Greater Toulouse authorities to extend and modernise the area’s transport network
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In southwestern France, the capital of the Occitanie region has launched a plan to extend and modernise its mobility network with support from Axians. Optical fibre and data management are key elements of the project.
More fluid, connected and sustainable mobility in the face of increasing demand – this is the ambition for Tisséo Collectivités, the local mobility authority for Toulouse and the surrounding area (population: 820,000), with an urban transport network serving 5 inter-municipal authorities and 114 municipalities. With two metro lines, a tramway, an aerial tramway (France’s longest at 3.2 km) and 125 bus routes, the network recorded 206 million journeys in 2024.
Due to demographic growth, the regulatory authorities expect an additional 500,000 journeys a day over the next decade. This will require increased capacity, which the city hopes to create with the opening in 2028 of a third automated metro line linking 21 stations along a 27 km route. Tisséo Collectivités hopes that once operational, this new Line C alone will absorb 200,000 journeys and thus eliminate 90,000 km of car travel every day. Alongside this network extension project, the mobility authority has launched a programme to modernise its existing infrastructure.
Night working
One of the key aspects of this project is the rollout of optical fibre, which Tisséo selected early on as the technological foundation for managing its self-driving metro line system. Essentially, only optical fibre offers the capacity required to handle the data flows between the urban transport network’s infrastructure, train controls, radio protocols, mobile private network and public data centre.
An urban transport network serving 5 inter-municipal authorities and 114 municipalities.
In January 2025, the Santerne Toulouse (Axians France) business unit Axians Fibre Sud-Ouest was awarded a €4.2 million contract covering extensions to the fibre for Lines A and B and an interconnection with the future Line C.
“Our mission includes studies and design, the supply of materials, the physical work, and connection to the database,” says Patrick Vu, Area Manager at Axians. “In October 2024, we had already secured the maintenance contract for the optical fibre on Lines A and B. These contracts really set the seal on a solid partnership, because we’ve already been supporting the Toulouse regional network for over six years with our expertise in fibre and geolocation data.”
Among the challenges facing the contractor were the narrow operating windows – outside metro operating hours – and the importance of not affecting service continuity. All works took place exclusively at night, more precisely between 01:30 and 04:30 – no earlier or later. The first empty trains start moving at 05:00, and the slightest delay due to work overrunning would be subject to contractual penalties.
01/15/2026
