Ilévia is the

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

operator for the

Lille Métropole Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, the

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

surrounding the city of

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

in northern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It operates a mixed system, comprising

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

es,

tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

s and a driverless

light metro A medium-capacity system (MCS), also known as light rapid transit or light metro, is a rail transport system with a capacity greater than light rail, but less than typical heavy-rail rapid transit. MCS trains are usually 1 to 4 cars. Most medi ...

system. The company is a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

Keolis Keolis is a French transportation company that operates public transport systems all over the world. It manages bus, rapid transit, tram, coach networks, rental bikes, car parks, water taxi, cable car, trolleybus, and funicular services. B ...

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

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

and 30% owned by

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (, CDPQ; ) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was established in 1965 by an act of the ...

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

Metro

The Lille Metro is a VAL 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 Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; ) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area (27.46 km2) ...

, to the south-east, via central Lille and the Gare de Lille-Flandres. Line 2 is long with 43 stations. It links

Lomme Lomme (; ) was a commune in the Nord ''département'' of northern France. It was absorbed as a '' commune associée'' by the city of Lille in 2000. At the 1999 census its population was 27,940 inhabitants. Its population was 28,165 in 2022. ...

, to the west of Lille, to the Belgian border, via central Lille, the Gare de Lille-Flandres,

Roubaix Roubaix ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, depar ...

and

Tourcoing Tourcoing (; ; ; ) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubaix, Tourcoing is the chef-lieu of two ca ...

Tramway

The tram system consists of two interurban tram lines, connecting central Lille to the nearby communities of

and

, and has 45 stops. It is

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

electrified at 750

volts The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). Definition One volt is defined as the electric potential between two point ...

DC. The system is often called the Mongy, after Alfred Mongy, the engineer who created it. It was built in 1909 at the same time as the

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

s linking Lille to its two neighbours, and the lines run on

reserved track Reserved track, in tram transport terminology, is track on ground exclusively for tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individ ...

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