within the catchment of the line. I’m not surprised that the Rennes metro lines have ridership similar to the Canada line, as it looks like they are pretty comparable in terms of length, capacity, and density of development it travels through. Sure, metro Vancouver has 3 million people, but no one down in south Surrey is riding the Canada Line between downtown and the airport. All that is to say that you are exactly right, you don’t need to be a giant metropolis to make good use of a metro. Just make sure the line goes between places people want to travel to and from, and make the service fast and frequent enough to compete or exceed driving, and people will ride it! I think Ann Arbor, Michigan would be great for a 2-line automated metro (if tunneling weren’t so gosh-darn expensive in the US that is.

From Hong Kong, this is really impressive, Hong Kong's metro doesnt run at midnights!

Hey Reece, heard your talk on Newstalk 1010 and saw your CBC appearance about Canadian HSR/VIA. Congratulations on the recognition!!🎉🎉

Thanks for the video ! 1:46 Actually, the city of Rennes which contains the metro is only 220 000 inhabitants. The metropolitan area is indeed 450 000 inhabitants, but that would include many other smaller cities that are not directly connected to Rennes and can be as far as 15km .

I was born in a town of Most (North of Czechia) with 55 thousand residents. It has fifteen bus lines and three tram lines, two of them interurban - connecting the city with nearby town of Litvínov, population 27 thousand.

line B is also built to accommodate 3 car trains even though it currently runs 2 car trains, that way they can increase capacity if needs be. ligne A already does so they are buying more trains, and doing upgrades to increase frequencies to 66 seconds. They're dedicated to good service in Rennes!

We almost have the exact same metro system in Toulouse, and right now they are building a third line with huge works going on

Going to Rennes next year, thanks so much for this, I’m so excited!

What also makes mid-size European cities good for mass transit is that they aren't as sprawling as North American ones. To our american and canadian friends: a european city that you would call tiny or medium feels more urban than a North American one that's three or four times as populous, Rennes's urban core is probably as large as that of a US top 20 metropolitan area.

MAn, it really puts some scale into perspective when you can hear someone talk about Rennes like some quaint, quiet, tiny town when here it's like... One of the ten largest cities in the country, one of the most economically and culturally dynamic cities as well, one that has the more active university in the entire area, by far. Really goes to show how little of an excuse "our american city is too small for transit" really is. If Tours, Le Mans and Angers can all have trams despite the largest of the three being 150 000-ish inhabitants, then a 500 000+ city in North-America can have more than a few bus lines.

The point about flexibility hits a nerve. In the UK, we were told that when the state rail network (British Rail) was privatised, the new companies would have the flexibility to be responsive to local needs. In fact, the complete opposite happened. For example, in the olden days, when there was a big sports event, BR would lay on more trains. The new companies simply close stations and reduce availability, so they are not overwhelmed. There is an annual London-Brighton bicycle event (not a race - at least not for most of the participants!). BR used to lay on extra trains the next day, so cyclists could get home. The new, flexible, companies just banned cycles from their trains on the relevant two days. Everyone had to make very complicated arrangements to get themselves and their bicycles home. The private companies are monolithic, and unresponsive - the old state railway adapted to people's needs.

We need more of this. Both video and trains.

I don't love cities coming up with their own contactless fare cards. If only there was a way to have an anonymous pre-paid contactless card that works seamlessly everywhere contactless cards are accepted ... that that wouldn't be necessary. I mean, most of us (Europeans, at least) have one contactless card or app on the phone or watch (or more) and don't need another one, but some people may value the privacy or simply don't have the credit rating to get anything but pre-paid.

Nice video. Leaving aside political and economic issues, two things (among many) that I think are different for similar-sized North American cities: 1). Population density is usually much lower in NA vs. Europe. For example, Boise, Idaho is about the same size as Rennes in terms of population (in both its urban core and metro area) but Rennes is 4 times as dense. 2). These European cities tend to have a “pedestrian culture”. I don’t think mass transit works well unless you have this element, which is why L.A. struggles despite its relatively high population density (for the US, anyway) and large total population. Transit essentially is a force multiplier for walking (and cycling to a lesser degree). When “nobody walks”, transit use will suffer, no matter how extensive the network is. There’s a chicken-and-egg thing happening here, but in most places that have great transit they had density and a culture of walking places first, and transit came later.

In Scotland small towns like Bellshill (where I live), Suburbs (like Holytown nearby), villages (like Hartwood, which is tiny) not only get a generally decent bus service (although Sunday can be a pain in some areas due to privatization when crucialroutes were removed due to low profitability) but they all have their own train stations, Hartwood has fewer than 50 houses in it, yet it gets a station with regular trains to both Glasgow and Edinburgh- the council catchment area for Hartwood contains around 1250 people and the village proper even less, but it still gets a heavy rail station on the mainline between our two biggest cities!

I think it might be good to do a video looking at some of those North American cities that are "too small for transit" and examining the extensive transit systems they used to have before they were ripped up.

Another little city with a good transit system in Brescia,Italy, with a population of only 180000 in city boundaries and probably around 300k in the surroundings. As of today it has one automated light metro line, inspired by Lille metro (then the same type of light metro has been transponded to m4 and m5 in Milan). Its route resembles the A route of Renne metro, so from south east to north west, while its stations more or less look like the ones featured in this video and the sales can be said of both the viaducts and the underground parts (of course with some differences being a proper metro and not a gadgetbahn). It costed around 1 billion euro to be built if I remember correctly, which it’s definitely a lot (and in fact a second line has been proposed but it has been rejected) for a city of this size but I think they’ve been worth it since the city center has very little traffic and it keeps being pedestrianized. To put an end, its ridership is between 50 and 60k a day, which is definitely good for a city of this size.

You could make a video on Nuremberg in Germany. It has only 500,000 residents, but has 3 underground metro lines (2 of which are automated), 5 tram lines and 6 S-Bahn lines

I lived in Rennes for a year and can say it has a fantastic transit system especially considering it's size. It's also a beautiful city well worth visiting.

Don't go thinking that the UK is a perfect example of universal city metro systems either. Two of our cities, Bristol (pop 707,000) and Leeds (pop 812,000) are egregious examples where trams, LRT or a heavy rail commuter network of any size are missing. Not that the cities haven't tried, though, with plan after plan for six decades for heavy rail metro systems, trams and light rail, and even in the case of Leeds, trackless tram/trolleybuses. Government funding has been conspicuously absent in these cities, although vast amounts have been spent over the years on consultants, public consultations and transport planners, with very little result.

Rouen is like 115,000 people and has a respectable metro that carries about 80K people per day, pretty impressive. (600K people in the metro area.)

I did a little checking. Of course, Rennes has a better metro than the tiny city I live in. We don't have a metro. However, if we were to build a single line metro stretching the widest dimension (east-west) with station spacing similar to Rennes, it would have six stations over around 5 miles of track. There would be one station for every 3000 residents (not passengers, residents). The only thing making a metro anything close to reasonable here is the existence of several rail lines; however the lines through town are all active freight lines. What we have is a single bus loop (run with converted vans) and an on demand, ride share/paratransit type service (though open to all). While I'm sure it could be improved, it's pretty good for a city under 20k. By the way, calling Rennes, or any city with a six figure population, "tiny" is stretching that word a little far. Rennes should probably be considered a medium sized city. Sure, it's not as big as Paris, London, Amsterdam, or several German cities. But there are plenty of cities smaller than Rennes and yet large enough for some substantial public transit.

I'm from Rennes and the second line is a world first and is experiencing serious problems (fires, emergency braking) and has been closed for several months. For the moment, the operator Keolis Rennes has made virtually no profit on it. During rush hour, buses and the first metro line take passengers from the second metro line. Fortunately, Keolis Rennes has redesigned the bus network to lighten the load on certain lines and the remaining metro. The city also plans to build 5 trambus lines by 2030. These lines will link the communes of the metropolis to the city centre, with a bus every 5 minutes on privileged lanes with priority at intersections.

I'm sure someone was shouting 'Leeds' in the background throughout this whole video...

Great to see you finally covering small French cities. There are so many small cities in France, Germany and central Europe that have great little networks that could really be good examples for North American cities to follow.

ive never though of the VAL system as a gadgetbahn, its always been a cost efficient way to build lower capacity metro systems around france..

As someone who has needed park and ride to access a metro system, thanks for mentioning the value of park and ride to people who live outside of the city without public transit access to metro stations. Ideally a station would serve riders who live or have a destination nearby rather than dedicating space to a parking facility, but parking facilities are very valuable to some people without other options for accessing the station, and for the city to keep our cars out!

That's super cool! We in Israel are sort of having a transit renaissance, which you might be interested in covering - a new semi-underground light rail line was built to serve the city of Tel Aviv (450k inhabitants) and it's surrounding cities. That's the first line out of 3, the other two are currently under construction. Also planned are 3 fully underground metro lines, all for the same city. Tel Aviv is also undergoing massive urban renewal and pedestrianisation, which is amazing to see. To make things even better, the northernmost metropolitan city, Haifa, seems to be in almost constant expansion of it's BRT system, with a planned light rail line connecting it to the surrounding cities and Nazareth. Finally, a new light rail line is also planned in the southernmost metropolitan city of Beer Sheba. Basically - lots and lots of transit!

IDK what the French are on but we need it in so many places.

Metro's are really something for big cities because they are expensive to build (a high quality tramway is about 60% cheaper). Speaking about tramway's. One of the finest examples of that, used in a small town, is the 18 kilometers long tram network in Nordhausen, Germany (41,000 inhabitants): two short lines, 1 and 2, in town (about 3 - 3.5 kilometer each), running every 10-15 minutes on weekday's (less frequent in the weekends), and an interurban, line 10, to Ilfeld, 11 kilometers long, which runs every hour (on Sunday every 2 hours) and is fully integrated in the timetable of line 1, so giving a direct service into town and the hospital. Line 10 is since it's opening served with hybrid trams, which run on 600V DC in the city and on a diesel generator on the rest of the line. Back in 2004, when the line to Ilfeld was converted for the use of trams (it is a branche of the not electrified HSB Harzquerbahn). Nordhausen was the very first tram company to introduce this concept to expand without the need of electrification. It's proof: you don't have to be big or tall to make your point...

I'm from Rennes and I love our two metro lines. We got a lot of bus (and tramway are on the way) but the metro here is very efficient.

Don't take this comment too serious but you can really hear that he is from a large international city when he calls a city of 400,000 "tiny" or "small". Jason from Not Just Bikes also once called a town with 20,000 a "small village". I really don't get it. I grew up in a town in Bavaria/Germany with about 11,000 people that is 30 km from a city of 130,000 (Würzburg) which I consider a big city. I would classify cities as follows: 0-1,000: small village 1,000-5,000: big village 5,000-20,000: small city 20,000-100,000: medium sized city 100,000-500,000: big city every thing above 500,000: metropolis I really enjoy your videos but you're a real "Großstadtkind" (literally a "big city child")

Big up to the "economist" who denounced the excessive costs of line B by comparing the costs with the number of users, as if the line only lasted one day.

I went to Rennes a few years ago on a day trip there. I liked their metro system, a train every 60-80 seconds and they even play music in the stations as well. The second line was still under construction when I went.

Reece have you ever had the chance to visit Exeter? The twin city of Rennes. A very small city by European standards but has 12 stations on DMU based metro network. (RIVIERA, AVOCET, West of England, and TARKA/DARTMOOR Line it creates a regular cross city metro style regional rail service. It prooves what can be done with small stations, pay on board options and interconnectivity with regional, intercity and inter nation services to Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 and Alba 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Rennes VAL (Vehicle Automatique Leger) really prooves what can be done. My favourite feature is the Park and Metro that provides access to Rennes for people living in the country (or like me out of the country) taking the cruise ferry to Roscoff and camping or hiring a Gite outside Rennes. The VAL really makes it feasible to use Rennes as a base and take TGV,TER train trips to Brest, Paris, Le Mans or Quimper.

I'm from Brescia, Italy and we are the smallest city (200k inhabitants) in Europe with a metro system. It would be nice if you could review or cite it!

It's really funny that a city with 200 000 people is "too small" for public transit... For example: Tours and adjacent urban area -has tgv connections because it's on the Paris Bordeaux line -has light rail connecting the two halves of the city by crossing the Loire river -Has a really comprehensive bus service -Is easily accessible to border towns thanks to the TER trains of sncf linking the Loire valley towns and cities together HOW IS THIS INAPPROPRIATE IN ANY WAY?

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...

The future Regionalstadtbahn Neckar-Alb in BaWü is an interesting projects that in its essence will create a tram-train network in a rather rural area. The goal is to conmect the cities of Tübingen and Reutlingen (both about 90 to 100k each) with the rural towns and communities of the Swabian Alb. They will electrify existing rail lines, revive retired sections but also construct new sections of track that will both run inside towns as well as on overland links. A very fascinating project in a small-town/rural area.

No, I'm from Singapore. But good for you Rennes, you guys actually have land and thousands of years of history

I'm so glad you covered Rennes! It's a major inspiration to me, living as I do in a smaller city.

Up until the late 1950s, London, Ontario had an electric streetcar line running along Oxford Street, which is a major west-east artery. At the time, London's population was about 125,000. The streetcars were removed, and the tracks were ripped up. GM diesel busses replaced the streetcars, and to sweeten the deal, GM built a bus manufacturing plant in the city's east end. Today, that same plant is now owned by General Dynamics, which makes armoured fighting vehicles for the US and Canadian militaries, and is currently working on a contract for the Saudi government. So yes, cities that have a population well under one million can have streetcars or trams.

Anything over 100k inhabitants can support an HSR station and good public transit (trams, S-Bahn, buses). Anything over 500k can support a metro/subway.

As a Malaysian , im truly jealous with Klang Valley people for having extensive public transport coverage while us in Johor, our public transport seems non-existent except for some public buses 😩

Having lived in Rennes for years, I can tell that the subway system is one of the most efficient I’ve known, pretty much allowing to cross the whole city in 20 minutes. What was really impressing was the frequency, up to 90s max between trains during high-frequency hours. It was really pleasing and efficient for students like me. Combined with a great buses network, it is clearly one of - if not THE best French city from a transit perspective. Great video by the way !

i've been waiting so long for you to talk about rennes thank you so much

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.

It must be a question of scale, but, as a countryside girl, Rennes definitely feels like a big city, not a small one! Gémozac would be a tiny city!