‘On the Buses’ – Transport in Grenoble
July 29th, 2009 | Published in Comment, Features | 4 Comments
Tag bus in action! Photo: Ambrosiana Pictures (G)
In previous article for Grenoble Life I bemoaned France’s rather particular brand of service culture, in some instances comparing it unfavourably to the UK. However, there are certain aspects of life in France in which the nation seems to defeat us Brits with an effortless and dismissive Gallic slap: transport. Whether it be the gleaming speedways they call les autoroutes, the super-fast TGV trains or local bus networks that operate with the kind of clockwork, almost Teutonic punctuality - getting around in France can make Britain seem grimly backward in comparison.
When people ask me about life in France I always answer that one quickly assimilates the positive aspects in a culture but the negative ones obviously take longer to get used to. But one thing that I have quickly integrated is France’s bus network and meaningful time tables. In England we seem incapable of developing a timetable that takes into account the vagaries of the traffic at a given time of day. In London such timetables are mere token gestures that serve no apparent function – and it has been a long time since I have seen anyone try to use one.
In the last ten years LED displays have been introduced to London bus stops to serve you the latest bus arrival times. It is not clear if these are operated by GPS satellite or crystal ball (I suspect they are simply based on the original, obsolete timetables) but they do little to expedite your journey. Instead they serve to heighten your expectation and thus your disappointment too - buses listed as ‘due’ frequently vanish from the radar, never to arrive.
To have, in Grenoble, a bus timetable that you can obtain online and as a leaflet, and plan your journey accordingly, still strikes me as a minor miracle. For someone who has grown up with buses arriving ostensibly au hasard, I still find myself delighted in France that using such transport needn’t be fraught with anxiety. On buses in France I am always at my jubilant best – full of optimism for modern life: in idiotically open-mouthed awe that a bus could actually arrive at the stated time. I suppose I ought to get out more.
Grenoble’s buses are not just efficient but clean. London buses rarely seem to receive more than a cursory rinse around the edges, with chicken wings, apple cores and sodden newspapers often to be found pressure-hosed into a paste around the top deck drainage holes. Not so here, where local operator Tag (Transports de l’Agglomération Grenobloise) circulates buses that positively gleam.
In London bus drivers are not to be bothered with questions or even the smallest of favours. “Well you thought wrong!” one snapped at me after I was foolish enough to query the route destination. Worse even is that many London bus drivers, under instructions not to take passengers except at the official stops, seem to take a sadistic pleasure in ignoring the pleas of sprinting commuters, or even abandoning young women in deserted streets late at night as they didn’t get to the designated stop in time.
I have seen Grenoble’s bus drivers communicating via klaxon to help passengers make their connection – almost unthinkable in London – and wait for running passengers rather than speeding away from them. When I see this happen I get misty eyed about this brave new world where drivers actually conspire to help their passengers reach their destination! “Don’t take it out on us!” says the latest advertising slogan protecting London bus drivers from the kind of abuse enraged commuters often serve up in the rush home, the “it” presumably being a totally miserable journey home, every day.
Maybe bus drivers in London have a demoralising job with less than pleasant conditions but often one is made to feel an enemy rather than a customer. While in France the reception from bus drivers is hardly chaleureux, there seems to be an unwritten contract between driver and passenger to say bonjour and merci, au revoir at the beginning and end of each trip. A wave of thanks on disembarking is always seemingly acknowledged by an appreciative nod in the rear view mirror. French bus drivers probably get a better deal. Considering the number of strikes they have called in the last few years I wouldn’t be surprised.
The main crime of the Tag and Transisère bus companies is not to run a service after half past eight, effectively cutting off Grenoble’s suburbs and neighbouring towns from the city’s night life. As someone who lives in Meylan I can say with some certainty that drink driving is endemic in France. I am apparently the only adult in the ‘burbs who elects to use the single, hourly night Navette from Grand Sablon to Meylan – the only way to get home from Grenoble on Friday and Saturday night without walking or driving.
Packed with carless drunk teenagers from the wealthier parts of Grenoble’s agglomeration, taking the Navette is quite an experience. It is often seen helmed by Marie-Noëlle, the beleaguered and tiny-voiced conductrice who seems comically incapable of controlling the raucous adolescents. “On est perdu!” they scream and sing as Marie-Noëlle wearily navigates the winding back streets of Corenc.
A French friend of mine in London told me she was surprised by the grim acquiescence of Londoners regarding the state of the bus service. One might wait 20 minutes in the rain for a bus only for it to neglect to stop for passengers. The English suffer in silence while the French, she said, would be up in arms remonstrating. She put this down to national temperament, that strangely generous French stereotype of the British (unknown on the other side of the channel it seems) that the Brits are bastions of calm in the midst of chaos.
However, I put this tacit acceptance of inefficiency down to the fact that the Brits simply don’t know any better. Many haven’t experienced a clean and reliable bus system, and don’t expect one. See you on the 6020 to Chavant!
August 23rd, 2009 at 1:32 pm (#)
Very nice article, James. Indeed, my husband being a (very passionate-about-his-job) bus driver himself (sometimes for the 6020 even), I have learned to scrutinze every aspect of Grenoble’s public transportation system. Whenever we travel around France, one of the first things he looks at is the public transportation system in a city.
I have to agree with you that we in Grenoble are privileged as far as transport goes. I’ve never been to London, so I can’t second your experience, but in Atlanta, the bus stop is often marked by a metal pole with a sign reading ‘bus stop’ on the top. Forget about a shelter, timetables, even a sign telling you which bus you’re waiting for. All you know is that at some point in time, a bus might pass by there.
We really should appreciate the TAG (and Transisère) because they often do a fantastic job of shuffling us around the agglomeration!
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm (#)
Hi Christina,
Thanks for your comments,
You can thank your husband personally from me for a fine job done!
James
August 27th, 2009 at 6:31 pm (#)
James,
Your comments on London transport are so true – I remember many miserable commutes made worse by rude drivers. The TAG lines are a dream in comparison and it’s worth mentioning that they all “roule” on natural gas according to the big posters on the side! The trams too are so much more efficient and comfortable than the London Underground.
The only downside I’ve experienced so far is that if you live a little way out of the city, as I do, the TransIsere network is not so reliable. I cannot take public transport to work, for example, as our Mairie cut our bus service this year. They run less often and I couldn’t even think about going to town on a Saturday during the summer period! Having said that, the drivers are always friendly!
October 17th, 2009 at 3:41 pm (#)
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