Every fortnight, find “Détours de France”, chronicle in which Eric Chol, editorial director of L’Express, tells of a France in full transformation.
It all started the day Bruno Bernard, president of the metropolis of Lyon, announced the installation of a cable car linking Francheville to Perrache station. If the news went unnoticed elsewhere in France where we were, it is true, focused on this December 17, 2020 by the health of the President of the Republic, diagnosed the same day positive for Covid, the inhabitants of Sainte-Foy-lès -Lyon, they jumped. Because their town, a haven of greenery and residential and working-class neighborhoods five kilometers from Place Bellecour, is located on the route of the cable car.
Le Sytral, the authority in charge of transport headed by Bruno Bernard, may boast of an “eco-responsible” project, likely to eliminate around 15,000 daily car trips, the sabir of the Lyon ecologist is struggling to cross the banks of the Saône to convince the 22,000 Fidesians of the benefits of cable transport.
Created a year ago, the citizen association Touche pas à mon ciel garners thousands of supporters and is looking for alternative solutions. Also very upset, local elected officials organized votes whose results are clear: in Sainte-Foy, the no to the project received more than 90% of the vote. “Not only will this cable car not deter our inhabitants from using the car, but it will affect our living environment and landscapes”, explains Véronique Sarselli, mayor of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon.
“We will not go by force”
In the park of Brûlet, crossed by one of the ways of Compostelle, a day of mobilization against the project brought together 2000 people in November. At the heart of this English garden, which houses the remains of a Roman aqueduct, but also a conservatory of mulberry trees, an intermediate station of the cable car is to be built. But the idea of the sound of diggers, then the ballet of gondolas and the whistling of cables between the pylons hardly thrills the residents.
After a period of consultation, completed on February 15, the Lyon authorities must give their opinion in two months on whether or not to continue the project. Among the promoters of the cable car, the determination has waned, faced with the hostility of the populations. “We will not force through, promises Jean-Charles Kohlhaas, first vice-president of Sytral, and if necessary we will work on other options, even if they are less relevant.” A funeral before cable car time?