Toulouse: the change of metro escalators leads to the closure of 16 stations
The replacement of faulty escalators on line B of the Toulouse metro will lead to the temporary closure of 16 of the 20 stations by 2026, one month each. Discreet but monumental operation, for an overall budget of 22 million euros
The Palais de Justice station has just reopened on Monday after a month of closure. In June, it will be the turn of the Jeanne d’Arc station, then in July of Borderouge and, in August, of François-Verdier. But what is happening on line B of the metro, which carries nearly 200,000 passengers a day?
“We changed all the escalators on line B of the metro, which turned out to be faulty and broke down very often, there were more than 80 of them, we were installing 77 new ones”, explains Jean-Michel Lattes, ” l “The company that supplied them in 2007 no longer exists and we have decided to change them all, before the normal term of 30 years”, continues the president of Tisséo Collectivités and Tisséo Ingénierie. An operation which is carried out as discreetly as possible, without closing the line, but which is quite monumental and represents a cost of 22.2 million euros all inclusive (studies, works, purchase of stairs and installation).
Escalators need to be cut to remove
“We are forced to close 16 of the 20 stations on line B from time to time, for three to four weeks, by 2026, to carry out this replacement, which is a very heavy operation”, indicates Flavien Rousseau, head of the Escalators project for Tisséo Collectivités. , “at the Palais de Justice, the six escalators, each weighing 12 tonnes and 25 m long, had to be cut into five or six sections to take them out through the access pit, imposing parcels of 2 m X 2 m X 5 m the removal of which required the removal of false ceilings, compost bins and much of the interior of the station’s access floor. Once the pieces of escalators were gone, we also introduced the new escalators in sections, then we bolted them together and we had to reassemble the entire interior of the station”.
Only the work of art at the Palais de Justice station was not affected. And if the station has reopened with reduced access corridors and elevators, the new escalators must still undergo a week-long dry run for each of them. “They won’t be in operation for two months,” continues the project manager.
The new stairs should not break down like the old ones: “We took all the precautions, assures Jean-Michel Lattes, “the previous ones had been supplied by a subsidiary of the well-known Marseille company GTM, at low prices, but the company has since disappeared and we have been on trial for at least five years. For the new ones, the supplier is also in charge of maintenance as for Téléo, in order to make it responsible”.
An escalator travels 1450 km per month and transports 7300 people per hour
“Before passing this works contract, we had a design office specializing in escalators work to obtain the most suitable devices,” adds Flavien Rousseau, “the contract associated maintenance with the purchase of escalators. The failures of the old escalators were due to a design defect and to an insufficiency of structure, as well as to a bad quality of rollers and bearings”.
Each step of the escalators is 1 m wide, in order to be able to transport two people, the flow of each escalator is 7300 people per hour. An escalator travels some 1450 km per month.
A real-time supervision system has been installed which will provide immediate information in the event of a breakdown so that the technical maintenance services can intervene as quickly as possible.
Why some stations won’t close
In 2023, the escalators at Saint-Michel, Jean Jaurès, Canal du Midi and Carmes stations will be changed. Only Jean Jaurès, a strategic crossroads of the two metro lines through which more than 200,000 people will pass each day, will not be during the replacement works which will require ten successive phases, instead of four for the other stations, and will last two years. In addition to Jean Jaurès, only the Canal du Midi, Ramonville and Saouzelong stations, with more accessible escalators, will not close, unlike all the other 16 stations which will close for three to four weeks with each removal/replacement. The objective is to change all the devices by 2026 and “the calendar is held for the moment”, according to Flavien Rousseau “despite electronic supply problems”. The 43 escalators on line A will be changed immediately after 2026.