FIREWORKS greeted the inauguration of Grenoble's first light rail line in 1989. Yet just six years earlier, only a slim majority of 53 per cent favoured going ahead with the project. A year after trams started running on the city's streets, public approval soared to 93 per cent.
Use of public transport went up immediately by 20 per cent. With full integration of trams, buses and trolley buses and the building of a second light rail line serving the city hospital and university, public transport in Grenoble now carries 50 per cent more passengers.
An average of 88,000 people a day currently use the two tram lines, which interconnect in the city centre. Work is due to start shortly on yet another extension.
"Everybody in the 23 communes that make up Grenoble wants the tram," said a spokesman for TAG, the city's transport company. "It was the catalyst for a complete change in the urban environment, allowing for more pedestrianisation and public transport-only streets."
Grenoble, capital of the historic French province of Dauphine, had abandoned its old tramway network in 1951. By 1983, the traffic had become so intolerable that the reintroduction of light rail seemed the only hope of changing things.
Older people still had a mental image of the noisy, rickety trams that used to trundle through the streets, and it took a while to get the message through that this was an entirely new concept.
It was not until the first sleek new tram was delivered in January 1987 that public perceptions really changed. Earlier, the light rail project team took a trainload of residents and business people to Zurich, and this little "junket" proved very effective in promoting the concept.
As in Dublin, an underground metro had been considered, but this was ruled out on grounds of cost and because of Grenoble's high water table. So the authorities chose street-running light rail as a viable, efficient and environment-friendly alternative.
The trams were the first in the world designed to be fully accessible to disabled people in wheelchairs. Their partially low-floored layout are also a benefit to mothers with baby buggies.
Work started in 1986 and the first line was inaugurated three years later. Several streets had to be dug up to relocate gas, electricity, water, telephone and sewerage lines. But shopkeepers and residents were all informed in advance when it would start and how long it would take.
Communications were very important and TAG used a mascot, Le Renard Bleu (the blue fox), in its public relations campaign. Any complaints from shopkeepers were sorted out within an hour and not one of them went out of business during construction.
An informal tribunal was set up to deal with claims for compensation based on loss of business. All payments were based on audited accounts of turnover for the previous three years and the final bill represented less than I per cent of the 800 million francs (£100 million) budget.
Some shopkeepers - such as those in the hi-fi or furniture trades - relocated later, because of parking bans. But there has also been a big increase in property values along the tram routes, encouraging owners to refurbish their facades.
Under the 1983 plan, any on-street parking space removed was to be replaced by another in the immediate vicinity and there are now 8,000 parking places in the city centre. This is now seen as a mistake, as the current thinking in Grenoble would be to restrict access by traffic.
But the light rail scheme gave the authorities an opportunity of realising major urban development projects.
With cheap park-and-ride facilities at the outer tram stops, more people are coming into the city centre, attracted by the stone-paved pedestrian streets and the relatively hassle-free environment.
There is no doubt that the people of Grenoble are pleased with the outcome. Politically, there was never any serious differences on the light rail issue, with a broad consensus from right to left.