This Saturday, Friday for the happy few, the longest urban cable car in France takes off in Toulouse. It will cover three kilometers between the Paul-Sabatier University, the University Hospital of Rangueil and the Oncopole area, spanning a hill, that of Pech-David, the Garonne and, above all, the traffic jams of the ring road.
The idea is to make Teleo, a public transport line like the others, “perfectly integrated into the Tisséo network”. Same ticket, same price, same schedules as the bus or the metro – from 5:15 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. – same controllers to prevent free-riding and, for the good mouth, same voice for bilingual announcements with Occitan option which earned a small return in studio at the genre specialist.
26 agents and a “lookout”
But under its air of normality, Téléo remains an exceptional mode in an urban environment for the good reason that its passengers will fly, sometimes at 70 meters above the ground. Moreover, the 26 agents responsible for making it work will not be Tisséo agents. They are employees of the company Altiservice, experienced in the ski lifts of the Pyrenean ski resorts and which is therefore the delegated operator of the cable car.
The Téléo team includes maintenance agents whose lair is the garage-workshop of Paul-Sabatier University. One of these technicians will be on duty during all rotations, the others will come into action during the night stop for maintenance and minor repairs. Téléo will also remain closed every year for ten days, in the heart of summer, for a major overhaul.
The other cable car attendants have two hats. Including that of “driver”, a term not really appropriate since you will never see them in the cabins. In this role, they control Téléo from the “lookout”, in front of their video wall and their controls. They supervise the system, can stop it and control the speed of the hauling cable. “The cable car is fully electric and for reasons of energy saving, the speed of the cable will vary slightly between peak and off-peak hours, with an overall journey lasting 10 to 12 minutes”, indicates Thomas Du Crest, director operations assistant at Tisséo. Drivers will also be on hand in the event of a breakdown. They will bring the cabins and their passengers back to the station by advancing the traction cable at very slow speed.
Guardian angels of boarding
Drivers also leave the lookout when they put on their “station agent” jackets positioned at each stopover to accompany users and first ensure that they have boarded the cabins correctly. They have a control station and a remote control and can take control of the system in the event of a passenger in a bad position.
Obviously, each impromptu stop in the station will affect all the cabins in circulation. But appropriate messages will be broadcast and, little by little, everyone will get used to climbing slowly, and occasionally being stopped for a few moments in “Toulouse seen from the sky” mode.
Do not hesitate to come and train, boarding is free throughout the weekend.
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