Through Thibaut Calatayud
Published on
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Inside, you sometimes have the impression of dragging yourself. the tramway is not known to be the fastest form of public transport in Toulouse… But is this slowness specific to the Pink City?
How fast is the tram in Toulouse?
The 28 tram trains cross the municipalities of Beauzelle, Blagnac and Toulouse on 17.1 km of tracks where there are 28 stations on the two lines: T1 and T2. In 2020, there were up to 49,000 tram trips per day according to Woven.
To cross the entirety of the first, between the MEETT and the Palais de Justice, it is necessary to count at least 46 minutes. For the second, which connects the airport and the court, the journey is made in 32 minutes.
On both lines, the originally planned commercial speed was 20 km / h according to Tisséo Engineering. Contacted by Toulouse news, Tisséo indicates that “it is currently closer to 18 km/h ».
Do not serve all stations
In 2019, the mayor of Beauzelle, Patrice Rodrigues, had submitted the idea of increasing the frequency of the T1 tram line (this will soon be the case on part of the line, see the box at the end of the article) and not to systematically serve all the stations in order to to save time.
To illustrate his point, he referred to the Andromède-Lycée station, wondering about the usefulness of stopping there “every morning at 4.55 am”. According to him, avoiding certain stops would save “between 5 and 7 minutes to reach the city center of Toulouse”.
Where is Toulouse located in relation to other cities?
In France, around twenty other municipalities have a tram. And if we compare the commercial speeds of these different lines, we see that Toulouse is not doing that badly …
This is evidenced by a study carried out between 2018 and 2019 by Beemotion. This mobility engineering company compared the commercial speeds of T1 and T2 Toulouse with 15 other French lines.
The Toulouse tram is not the slowest in France
We therefore realize that Toulouse is far from having the slowest tram in France. Another example, at Saint Etienne (Loire) where the average commercial speed on the three lines of the network is only 16.1 km / h.
On the other hand, count a ratio greater than 18 km / h at Bordeaux (Gironde) and in Île-de-France. For Dijon (Côte d’Or), it is 19 km / h. The average commercial speed on the seven lines of the Lyon (Rhône) is 24.3 km / h. This should be put into perspective since two lines (T3 and T7) – where the distance between two stops is greater than 1.5 km, compared to nearly 500 m in Toulouse – exceed 35 km / h.
To improve the speed of T1, Tisséo is building a partial terminal
A major project is currently being carried out at the Odyssud station, on line T1 in Blagnac. This concerns the construction of a partial service terminus “to be able to maintain the offer on the Palais de Justice-Ancely section and strengthen it on the Ancely-partial terminal section”. For Tisséo, the challenge is to double the frequency of the tram which can irrigate Blagnac from nine minutes to 4.5 minutes. The cost of the project is estimated at 5.15 million euros excluding tax.
Another major project to come on the network: that of the Airport Express Line (LAE) which will replace T2. On this, the tram will run only from Jean-Maga station (on the third metro line), to Toulouse-Blagnac airport, on the 2.7 km route of the current T2 line. The frequency will therefore be one train every 5 minutes instead of one train every 15 minutes currently. The entry into service of the Airport Express line will require the interruption of the current T2 line between mid-2023 and the end of 2026. As part of the implementation of the LAE has announced the will to buy nine additional trams .
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