Toulouse Metro Line B, France

Toulouse Metro Line B Extension, France

Following site set-up completed in February and works launched in May 2025, the extension of Line B of the Toulouse Metro sees GCF – Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie S.p.A. involved as a subcontractor to Siemens Mobility.
The project provides for the extension of Line B eastwards from Ramonville station over a total length of 2.7 km, with an initial underground tunnel section and, after crossing the Canal du Midi, a second section on viaduct connecting the two new elevated stations of Parc Technologique du Canal (PTC) and Institut Polytechnique ligne B (IPB).

GCF is specifically responsible for the construction of the guideway, consisting of the reinforced concrete track slab, running surfaces and lateral guidance bars (3,230 metres of single track on viaduct and 1,020 metres of single track for the underground connection to the existing line), the construction of three turnouts, as well as the supply and installation of evacuation walkways installed alongside each track.

Line B: key features

Inaugurated in 1993, the Toulouse Metro is a VAL system (Véhicule Automatique Léger). It adopts bogies equipped with load-bearing rubber tyres which, unlike conventional railway wheels, run on steel running surfaces, together with smaller wheels running on smooth vertical supports (the so-called lateral guidance bars), preventing derailment. These same guidance bars, mounted on vertical insulators, also provide electrical power supply to the rolling stock.

The system was adopted for the first time in Italy on the Turin Metro, where GCF carried out the trackwork for the 3.7 km double-track extension from Porta Nuova station to Lingotto Fiere, inaugurated in 2011.