Le Figaro Nantes
For some sensitive ears, the new Nantes public transport record quickly got stuck.
Since the weekend of March 2, bus and tram users in the city have been surprised to discover, at each stop, the crystal clear sound of a brand new jingle.
The melody immediately sparked a wave of contrasting reactions, sometimes vehement, on social networks.
Presented online, the long version of this refrain in fact achieves a rare tour de force, that of being a vexing condensation between an ad tune and the beginning of a dreamy stroll, punctuated by finger snaps.
The whole thing lasts fifteen seconds - an eternity for a jingle.
On board the equipment concerned, this is nevertheless summarized in its first and last notes.
Not enough to reassure the drivers, who discovered this melody at the same time as the passengers.
And now worry about their mental health.
“
It’s a miss.
This jingle is shrill, stressful, annoying.
Above all, it is very noisy, which is particularly unbearable.
The vast majority of rolling employees are already fed up ,
”
sighs Nicolas Toquec, Force Ouvrière delegate at Semitan, the metropolitan public transport operator.
The union official confirms to Le
Figaro
that the drivers were not made aware of this cosmetic change, which was not without causing some misunderstanding.
“
A colleague told me that he was about to stop his vehicle to ask the riders behind him to put their cell phones on silent, before realizing that the music was actually coming from the bus speaker
»
, he relates.
Apart from questions of taste or habit, the jingle represents neither more nor less a danger, both for the mental health of employees and for the risks of loss of concentration that it generates, particularly in the early hours of the morning, and during end of service, when almost empty vehicles increase the sounds tenfold.
“
Drivers can turn off the jingle, but not without turning off all the sound alerts, which would penalize
our visually impaired users
, for example
,”
continues Nicolas Toquec very seriously.
Both must make do.
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Calibrations to come
As Semitan specifies in Le
Figaro
, these new notes participate in the movement of harmonization of the different operators involved, now grouped within the Naolib brand.
This label, launched in September 2023, designates the entire mobility network of the Nantes metropolitan area and has already required an overhaul of the visual identity of the equipment which is ongoing.
“
This unique musical signature is designed to accompany this change, with a sound variation of our new brand ,
”
we explain to Semitan.
However, the situation could improve very soon.
Semitan union representatives met with their management on Wednesday and Thursday to report the multiple complaints concerning this refrain.
The operator's human resources department reportedly promised to tone down the intensity of the melody.
“
Calibrations are underway ,
”
confirms the operator, specifying that these should take at least a few days, taking into account the different ranges of vehicles in the network.
The habit of users, for its part, will come in due time.
Despite everything, Nicolas Toquec is saddened by the affair.
“
We are not against surprises from management, but we would prefer them to be positive surprises from time to time
!
»