3 Questions to Jean Souchal, Chairman of the Board of POMA
TF - What issues does your new cable car address?
Our project must be the perfect example of urban integration of a cable transport solution, in a densely urbanized and equipped Metropole as Grenoble.
Inter-modality is at the heart of the issues to create the link between the modes of transport of Grenoble, by connecting three tramway lines.
This connection must be accessible to all public and users of the city. The project crosses areas whose urbanization is in progress, it must therefore be flexible and scalable over time to adapt to changes in mobility.
Our project must be a solution that allows the reduction of transport times, by proposing a journey time of about 13 minutes between the Vercors and the Chartreuse, by flying over the Isère and the Drac, two highways and a railway line.
From an environmental point of view, it must contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions on the territory.
TF - How does the new cable car respond to these issues?
We thought about our stations to minimize the impact on the ground and reduce the right of way. Our architectural concept, developed in symbiosis with the Grenoble Architect Group 6, frees public spaces for a perfect insertion and readability in the urban landscape.
Our engineers have designed the system and its equipment to limit the number of pylons and proposed locations in line with the constraints.
As per our stations, we offered a specific design of our cabins for the project, with different proposals for interior fittings that meet the standards of urban transport in terms of mobility. The customer will define the final design once having been through consultation of public and users.
Like all our cable transportation systems, our solution is silent and does not emit local greenhouse gases.
TF - What would be the ideal scenario for the development and distribution of the new cable car?
The success of our project is marked by several stages carefully prepared by our Customer, the SMMAG. The success of the public consultation in late 2021/ early 2022 will be a strong message for the development of the project.
This consultation will be supported by the demonstration of the relevance of our solutions to the control of ownership costs and public spending.
We want everyone to support our mobility proposal, so that this Grenoble reference is not only a showcase for our company, but also for urban cable transport in general.
We are convinced that this project will demonstrate our know-how built over more than 85 years and illustrates what constitutes our DNA: reliability, availability, safety.
Those 3 questions were written following the Transition Forum Call for Expressions of Interest. POMA’s cable car is part of the top 20 selected projects.
