Toulouse. In the metro, tags cost millions
The metro is a target for taggers. If the phenomenon remains marginal, Tisséo nevertheless invests millions for network security.
Like the RATP in Paris or the SNCF in France, but fortunately on a much smaller scale, the Toulouse metro is the target of taggers. Each year, Tisséo records an average of five to ten intrusions linked to this phenomenon. The subject is delicate and the transport authority, which brings it up for the first time, remains cautious for fear of announcing vocations or revealing secrets about network security. An eminently sensitive theme when we know that the metro transports nearly half a million people every day.
In the world of taggers, tackling the Ville Rose metro seems a peak, a challenge in relation to the degree of difficulty. “They sneak to reach extreme places,” observes Jean-Michel Lattes, president of Tisséo Collectivités, referring for example to the recent exploits of a “contortionist” who managed to slip through an improbable passage.
These are the trains that target taggers when they are parked in depots or put back on the rails near the terminus, such as the Basso-Cambo or Ramonville air station. If the people of Toulouse never see colorful wagons, it is because they are cleaned. Tisséo does not advertise taggers.
The phenomenon, which is not new, is taken very seriously. With complaints to the police. And above all heavy investments. In five years, € 10 million has been spent on security in the broad sense. “This is the first budget and the demonstration that safety is a permanent concern”, underlines Thierry Wischnewski, director of Tisséo Voyageurs, network manager.
The purpose of maintenance and renovations is to maintain the operational condition of the metro, its automatic system and its structures. This includes protecting the sites targeted by intrusions. A study has also just been launched to control the access doors to the platforms, the technical rooms, etc.
Tisséo will also develop in 2022 a plan of 3.5 to 4 M € to equip trainsets with cameras as is already the case in buses and trams. Four per wagon and one frontal to observe the track and the infrastructures. In addition to the human presence in the stations, the director reveals, the use of software to locate certain situations, via network cameras, and trigger the alert. For taggers, who already appear in the field of existing cameras, the noose is tightening a little more.
On the periphery, plants against tags
The noise-reduction walls of the Toulouse ring road, with their large clearly visible surfaces, are one of the favorite means of expression for taggers, especially in the part which has just been widened to 2X3 lanes between Rangueil and Lespinet. Manager of the southern and western part of the ring road, the Direction des routes du Sud-Ouest (DirSo) has long used paint to cover these enormous graphitis. But the time to intervene and the difficulty of accessing the various sites on a ring road 150,000 vehicles per day where do not pass quickly erase the beacons. In partnership with Toulouse Métropole, which would like to take over the management of the ring road, simpler and more environmentally friendly techniques are now used, at least in part. On the Rangueil and Lespinet side, hedges have been planted on the embankments bordering the periphery, in front of the acoustic panels. Once high, they will hide the inscriptions. At Les Minimes, in 2020, grids were defined on the noise barriers. The goal is to make the vegetation climb and therefore render the coveted surfaces unusable. This was conclusive and, at the start of 2021, new fences of this type were installed between Ponts-Jumeaux and Purpan, on the bridge that crosses the Garonne and which has always been a privileged place for taggers. Since then, climbing plants gradually cover the walls. Another type of landscape for motorists.