Ilévia is the public transport operator for the

Lille Métropole Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

, the

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

surrounding the city of Lille in northern France. It operates a mixed system, comprising

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es, trams and a driverless light metro system. The company is a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of Keolis, the largest private sector French transport group. Keolis is itself 70% owned by

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

and 30% owned by

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ; ) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in Quebec. CDPQ was founded in 1965 by an act of the National Assembly, under the go ...

. In January 2019, the company changed from its former name 'Transpole' to 'ilévia'.

Metro

The Lille Metro is a

VAL Val may refer to: Val-a Film * ''Val'' (film), an American documentary about Val Kilmer, directed by Leo Scott and Ting Poo Military equipment * Aichi D3A, a Japanese World War II dive bomber codenamed "Val" by the Allies * AS Val, a Sov ...

system (''véhicule automatique léger'' = light automated vehicle), which opened on May 16, 1983, the first automatic metro line in the world. It has two lines, with a total length of , and 60 stations. All stations have doors between the platform and the train. Line 1 is long, of which are underground, with 18 stations. The line links Loos, to the south-west of Lille, with Villeneuve d'Ascq, to the south-east, via central Lille and the

Gare de Lille-Flandres Lille-Flandres station ( French: ''Gare de Lille-Flandres'', Dutch: ''Rijsel Vlaanderen'') is the main railway station of Lille, capital of French Flanders. It is a terminus for SNCF Intercity and regional trains. It opened in 1842 as the ''Gare d ...

. Line 2 is long with 43 stations. It links

Lomme Lomme (; nl, Olm) was a commune in the Nord '' département'' of northern France. It was absorbed as a ''commune associée In France, associated communes (french: communes associées) were created by the Commune Merger Act of July 16, 1971 (al ...

, to the west of Lille, to the Belgian border, via central Lille, the Gare de Lille-Flandres, Roubaix and Tourcoing.

Tramway

The tram system consists of two interurban tram lines, connecting central Lille to the nearby communities of Roubaix and Tourcoing, and has 45 stops. It is

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

electrified at 750 volts DC. The system is often called the Mongy, after

Alfred Mongy Alfred Mongy (1840–1914) was a French engineer. He was born on March 21, 1840, in Lille, and died June 30, 1914. He was actively involved in the development of Lille, particularly in the field of urban transport. Biography Alfred Mongy was b ...

, the engineer who created it. It was built in 1909 at the same time as the boulevards linking Lille to its two neighbours, and the lines run on reserved track within the boulevards for most of their length.Based on a translation of the article '' Ilevia'' from the French Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2008-02-19.Based on a translation of the article '' ilevia'' from the German Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2008-02-19. While most urban lines in Lille were abandoned after 1950, the Mongy remained in service as the backbone of the public transport network of the TCC, the predecessor of Ilévia. Whilst the expansion of the Metro initially threatened the trams, they were kept in service. The system was renovated between 1991 and 1994, and new low-floor trams were provided.

Buses

Ilévia also operates 68 urban bus routes, eight of which run into Belgium.

References

External links

Transpole web site (in French)Transpole web site (limited English section)Route diagram of all Transpole services
{{Authority control Companies based in Hauts-de-France Public transport operators in France Transport in Lille