Chester T. Dean 
Toulouse’s brand new cable car service has just launched with free rides this weekend exclusively (May 14 and 15).
With its three kilometres, it is the longest urban cable car line ever built in France.
The service is called Téléo and will connect the east and west of the city via three stations:
- Oncopole – Lise Enjalbert
- Rangueil-Louis Lareng Hospital
- Paul Sabatier University
The whole trip will only take 10 minutes.
Fast, accessible with your card #Pastel and practical, #Toulouse welcomes his #cable carafter the #busthe #subway and the #tramstarting today Saturday May 14, 2022.
Welcome aboard #Teleo https://t.co/3ZMMo3VjvC pic.twitter.com/Ko67hjPdlM— Toulouse City Hall (@Toulouse) May 14, 2022
The Toulouse city hall said of the cable car service:
“Téléo is an innovative and environmentally friendly public transport solution: 100% electric, it is less polluting than a car and three times faster to reach your destination.
The service aims to carry 1,500 people every hour in both directions. About 8,000 passengers are expected to use the service next Monday (May 16).
The Toulouse cable car project cost around 82 million euros.
You can find out more about the Toulouse cable car on the Téléo website here.
Cable cars: ecological solution or invasion of privacy?
Several cities and towns in France have chosen to build a cable car, considered an ecological mode of public transport that can help solve the problems of traffic jams.
There are services in Brest (Finistère), Grenoble (Isère) and Toulon (Var) for example. Work on a new line in the city of Ajaccio, in Corsica, should begin next year.
However, cable cars are not welcome everywhere. In Lyon, a project was recently abandoned after concerns about the line disrupting the landscape and possibly giving onlookers a view of private gardens and houses.
Other cities like Orléans (Loiret), Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) have also abandoned cable car projects for similar reasons.
The first cable car built in France was that of Grenoble, built in 1934.
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