Our Blog - Construction of Metro line C, Toulouse, France

I'll start with a little information about the Toulouse Metro system. The Toulouse metro currently has 2 lines (A and B) with a total of 37 stations with 1 station that connects the 2 lines. Line A was opened in 1993 with an extension in 2003 and Line B was opened in 2007. In 2020, they expanded the platforms on Line A so that they could handle double-trains (52 m in length). There is a plan to also use double-trains on Line B in the future, but it will require less work since the platforms were initially built to handle that longer trains. There are no train drivers on the Toulouse metro, as the network is fully automatic.

Unlike the Paris metro, which got a bit of bad press for the lack of accessibility especially during the Paralympics this year, the Toulouse network is fully-accessible to people with reduced mobility: all stations have elevators and the floor of the trains is located at the same height as the platforms, which allows people in wheelchairs to access the trains without difficulty.

The last year that I can find for ridership was 2019, with almost 120 million trips annually. Line A is busier than Line B which why Line A was expanded for double-trains already and Line B has not yet started running the longer trains.

Line C has been in the master plan since 1998 but was on the back-burner for a long time. Studies started in 2014, the final route was adopted in 2018, and construction started in 2022. The tunnels will be dug between 2024 and 2026. The finishing work will take place from 2025, with the goal to open the line to the public at the end of 2028. I'm not sure how often we would take the new Line C but it is nice to open up other parts of the larger Toulouse Metropolitan area for dinners out without having to drive home.

For the Journées de Patrimoine this year, they had a couple special events around the work. We opted to go to one at the end station of Line B, Ramonville, which is being extended 2 more stations to link up with one of the stations on the new Line C. The actual construction area was opened to the public for 1 day, and you could go down and walk through a section of the actual train tunnel. Here you can see a large crane and then, well, not much of anything else, because everything is underground. This section is only the 2 tunnels (1 each direction) for the train to go between the existing Ramonville station and the 2 new stations that will be added.

A bit of information in pictures ... this section is somewhat unique in that it will go underneath the Canal du Midi, which you can see in this drawing in blue. The tunnels will be quite a bit down below ground level, which is really required to get it below all of the things that are underground normally (parking garages, utilities, water and sewer pipes, etc). The 2nd picture (sorry, it is in French) shows how the process works and a few numbers ... the tunnel is a bit over 17 feet in diameter and they are able to dig just under 33 feet per day. On the left side, you can see the the actual digging arm which takes the debris, which is then taken by the thing that looks like a large screw back to the back where it passes through the tunnel and taken out of the construction site. Then as you move right, the "voussoirs", shaped pieces of concrete, are placed in the hole that has just been dug out to form the tunnel.

Now the real pictures, and hopefully the drawings will make sense. There are 2 tunnels, one for each direction of the train. Inside, you can see the various pieces of the voussoirs that are pieced together to form the walls of the tunnel.

Along the walls, there were signs that said how far you had walked in the tunnel, and then this sign to indicate that you were, at that moment, underneath the Canal du Midi.

A bit more detail where you can see the various voussoirs that are pieced together.