We have tickets to Nice for April and we are very excited to go. While making our travel plans, we thought about ways to get from Nice Airport to the city center where we are going to stay. There were taxis and buses, but we really wanted to see if there were other public transportation options. The information about the tram that we found online seemed to be very encouraging.
According to news reports, the long awaited opening of the newest tramway line from the airport to the city center was now open to the public. Time to throw a party and have a parade? Not exactly.
We will get to that part, but first a bit of background.
The Nice Tramway (Tramway de Nice) had a single tram line named the T1 that first opened in November 2007. It was the first modern tram in Nice and after many successful years that saw ridership increase and automobile traffic in the city decrease, it was decided that additional lines would be built. The next line to be built, the West-East line (T2) is scheduled to run from the Nice Airport in the west to the Port of Nice in the east. The port area is where we will be renting an apartment during our stay.
The T2 will have 20 total stations and will run approximately 7 miles. Airline passengers landing at Nice Airport should be super excited to know that they no longer have to depend on taxis or buses to take them into the city. Several online stories broadcast that the T2 was open for business in June 2018. However, that is not exactly true.
The rest of the story.
As of the beginning of December 2018, only part of the T2 is open and running. The original opening of the T2 is the Cadam – Magnan section and has 13 of the 20 stations open. It opened in June 2018 and did not connect directly to the airport. Cadam is north of the airport and is about a 30 minute walk. Grand Arenas is the closest station to the airport and is about a 15 minute walk. You can see from the diagram that the line doesn’t come into the airport yet.
However, some time in December 2018, all of that might change. The plan is to open stations at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 which would then connect to Grand Arenas station. This would get travelers from the airport to Magan, not exactly to the city center yet but it’s a start.
Next Milestones:
Not by our trip this spring, but during our next trip either Fall 2019 or Spring 2020, there will hopefully be more stations open.
Here’s the scheduled openings:
– June 2019 : opening of the line to underground stations Alsace Lorraine and Jean Médecin. This will add 2 more stations for a total of 17 stations open.
– September 2019: opening of the entire West-East tramway line to the Port. This will complete the line and all 20 stations will be open.
