Toulouse: The Téléo cable car is still popular in France and around the world

“He is silent”. “We hear the wind blowing but it doesn’t move”. “it does not vibrate when the pylons pass through it”. “We see the snowy Pyrenees, we are lucky”. These are some of the reflections heard during Friday’s visit by a delegation from the City of Avignon, who came to see first-hand the functioning of the Toulouse urban cable car, which could draw inspiration for the City of Popes.

Since its launch ten months ago, Téléo has continued to receive visits from local authorities interested in the performance of the “longest urban cable car in France and Europe”: Lyon, Bordeaux, Nîmes, Grenoble, Andorra, Reunion, Île-de-France and Rwanda have come to the site to test the Toulouse cable car which celebrated its millionth passenger last January and has carried more than 1.3 million passengers since its inauguration on May 14, 2022.

A means of transport in the wind

“We have been wondering about the importance of building a cable car for years, confirms Cécile Helle, mayor of Avignon, we have come to see concretely this means of transport which is a bit new for us, the population is not used to it. , we are in the phase of consultation and reflection. The strength of Toulouse is that it has integrated its cable car into the mobility project of its agglomeration. What interests us, beyond the attractive and touristic aspect, is that this type of transport allows you to fly over obstacles (the height difference, the Garonne in Toulouse, the Rhône in Avignon). And then we test it on a windy day.

The delegation led by Patrick Vial, Systems, Heritage and Works Project Manager of Tisséo Collectivités, and by Jean-François Lacroux, Managing Director of Tisséo Ingénierie, made a round trip between the Paul-Sabatier University and Oncopole, Friday morning, by a cold Autan wind gusts at 70 km/h (detected by the Téléo weather sensors) which has nothing to envy to the mistral that blows in Avignon. Téléo made people appreciate its great stability. «Thanks to its 3-cable system, which also allows it to be less intrusive than homes and more silent, because higher up, it is able to withstand winds exceeding 100 km/h, according to its builder, Poma» , indicates Jean-François Lacroux. In fact, it is expected to cease operations if the wind exceeds 92 km/h. “This has never happened since launch,” says Jean-François Lacroux.

Less breakdowns, preventative shutdowns

The failures at the beginning of operations, linked to the start-up phase, to the so-called “debug” period of this very technical mode, according to Tisséo, now seem to be under control. Téléo, on the other hand, interrupted its service early last Tuesday as a preventive measure linked to the announcement of a strong storm in the evening. Lightning could damage the systems in operation, which would have no consequences for the passengers (the system being designed to always bring the utilities back, with two emergency generators and two motors pulling the cabins in relay) but which could cause an longer fault to repair . The important annual maintenance carried out by Altiservices technicians will result in the interruption of service for 15 days in August 2023.