Toulouse: on the roof of the cabins, the vertiginous maintenance of the Téléo cable car
Closed for annual maintenance from August 1 to 14 inclusive, the Toulouse Téléo cable car is the subject of high-rise control operations, like this Monday from the roof of the cabins.
Stopped since August 1, the Toulouse cable car Téléo, which entered service on May 14, is experiencing, during the fifteen days of its annual maintenance, spectacular control operations. Yesterday, like Sunday, the operators of Altiservice, the company in charge of operation and maintenance, thus proceeded to check the metal parts fixed at regular intervals to the cables, the jumpers, the purpose of which is to maintain the correct spacing.
While all the cabins are currently put back in the garage of the Paul-Sabatier University station, one of them went out yesterday at 2 p.m. Once past the first pylon, that of the road to Narbonne, 47 meters high, the cabin stopped at the level of the first rider. Then, on the blue sky, the silhouettes of four men roped together were cut out, as they left through the roof of the cabin where there is a small platform. It is up to them, at this dizzying height, to check a whole series of elements of the installation one by one: the tightening of the screws, the electrical equipment that signals the presence of the cable during the day and at night, the bearings, the fasteners, etc.
The twenty-six riders are thus screened, like the entire infrastructure. “We have specifications that list everything we need to check,” says Jérôme Gépinet, operations and maintenance supervisor at Tisséo Voyageurs.
Trial before reopening
Every day, fifteen to twenty people are mobilized by the maintenance of the cable car, the longest in France with its three kilometers from the university to the Oncopole, via the Rangueil hospital, and one of the first urban cable cars in France. The team, made up of personnel from the constructor Poma and its branches, the operator Altiservice, and Tisséo Voyageurs, to which must be added Bouygues for the pylons, is not idle. Maintenance is carried out at the rate of 3×8, morning, afternoon and night, so as not to lose a moment of the fifteen days of closure.
Mechanical work, such as greasing the cables – there are three in the chosen technology, two carriers and a tractor – were at the top of the list. This week, from Tuesday to Thursday, the software update will close this chapter of Téléo. Before commissioning, Monday, August 15, at 5:15 a.m., a dry run, as during normal operation but without passengers, is planned for this Sunday.
In recent days, the technicians have also carried out braking tests on the cabins when they enter the station, empty and by simulating the weight of the passengers using tarpaulins filled with water. Another spectacular operation in the sky: checking the rolling mechanisms located at the very top of the pylons. Remember that the tallest, the one located at the Oncopole, measures 70 meters. And that the cable car flies over the Garonne.
Although specialists in this work at great height, the workers have all been the subject of recommendations on their own safety from Tisséo Voyageurs. Maintenance will take place every year at this time. Since its commissioning, Téléo has suffered a few breakdowns. On June 22, Jean-Michel Lattes, president of Tisséo Collectivités, indicated that the maintenance contract provided for penalties in this case. “Poma is committed to 99.3% availability,” he said.
Reopening on Monday August 15
After fifteen days of closure for annual maintenance, the Téléo cable car will be back in service this Monday, August 15, from 5:15 a.m. It rests the Université Paul-Sabatier metro station, the CHU Rangueil and the Oncopole in ten minutes flying over the Garonne. And it is accessible with a Tisséo ticket. From the opening weekend, May 14 and 15, during free open houses, Téléo defined the crowd with some 50,000 people who came to discover this new mode of urban transport. Téléo seduces beyond Toulouse residents since many tourists use it to discover an unprecedented view of the Pink City and the Pyrenees. At the Oncopole, Téléo is connected to Linéo 5 which connects Portet gare to the Empalot metro station, and to line 25 towards Basso Cambo, Tournefeuille and Colomiers. While waiting for the reopening, a shuttle runs between the Paul-Sabatier metro and the CHU Rangueil.