In the distance, almost inaudible beneath the whisper of the Mediterranean wind, comes the gentle sound of a tram approaching. For a moment, you could almost imagine yourself standing on a street in Nice more than a century ago, waiting beneath the afternoon sun as a tram rounds the corner. Its polished body catches the light, passengers sit on wooden benches, the driver watches the road ahead and there is the gentle rhythm of wheels against rails and the murmur of conversation. The tram has arrived.
Today, Nice is once again a city of trams. Modern, quiet, accessible and increasingly ambitious, the network has become one of the defining elements of everyday life on the Côte d’Azur. But today’s sleek Alstom Citadis vehicles are not the beginning of the story. They are, in many ways, the continuation of a story that began nearly 150 years ago.
When Nice First Discovered The Tram
The story begins in the late nineteenth century, when Nice was transforming itself from a Mediterranean city into one of Europe’s great winter resorts. The railway had already changed everything. The first train from Paris reached Nice in 1864, and by 1869 the railway had reached Monaco, with the line extended to Menton and then Ventimiglia. The railway was opening the Riviera to wealthy visitors, encouraging the construction of grand hotels, villas and new boulevards.
But getting people around Nice itself was another matter.
In 1878, horse-drawn streetcars appeared. These early chemins de fer américains ran on rails and represented a remarkable technological leap for the city. What today seems almost impossibly slow was then modernity itself. A tram was not merely transportation. It was an event.
Passengers climbed aboard, greeted neighbours, exchanged news and watched Nice unfold outside the windows. Children waited beside the road for the familiar sound of the wheels and the driver’s bell. For many residents, the tram became part of the rhythm of everyday life. The city was growing, and the tram was growing with it.
Electricity Changes Everything
The real transformation came around the turn of the century. The
horse disappeared, electricity arrived, and electric traction
transformed what was possible, allowing the tramway to move beyond the
immediate streets of Nice and into the wider landscape of the Riviera.
The Tramways de Nice et du Littoral became the backbone of an extraordinary network. The modern electric network was formally born in 1900, when the first TNL line to Cimiez opened on 13 January. Within a remarkably short period, additional routes connected Nice with Villefranche-sur-Mer, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Contes and Beaulieu.
Imagine that journey. There were no motorways, no traffic jams and no tunnels carrying streams of cars beneath the mountains. The Riviera was experienced at the speed of the tram. The sea would appear through the windows, villas and gardens would slide slowly past, and the cliffs, harbours and little coastal towns would reveal themselves almost theatrically. The journey was part of the destination.
The extraordinary thing about the historic tram system is that it was not simply a Nice city network. The rails penetrated deep into the Alpes-Maritimes.
Beginning in the early twentieth century, the Tramways des Alpes-Maritimes were created to connect isolated communities in the mountains with the coast and the growing commercial centre of Nice. Lines reached towards Saint-Martin-Vésubie, Saint-Sauveur-de-Tinée, Guillaumes, Roquestéron, Grasse, Vence and other communities.
The Department of the Alpes-Maritimes notes that electric tramway lines were specifically developed from Nice to serve the Paillon, Var and Vésubie valleys. By 1910, the tramway had reached Saint-Martin-Vésubie via Plan-du-Var, with the journey taking around three hours and fifteen minutes.
This was infrastructure as social transformation. Villages that had been relatively isolated suddenly had a connection to the coast. Farmers could move goods, workers could travel, merchants could access larger markets and residents of the valleys could reach Nice more easily. The rails were not simply carrying passengers; they were carrying opportunity.
Some of the engineering was extraordinary. The Guillaumes line, for example, climbed through the dramatic Daluis landscape, including a succession of tunnels through the gorge before crossing the Var on the famous Pont de la Mariée. The journey through the mountains was not simply transportation but an experience in itself.
It was an astonishing network to have existed in a landscape that today can still feel remote.
The Riviera Was Once Connected By Tram
Nice was effectively the center of a web of rails.
The tram was democratic technology. It belonged to everyone.
When The Automobile Won
But the twentieth century brought a new idea of modernity: the automobile.
As elsewhere in France, roads increasingly became designed around cars. Buses were considered more flexible, while tram tracks were increasingly regarded as obstacles to traffic. The irony is difficult to miss today. The tram had once been the symbol of progress, but progress was redefined as the automobile.
The historic network began disappearing. Some routes were converted to buses during the 1920s, and the coastal tramways linking Nice, Monaco and Menton disappeared in the early 1930s. The mountain branches suffered the same fate, disappearing progressively as road transport expanded.
The last historic Nice tramway finally disappeared in 1953.
The rails were removed, the overhead wires vanished and the tram became a memory preserved in postcards, photographs and family stories. For more than half a century, Nice would become increasingly dependent on buses and private automobiles.
When Nice Changed Its Mind
By the late twentieth century, however, the automobile had created its own problem: traffic, congestion, pollution and a city increasingly difficult to navigate.
Nice had begun to rediscover something that earlier generations had understood instinctively: a successful city needs transportation systems capable of moving large numbers of people efficiently without requiring every person to own or use a car.
An earlier proposal for a metro was ultimately abandoned because of its cost. In 1996, the city decided to abandon the older metro concept in favour of a tramway solution, and in 1998 the municipal council formally approved the modern tram project following public consultation.
Construction began in 2003.
On 24 November 2007, after an absence of more than half a century, the tram returned to Nice.
The return was about much more than nostalgia. The new Line 1 represented a fundamental change in the way Nice approached urban transportation. Instead of designing the city around the automobile, the city was once again giving priority to high-capacity public transport.
The Rebirth Of The Nice Tramway
The first modern line was Line 1, running north-south through the city. The new tramway was radically different from its ancestor. There were no horses and no wooden streetcars, but modern low-floor trams, dedicated infrastructure, accessible stations and an increasingly integrated public transport network.
The response was immediate. Passenger numbers rose rapidly after opening, and the frequency was progressively increased. The success of Line 1 demonstrated that Nice residents were prepared to leave their cars behind when public transportation was frequent, reliable and convenient.
The tram was no longer a nostalgic return to the past. It was becoming the backbone of Nice’s future.
Line 2: Taking The Tram Underground
The next great transformation was Line 2. Rather than simply reproducing the surface network, Nice built something much more ambitious: a tramway that disappears beneath the city centre.
Line 2 created an east-west spine linking the airport with central Nice and Port Lympia. Approximately 3.2 kilometres of the 9.2-kilometre line are underground.
For visitors, the significance is enormous. Arriving at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport no longer means automatically finding a taxi or navigating a bus through traffic. The tram takes passengers directly into the city, with Line 2 serving both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 before continuing towards Port Lympia.
It has fundamentally changed the arrival experience on the Riviera. A visitor can step off an aircraft and, within minutes, be travelling through the city by tram. For residents, the line provides something even more important: a reliable east-west alternative to increasingly congested roads.
The airport connection has also helped reinforce Nice’s position as one of Europe’s most accessible Mediterranean destinations. Few major tourist cities can offer such a direct and relatively inexpensive connection between their principal airport and the urban centre.
Line 3 And The Transformation Of The Var Plain
Line 3 extended the tramway westward towards Saint-Isidore, serving the rapidly developing Plaine du Var.
The significance of this cannot be separated from Nice’s broader urban development. The western side of Nice has undergone enormous change, with the airport, business districts, Grand Arénas, the Allianz Riviera and expanding residential and commercial areas creating a very different urban geography from the Nice of the twentieth century.
The tram has become one of the mechanisms connecting those new districts to the historic centre.
And the network continues to evolve.
Since January 2025, the operational structure has been reorganised so that Line 2 operates between Port Lympia and the airport, while Line 3 runs from Saint-Isidore through the centre to Port Lympia. A new Line B provides the airport–CADAM connection and preserves the connection to the administrative centre.
The tram network is no longer simply a collection of separate lines. It is becoming a genuine network.
Nice In 2026: The Tram Has Become Part Of Everyday Life
Today, Lignes d’Azur operates four tram lines: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 and Line B. Line 1 covers approximately 9.2 kilometres between Henri Sappia and Hôpital Pasteur. Line 2 covers 9.2 kilometres between Aéroport Terminal 2 and Port Lympia, including its underground central section. Line 3 stretches 12.3 kilometres from Saint-Isidore to Port Lympia, while Line B covers the three-kilometre airport–CADAM connection.
The tram is now supported by a much broader system of buses, park-and-ride facilities and cycling infrastructure. Lignes d’Azur currently operates an extensive urban network, with four tram lines and numerous Parcazur park-and-ride facilities designed to encourage motorists to leave their cars outside the centre and continue by public transport.
The transformation is particularly visible at the airport. For a city whose economy depends heavily on tourism, the ability to move visitors from the airport into the centre, towards the Port and onward through the metropolitan area is enormously important.
The tram has become part of Nice’s welcome mat.
Line 4: Extending The Tramway Along The Western Côte d’Azur
Perhaps the most important next chapter is already taking shape with Line 4, which will extend the tramway beyond Nice towards Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer.
The planned line will be approximately 7.1 kilometres long, with 18 stations, including 14 new stations. It is expected to connect Nice Saint-Augustin/Grand Arénas with central Cagnes-sur-Mer, passing through Saint-Laurent-du-Var. The planned journey time is approximately 23 minutes, with trams expected roughly every eight minutes.
This is particularly significant because Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-du-Var are among the most populous communities of the wider Nice metropolitan area.
The project is also about considerably more than rails. The plans include substantial public-space improvements, pedestrian facilities, cycling infrastructure, vegetation and park-and-ride facilities. The metropolitan authority says approximately 250,000 square metres of public space will be requalified, while the project includes extensive tree planting and preservation.
And in July 2026, there was an important legal development: the Administrative Tribunal of Nice rejected a challenge from local residents against the declaration of public utility for Line 4, clearing an important legal obstacle to the project.
The current timetable anticipates preparatory works in 2026, major infrastructure and track works from 2027, an initial opening towards Cagnes-sur-Mer’s Val Fleuri area around 2030, and completion to central Cagnes-sur-Mer and the Parc des Sports terminus by the end of 2031.
For the western Côte d’Azur, this could be transformative.
And Then There Is Line 5
If Line 4 represents the tramway’s expansion westward, Line 5 represents its expansion eastward into the Paillon valley.
The proposed Line 5 will connect Nice with Saint-André-de-la-Roche, La Trinité and Drap. The planned route is approximately 7.5 kilometres long, with 15 stations and an estimated journey time of 25 minutes. The project is designed to serve approximately 47,000 inhabitants and 13,900 jobs.
The metropolitan authority estimates that Line 5 could remove around 18,000 cars from the Paillon valley every day and avoid approximately 2,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually.
The project reached another important milestone when its public inquiry was held from 3 November to 12 December 2025, with the inquiry report and conclusions subsequently published. The proposed timetable envisages sections opening progressively, with the Pont-Michel–Ariane section targeted for 2028, the La Trinité connection around 2030 and Drap around 2031.
Once again, the philosophy is strikingly similar to that of the old tramways: connect the communities, make movement easier, open the valleys and bring people closer to Nice. Only the technology has changed.
The Return Of A Regional Vision
There is something particularly interesting about the modern expansion of Nice’s tramway when viewed against the history of the old system.
The historic tramway did not stop at the boundaries of Nice. It reached into neighbouring communities and deep into the mountains because transportation was understood as a means of connecting an entire region.
Today’s tramway is gradually returning to that metropolitan philosophy.
Line 4 will strengthen connections between Nice, Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer. Line 5 is intended to strengthen connections between Nice and the communities of the Paillon valley. Together with the existing network, regional rail services and buses, the system is slowly creating a much more integrated transportation network across the metropolitan area.
The modern system is not recreating the old tramway network. That would be neither practical nor desirable. But it is reviving its underlying principle: transportation should connect communities rather than simply move vehicles.
From The Mediterranean To The Mountains
There is also something deeply poetic about the contrast between the old network and the new.
The historic tram could take you from the Mediterranean coast towards the mountains, passing through landscapes that changed dramatically along the way. Today’s network does not yet reproduce that extraordinary reach. The old tramways to Saint-Martin-Vésubie, Guillaumes, Grasse and the other valleys are gone.
But the principle survives.
The modern tram connects the airport to the centre, the centre to the port, the city to the western plain, and increasingly Nice to the communities that surround it.
Beyond the tram itself, the Chemins de Fer de Provence continue to provide a rail connection into the hinterland, while Lignes d’Azur’s integrated network reaches throughout the metropolitan territory. Certain Chemins de Fer de Provence journeys can even be made using Lignes d’Azur fares between Nice Centre and Le Chaudan, illustrating the increasingly interconnected nature of the region’s public transport system.
The old dream of connecting the coast and the mountains has never completely disappeared. It has simply taken different forms.
The Great Irony Of The Tramway
There is a wonderful irony in all of this.
The tram disappeared because the automobile represented the future. Now the tram is returning because the automobile alone cannot provide the future.
The old tramway was eventually overwhelmed by cars because cities had not yet understood the consequences of designing urban life around them. Today’s tramway is part of a broader effort to reclaim public space, reduce congestion, improve air quality and make cities more pleasant to live in.
The philosophy has changed completely. The tram no longer has to compete with the city. Increasingly, the city is being redesigned around the tram.
That can be seen in Nice’s pedestrian areas, redesigned boulevards, cycle routes, planted tram platforms and public squares. The rails are no longer simply transportation infrastructure. They are instruments of urban renewal.
A Different Kind Of Riviera Experience
For visitors, the transformation is just as significant.
The Côte d’Azur has traditionally been associated with glamour, expensive cars, yachts and private transfers. But the modern Riviera can also be experienced without a car, particularly in and around Nice.
A visitor can arrive at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, take the tram into the city, continue towards the Old Town, reach the Port, connect with buses and trains, and explore much of the coast without ever sitting behind the wheel.
That is not simply convenient. It changes the experience of the destination.
Instead of concentrating on traffic, parking and navigation, visitors can look out of the window and watch the city unfold. They can move at street level, see neighbourhoods they might otherwise have missed and experience Nice as a living city rather than merely a collection of tourist attractions.
For residents, the advantages are even greater. A reliable tram network gives people another choice.
And choice is ultimately what good public transportation is about.
Nearly 150 Years Of History
It is extraordinary to consider just how much has changed since the first horse-drawn streetcars appeared in Nice in 1878.
The city has grown enormously. The population has changed, the coastline has been transformed, roads have been widened, cars have multiplied and entire neighbourhoods have appeared where fields and orchards once stood.
Yet the fundamental problem remains remarkably similar.
How do you move people efficiently through a beautiful but geographically complicated city surrounded by hills, valleys and the Mediterranean?
The answer in 1878 was the tram.
The answer in 1900 was the electric tram.
The answer in the middle of the twentieth century became the automobile and the bus.
And increasingly, the answer of the twenty-first century is once again the tram.
The Future Is On Rails
Perhaps that is the most remarkable part of Nice’s transportation story.
The tram is not simply being restored as a historical curiosity. It is being reinvented as a central part of the city’s future.
The network that returned in 2007 has grown into something far more sophisticated than the system that existed in the nineteenth century. It links the airport, city centre, port, northern districts and western suburbs, while future projects promise to extend the network into neighbouring communities.
Line 4 will push the system towards Cagnes-sur-Mer. Line 5 will reach further into the Paillon valley. Other improvements to public transport, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure are reshaping how people move around the metropolitan area.
And the significance extends beyond transportation.
It is about what kind of city Nice wants to be.
A city dominated by cars, congestion and asphalt, or a city where streets are increasingly designed for people, public transportation, pedestrians and cyclists.
The tram has become one of the clearest symbols of that choice.
A Journey Through Time
Perhaps the best way to understand the story is to imagine standing once again on a Nice street.
In 1878, a horse-drawn tram approached. Passengers climb aboard, the driver takes the reins and the vehicle slowly disappears into the growing city.
A few decades later, electricity has transformed the scene. The tram can travel farther, faster and deeper into the region, carrying passengers along the coast towards Monaco and Menton and climbing into the valleys and mountains of the Alpes-Maritimes.
Then, after decades of decline, the tracks disappear.
Nice becomes a city of buses and automobiles.
For more than fifty years, the tram has existed only in photographs.
Then, in 2007, it returned.
Today, a modern tram glides through Place Masséna. Another disappears beneath the city towards the airport. Another travels west towards Saint-Isidore. Soon, new lines will begin extending the network beyond Nice itself.
The vehicles may be modern, but the idea is remarkably old.
Connect people.
Connect communities.
Make the city accessible.
Make the journey part of everyday life.
That was the purpose of the tramway more than a century ago, and it remains its purpose today.
The rails have returned to the Côte d’Azur, not because Nice is looking backwards, but because the city has realised that one of the solutions to its future was hiding in its past.
From the horse-drawn streetcars of 1878 to the modern tramways of 2026, Nice has travelled an extraordinary circular journey.
And there is still plenty of track ahead.
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