An enhanced transport system
The staging of the X Olympic Winter Games brought forward the development of the city’s transport links by several years. Now a thriving tech and business hub, Grenoble continues to benefit from these improvements today.
Home to over half a million people, Grenoble is regarded as one of Europe’s leading research, technology and innovation centres. Renowned for its expertise in IT, biotechnology and alternative energy, it was ranked by Forbes magazine as one of Europe’s top five most innovative cities in 2017, with 250 startups setting up there between 2007 and 2017. Grenoble also has its own Institute of Technology, which trains over 5,000 engineers annually, while the wider Isère region boasts no fewer than 13 national and international research centres.
A number of leading companies also have offices in Grenoble, including Schneider Electric, Hewlett Packard and Caterpillar. In introducing Grenoble to a global audience, the Olympic Winter Games played its part in attracting these firms to the city.
The status that the city now enjoys is also partly based on the development of its transport infrastructure in the mid-to-late 1960s, to cater for Grenoble’s growing population, which had doubled in the two decades leading up to the Games – from 156,000 in 1950 to 312,000 in 1966.
With a view to improving access to Grenoble and the resorts at Chamrousse, Vercors plateau and Alpe d’Huez, approach roads from cities such as Lyon, Saint-Étienne and Geneva were built or upgraded. The new motorway to Geneva was a catalyst for the regional economy and played its part in Grenoble becoming a major conference and university centre. Improvements were also made to a number of existing national, departmental and city roads, including access roads to the Olympic venues, while road signage was modernised and a bridge built over the Isère river, which runs through the city.
Two new airports were built before the Olympic Winter Games: Saint-Étienne de Saint-Geoirs (now known as Alpes–Isère Airport); and Le Versoud. Linked to the extensive Rhône-Alpes motorway network, Alpes–Isère Airport serves both local ski resorts and Grenoble. It operates business, scheduled and ski charter flights from 19 destinations and handled 308,000 passengers in 2019. Le Versoud is smaller in size and is used by private jets.
Grenoble’s rail facilities were also developed. Its main station in the north of the city was entirely rebuilt to allow it to deal with the expected increase in business visitors and tourists after the Games. The station was extensively refurbished once more between 2014 and 2017 to allow it to handle its forecast capacity of 57,000 passengers by 2030. A temporary station, the Gare de Grenoble-Olympique, was also built specifically for the Games in the southern suburb of Eybens.