Olympic transport in Grenoble

3,000 PEOPLE IN THE TRANSPORT SERVICES

National Federation of Road Transport

The transport service of the Organizing Committee attached to the technical department, was created on 1st March 1966. However, from 1964 contacts had been made by the Committee with the National Federation of Road Transport for the transport of spectators and with the Renault National company for the transport of officials. Besides this, the general principles of the itineraries, the regulation of traffic and the establishment of most of the bus stations had been defined since that date.

The structure of the service was as follows: Besides the Head of the Service and his Secretariat, specialised sections had been created for the transport of spectators, transport of material (military transport), the vehicle licensing office, the traffic office, ground organisation, road signs. During the games, 3,000 people worked on strictly Olympic transport.

The administrations concerned by transport were numerous. The importance of the work of coordination which was carried out under the authority of the Prefect of Isere with the cooperation of B.C.E.O.M. must be stressed.

Official Olympic Transport

400 CARS, 500 MINICOACHES
The general term "official transport" includes the transport of officials, athletes, organization personnel, journalists and the personnel of certain firms under contract. The Organising Committee had at its permanent disposal: 3 Renault Ramblers — 210 Renault 16 — 190 Renault 4 — 500 Renault minicoaches with 7 and 8 seats — 10 Berliet coaches and 6 Saviem coaches with 45 seats.

60 to 120 45-seater coaches were taken on some days from the Transolympe Coach Station to transport spectators wherever needed. The driving of these cars (R16 and R4) was the responsibility of the C.R.S. Brigade and the minicoachs were driven by the police.

The army had put 8 light helicopters "Alouette II and III" at the disposal of the Committee for the rapid transport of people, material or films (Press). A regulation office, in charge of each coach station, received requests for transport and arranged the journeys with the local headquarters of the drivers, Police or C.R.S.: in case of need reinforcements could be ordered from the Grenoble station.

Two transport offices, one at the principal reception centre, another at Grenoble railway station, could also receive requests for transport. A certain number of vehicles were also allocated to the I.O.C. and to the International Federations and to the N.O.C.

Generally, in all resorts, all the teams (with the exception of the very small ones) had at least a minicoach at their disposal. At Autrans, the nations who had ski-jumpers had the use of a supplementary minicoach to facilitate the transfer of these competitors to St-Nizier.

For Grenoble, the arrangements were different because of the regular shuttle service which had been set up and also the importance of the hockey teams' equipment. The speed skating and figure skating competitors used these services which ran every five minutes between the Olympic village and the events. Each hockey team had permanent use of a 'bus. Altogether 500 minicoach were distributed as follows.

It's invitation cards

Grenoble is chosen

On November 24th, 1960, a paragraph in the local papers informed the population of Grenoble that the town officials were considering entering Grenoble as a candidate for the Xth Winter Olympic Games in 1968.
This announcement caused a sensation amongst the inhabitants of the Dauphiné, who immediately gave their enthusiastic approval to the project which was soon to create an upheaval in the economic life of a region which was already developing rapidly, and to confirm Grenoble as a great winter sports centre.

The idea of Grenoble's application was not put forward without due thought: the originators were the Prefect of the Isère in office at the time, Mr. François RAOUL and Mr. Raoul ARDUIN, at the time President of the Dauphiné Ski Committee, a branch of the French Ski Federation.
They were the first to study under what conditions Grenoble and the Isère department could undertake this grave responsibility and to examine the Olympic question in a local context.
The Grenoble Town Council, presided over by Dr Albert MICHALLON, gave its approval and hastened to contact the French Olympic Committee, the French Ski and Ice Sports Federations, the Government Authorities, and the various local administrative departments to request their support and prepare an application file.

On December 30th, 1960, Dr. MICHALLON officially informed the President of the International Olympic Committee of Grenoble's application for the Xth Winter Olympic Games. In his letter, Dr. MICHALLON stressed that the Dauphiné was applying for the honour of organizing the Games because "the region has many large modern winter sports resorts of world-wide repute" and "Grenoble, now an urban centre of more than 200,000 inhabitants, constantly progressing demographically and economically, has the great privilege of its situation in the geographical centre of a region traditionally renowned for sport, and equipped with enough basic installations to facilitate such an undertaking".
However, Grenoble, which, according to geographers, is the flattest town in France, at an altitude of 200 metres, could not possibly provide facilities for all the events included on the programme of the Winter Games.

The ski events had to be distributed, therefore, over the various winter sports resorts which surround the town, and all of them, without exception, enthusiastically agreed to back the application of the Dauphiné capital: in the Oisans range, the resorts of Les Deux Alpes and Alpe d'Huez (the latter resort had already organized the World Bobsleigh Championships in 1951, and, furthermore, possessed a magnificent skiable area culminating at an altitude of 3,600 metres); in the Belledonne range, the new Chamrousse resort; on the Vercors plateau, Lans, Méaudre, Autrans, and Villard de Lans.

At the same time, the General Council of the Isère gave unanimous approval to the project and promised full support towards its achievement.
The promoters of Grenoble's application next undertook to back their proposal by a detailed study of the facilities Grenoble and the Dauphiné resorts could offer with a view to the organization of the Xth Winter Olympic Games; choice of the lay-out of the ski trails, study of the plans of the sports installations which would have to be constructed (ski jumps, speed circuit, Ice Stadium), study of accommodation and transport facilites... etc.

It was soon necessary to group all efforts and volunteer work. On December 18th, the

"Committee for the Application of Grenoble for the Xth Winter Olympic Games 1968"

was legally constituted as an association in accordance with the law dated July 1st 1901. The Association was directed by a Board of Directors consisting of 4 ex-officio members, the Prefect of the Isère, the Mayor of Grenoble, the heads of the Sports and Finance Departments of the Town Council and 8 other members, chosen by the Association amongst its active members.

RAPPORT OFFICIEL

comité
d'organisation
des Xemes
jeux
olympiques
d'hiver

Ont collaboré à cette réalisation
Maquette
Jacques ROLLET
Edipress

Fer à dorer
Marc PESSIN

Hors texte
Yves MARCHAND
Jacques Antoine BIBOUD
Robert TERMAT

Photographies
Photopress - A.I.G.L.E.S. - Jean-Marie Marcel - F. Bachrach
Samlevin - Groupe de Paris - United Press - A.F.P. - Draeger
Stadion - H. Kronfeld - Cl. Angelini - A. Mollard
Télé Photo - Associated Press - F. Dardelet
O. Battanchon - Films 13 - Givet
Imprimé en France - Dépôt Légal No 192 du 2e trimestre 1969

French Olympic Committee
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