It’s a real big project. One of those who can, in the long term, structure part of daily transport, and therefore the activity of those who live there. But it is also likely to encounter opposition. What is this project still under study today? That of a new valley lift in Oisans, (like that of Oz-Vaujany) a cable car, which would connect the municipalities of Bourg d’Oisans at the station of Alpe d’Huez. On site, this project is on everyone’s lips and in everyone’s mind, even more since the zoom given by the passage of the Tour de France.
School bus, locals… and tourists!
The mayor of Bourg-d’Oisans, Guy Verneywants to make it a transport for all “It is planned to operate all year round for school bus service, small local couriers. Today, we have 800 cars/day of socio-professionals, employees. And this will be another asset for our tourist friends who come to Oisans, with *green* transport which will save a lot of CO2”.
– Benjamin Bourgine
Lots of technical questions to solve
How many pylons? How many cabins? How long will the work take and how much? The idea of the invoice is 30 million euros, but nothing is less certain. And nothing fixed today because the studies have just been launched, as part of the France relaunch 2030 project. But an objective has been set, that of a delivery in December 2024, for the launch of the 2024/2025 winter season. Realistic? We will say that it is ambitious, but not impossible. Provided the planets align in time.
“We are not in a simple Bourg-d’Oisans / L’Alpe-d’Huez scheme, but in a much larger scheme, on the scale of all of Oisans!”
What is certain is that today the daily trips are done by vehicle in this sector, and that the 21 bends of Alpe d’Huez, if they are rhythmic, telegenic and colorful in summer for the Tour de France, are also a handicap in everyday life . Paul Dacherthe technical coordinator of the project for the two municipalities: “We know the land context of L’Alpe-d’Huez and it’s true that in Le Bourg-d’Oisans, it can bring opportunities to a new type of population, not necessarily secondary. We are looking for a population who would settle in Bourg-d’Oisans and go to work in L’Alpe-d’Huez. It’s not just the development of L’Alpe-d’Huez. We are in the process of a multimodal hub Bourg-d’Oisans, of which the gondola would be a branch. But we are thinking of other branches in the direction of Deux-Alpes, in the direction of Beaugency. Geographically, the ski lift is complicated between Bourg d’Oisans and Deux -Alps or Bourg-d’Oisans Vaujany. But in fact, we are not in a simple Bourg-d’Oisans, L’Alpe-d’Huez scheme. We are in a much larger scheme on the scale of all of Oisans, which would encompass all the centralities and communities of municipalities in this mountain territory which is relatively landlocked, with geographical constraints re relatively important. Which doesn’t necessarily make it easy to get around.”
The old mine worked… with a cable car!
And then, it would finally be reconnecting with a certain history of this sector, where a cable car transporting the anthracite exploited in the herpie mine did indeed exist at the beginning of the 20th century, and until 1950, when a tragedy put an end to this activity and to the lives of 12 workers. At the time, the Huez sector operated a coal mine where today skiers descend black slopes. And the fuel went back down to the valley and then left via the railway line to Grenoble.