Called the 'Passeur' (ferryman) by its designers, the transport shuttle will take visitors right up to the Mont approaches... Moving at a leisurely 30 kph, they will have plenty of time to enjoy the crossing.The Passeur is a pneumatic-tyred vehicle with a zero emission LPG engine for a smooth and quiet ride. Several shuttles will be operating simultaneously at busy times and during the peak season..

Setting out from the parking facilities, the Passeur will stop first at La Caserne to pick up passengers at the shops, and then at the dam, carrying on to the terminus 400 metres short of the ramparts.
Built entirely in wood and glass - large windows with wooden supporting walls - and with no visible vertical structure, the Passeur will give passengers an unbroken view.
Passengers will board two or three cars depending on the time of year and numbers, and can change seats as they please, maybe to see what is on the other side.
Very wide boarding platforms will make it easy to get on and off, especially for the ambulatory disabled.

European design competition prizewinning team: Plan créatif

-> Tourist surveys

Finding a firm to build the shuttle is to be done in the middle of 2004. The design of the repair workshops for the fleet of 14 pneumatic-tyred vehicles, each carrying 100 passengers, largely depends on the type of engine for such things as equipment, airing or safety arrangements. LPG was chosen, with biodiesel (rape methyl ester, RME) a possible variant.

The politicians on the Syndicat mixte took several technical, economic and environmental criteria into account :

- first of all, compliance with noise and other pollution emission levels. At the public enquiry stage, the principle was presented of an internal combustion engine fuelled by LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or electric batteries, both silent, non-polluting solutions. Recent developments in engine performances and fuel qualities made it possible to add a further two clean, high performance solutions : NGV (natural gas vehicle) and biodiesel for an engine fitted with a particle filter.
- storage and procurement conditions. Each energy supply mode comes with its own constraints. For electricity, a special room must be provided for the batteries and high capacity chargers, with 4 fast recharging stations enabling the shuttles to run from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.). For LPG and biodiesel, the shuttle tanks can be filled quickly and efficiently at a single station. The LPG storage tanks can be set in a pit. Lastly for NGV, there is a continuous supply through a pipeline with a compression station and ventilated buildings. Filling up takes a long time (4 to 5 hours), which means doing it overnight.
- operating conditions. The electricity solution has a shorter operating time (under a day), which has a direct effect on operation. Heavy batteries mean extra fuel consumption. More shuttles would need to be built (16 instead of 14), which would also mean no room later on for extra shuttles to provide a link to the rail terminus (direct Paris-Mont-Saint-Michel link - SNCF/RFF/Lower Normandy Region project).
- criteria of investment, operating and maintenance costs. The electricity solution involves a substantial extra outlay both in terms of initial investment (2.5 million euros) and battery renewal (1.7 million euros every 4 years). The gas solutions (LPG and NGV) are a costlier investment than biodiesel as they require either power supply devices or storage.
- conditions of competition. For the biodiesel and LPG technologies, there is an element of possible competition over fuel prices. NGV is currently a monopoly and will remain so until the European markets are opened up in July 2004.
- possible reversibility of the power supply mode. If NGV is chosen, no variant will be possible at the stage of calling for tenders from constructors, as there is too great a difference in the shuttle and building designs.
LPG leaves the door open for a biodiesel variant.