no extension before 2030?
From Monday August 1st, Toulouse’s new urban cable car, Téléo, will be on hiatus until August 14th inclusive. The mission of this summer break is to “equipment and system checks, as well as software updates“, according to Tisséo, the mixed union managing public transport in the Toulouse metropolis. This is not a surprise because this interruption of service was planned for a long time and, above all, it will be annual. With the hope of avoiding the few breakdowns that disrupted the first weeks of operation of the cable car.
Despite these slight inconveniences, managed by the Isère manufacturer Poma and the operator Altiservice, this new mode of urban transport has had its public. By mid-July, the infrastructure had exceeded 280,000 passengers, we must add the more than 50,000 who boarded on the occasion of the inaugural weekend (free trip) on May 14 and 15.
With its nearly 8,000 daily passengers outside school holidays, the urban cable car has achieved its attendance targets and brings a certain tourist appeal to the Pink City. Sufficient to already consider its extension by Toulouse Métropole, which had made its attendance a condition for opening the debate?
A complex financial equation above all
Asked by The gallery on this subject, the mayor of Toulouse and the president of the Metropolis call for patience.
“It is not in the Urban Travel Plan (PDU, official document which sets out the community’s strategy in this area, editor’s note) 2015-2030. In this period, we have not planned this investment. But we are waiting for the effects of this plan”, replies Jean-Luc Moudenc.
This position mainly confirms the remarks made during the inauguration by Jean-Michel Lattes, the president of Tisséo, who suggests that the community does not suppose to open new expensive sites on the current mandate at least. For Toulouse Métropole and Tisséo, the priority is securing the financing of the third metro line, which should avoid three billion euros. But it should not be seen as a lack of will according to the city councilor.
“I hope that there will be this extension of the cable car one day, but we will only be able to start it in a few years at best”, adds the mayor of Toulouse.
Extensions already targeted
For the moment, the urban cable car of Toulouse, Téléo, has a single line and three stations which are the Paul-Sabatier University to connect it to line B of the metro, the Rangueil hospital and the Oncopole. A project that cost nearly 90 million euros. But already, the protagonists have imagined the options to extend this initial route by 10 minutes.
“We decided on the hypothesis of extending it to Montaudran to connect it to the future third metro line on one side, and on the other to Basso Combo to connect the cable car to line A of the metro” , says Jean-Luc Moudenc.
However, no study has yet been commissioned as this work is not on the agenda. But internally, minds are prepared at a more expensive cost than the first stretch due to denser urbanization in these areas.