Still, there's no point comparing build costs between France and the UK as they're completely different cultures and jurisdictions. Instead, a more reasonable approach is to compare to recent similar project in the UK.
Edinburgh's tram covers 18.5 km and cost at least (they're still uncovering overruns years later) £1 BN. That's ~£50 MM or ~€60 MM per km. That's what CVLR should and will be benchmarked against.
VLRT seems gimmicky at first but the more I look at it the more sense it makes.
The Airport line extension cost £368m with 15 stops over 14.5km of track (which shakes out at roughly £25m/km), and was completed more than a year ahead of schedule and under budget.
As a means to get to the airport from the city centre? Yeah, heavy rail is probably better.
But that's not the only reason for the line. It's used to get to and from other points on the route too.
The Airport Line might be better labelled as the Wythenshawe Line.
Separated by huge distance of 20 miles, both have thousands of same EU laws )still on the books, share thousands of years of history and at one point ruled by the same aristocracy.
The real point I was trying to make is that they achieve similar outcomes, in passenger safety comfort.
And if we really do believe that legislation is so different, then is there any point of arguing about an innovation in the physical parameters of the system, after all you can only make a tram 20% lighter, but you can make the legislation 300% worse or 300% better