Toulouse. A new Linéo put into service to connect the metro, four others in the boxes
By Guillaume Laurent
Published on
And ten. Tisséo a Tuesday October 11th, 2022 the 10e bus line with a high level of service, the famous Linéo. Addicted Fenouillet at the metro The cow (station of line B and future station of 3e line), this Lineo 10 serves the north of Toulouse since the end of August and is already a great success.
“It will do us good”, says the mayor of Fenouillet
“We’ve been waiting for it for quite a while, it’s going to do us good,” said Thierry Duhamel the mayor of Fenouillet, where the northern terminus of the line is located, in an area regularly stuck in traffic jams. “This Linéo has already reached the attendance ceilings that we had set ourselves”, abounds Gerard Andre, the mayor of Aucamville. With “7,000 passengers per day when it was put into service”, according to Tisséo, the Linéo 10 has flattering figures: 200,000 journeys made since its launch on August 29.
120,000 passengers per day on the ten Linéos
Jean-Michel Latte did not shy away from his pleasure in the face of esteem success Linéo in Toulouse: “120,000 travelers already use Linéo every day”, the president of Tisséo prospers, against “60,000 for the tram”, which makes it “the 2e the most popular structural mode of transport after the metro”. And according to him, “over 90% of users are satisfied”.
These Linéo would also have a ripple effect on the rest of the network, since “since the commissioning of the L10 at the end of August, on a recording 17% increase in traffic on the surrounding lines”, supports Jean-Michel Lattes, while the network has been reviewed in the northern sector of the agglomeration, in order “to offer residents a more efficient, more efficient, more direct service connected to the metro” .
“Our project is designed to mesh the territory as finely as possible and optimize connections with the already existing network”, summarizes Jean-Michel Lattes, who insists on the need to “connecting the outskirts to the city centre”.
A 10.8 km line
Long from 10.8km – including 3.2 bus lanes -, this Linéo required some 16.7 million euros of investment in total. It serves 20,000 inhabitants, 7,500 jobs, in particular the gigantic shopping center of Fenouillet, nearby it is intended to serve “the future station and the next multimodal exchange hub, at the crossroads of the express bike networks 2 and 9”, claim the mayor of the municipality. It displays a frequency of passage that would make traditional bus users pale: 9 minutes during peak hours, 12 the rest of the day. From one end to the other, it takes 35 minutes of travel time, about 45 in peak hours.
Why is it better than the classic bus?
These Linéo offer their users “a quality of service” that traditional bus lines cannot afford. Tisséo claims “a bus every 6 to 9 minutes during peak hours”. The hourly amplitude is also much wider, and seven days a week, since these Lineos are modeled on the metro, the tram and the cable car. They work from 5:15 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. (and even 1am on weekends). Finally, the Linéos, accessible to people with disabilities, have a “direct connection to the metro, tram and/or park and ride” as well as “real-time information” which is more practical for users.
“Guarantee speed and frequency of passage”
Linéo is also and above all “reliability of journey times improved”, defends Tisséo. If they are obviously not immune to traffic jams, the Linéos benefit from “the realization of specific road layouts”: “Bus corridors, priority at traffic lights…”.
Tuesday, the mayor of Toulouse Jean-Luc Moudenc raved about “the Lineo saga” whose 10 lines cover 120 kilometers in the conurbation. “It’s a mode of transport that guarantees our fellow citizens the speed and frequency of passage, where the metro and the tram do not pass”.
“The Linéo saga will continue since four other lines will be put into service within three years”.
If today, Linéo serves 16 municipalities, 201,000 jobs and 311,000 inhabitants, these four new lines make it possible to network 19 municipalities, 273,000 jobs and 437,000 inhabitants by 2030.
The stakes are high in Toulouse, since as reminded Martine Croquette, vice-president of the Departmental Mobility Council, “70% of trips are made by car” in Haute-Garonne. And “in 85% of cars, there is only one occupant”.
What other lines are planned?
Tisséo is therefore working on four new lines. In January 2023, the Lineo 11 will enter into service between the terminus of Metro Basso Cambo (line A) and the sports complex of FrouzinsGoing through Cugnaux and Villeneuve-Tolosane. 12.3 km long, this line will serve four municipalities, “with more than 40% of the route on lanes reserved for buses”. 7,000 travelers a day are expected there.
We will then have to wait until September 2024 to see the Lineo 14 rolling down the roads of Toulouse, between Marengo SNCF and Basso Cambo. With nearly 13 km, the L14, with 34 stops, “should transport 13,000 passengers per day”, estimates Tisséo.
In September 2025, the Lineo 12 to link to Bordeaux a Rangueil. 14.5 km long and with 36 stops, “it will serve within a radius of 400 meters, 46,000 inhabitants, 18,000 jobs and more than 5,000 middle and high school students,” argues Tisséo. “With 16,000 passengers per day, the L12 will be the 3e Lineo in terms of attendance”.
Also in September 2025, Tisséo will commission the “New Lineo 7” (the old one was merged with Linéo 9 at the start of the school year, editor’s note), Between Paul Sabatier University and the Saint-Orens high school. This will serve the town of Saint-Orens, but also the famous Malepère district, which is undergoing strong development. Carrying 7,000 passengers per day, it will aim to “ensure the Eastern mail of the Southern Belt in correspondence with Téléo”.
“These transverse bus lines are a major change in the Toulouse public transport network”, summarizes Jean-Michel Lattes, the president of Tisséo. ” We’re going to have a spider web densified”.
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