A second fully automated, driverless Val-type metro line was officially inaugurated for revenue service in Toulouse in southern France on June 30, 2007. Siemens Transportation Systems (TS) designed and supplied the new system along with a total of 56 new vehicles. The order to build the 15-kilometer Line B, including 20 stops, was awarded to TS in 2001. Toulouse, the fourth largest city in France and also one of the centers of the European aerospace industry, has installed this new line in order to expand its infrastructure of efficient and environment friendly rapid transit services. At the same time, it will also significantly improve the quality of connections between the northern and southern sections of the city and the downtown area. Running completely underground, the new metro line will be used by some 150,000 passengers every day.

Siemens built the second driverless metro line in Toulouse in the context of a turnkey project. The Siemens scope of supply and services included, among other things, the project management, the Val automation technology, 56 two-car Val trains (21 of which will be used on the existing Line A), the power supply system, the automated platform doors, and a train depot. The new Line B is controlled from the operations control center for Line A. The contract was worth EUR 232 million.

Metro Line A, with its 12.5 kilometers of track and 18 stops, was also built by Siemens and opened in 1993. It links the southwest and the northwest parts of Toulouse and is used every day by some 170,000 passengers. They are now able to take advantage of the direct changes possible between both lines at “Jean Jaurès” station in the city center.

The fully automated Val system allows flexible and fast adjustment of the number of trains in service to meet varying passenger loads. If necessary, the headway in Toulouse can be reduced to a minimum of 60 seconds. This not only cuts passenger waiting times but also makes this mass transit system significantly more attractive than private car use. In this way, the Val system is expected to contribute to reducing greenhouse gases in Toulouse. When compared to mass transit, the CO2 emissions produced by an automobile per seat and per kilometer exceed those of a light rail transit or a metro vehicle roughly by a factor of three.

Val light rapid transit systems have already been in use for years at the airports in Orly (Paris) and O’Hare (Chicago). What’s more, Val systems are either in use or under construction in Lille and Rennes (France), Turin (Italy), Taipei (Taiwan) and Uijeongbu (South Korea). At Charles-de-Gaulle Airport in Paris, an internal Val system connecting airport terminals there was opened in April 2007. In Turin, a route extension with five stops will enter commercial operation this autumn.