The French city of Toulouse has had “Téléo“ since 2022, the first urban tricable gondola lift in Europe. With a travel time of only ten minutes, it connects three important transport hubs in the metropolis in southwestern France: the university institute for cancer research “Oncopole,“ the “Rangueil“ hospital, and the “Paul Sabatier University“ with its 30,000 students.

Maintenance contract

The municipal transport company Tisseo Voyageurs is responsible for the operation and safety of the ropeway. In the first three years, Altiservice – an operator of two ski resorts in the Pyrenees – provided the entire staff to ensure a smooth start.

For maintenance, Tisseo Voyageurs entered into a flat-rate maintenance contract for 20 years with the ropeway manufacturer POMA and Altiservice. POMA supplies maintenance technology and spare parts for the lift and ropes; Altiservice provides technicians and additional equipment.

Displacement in record time

This also applies to the track rope relocation every three years to mitigate the point loading on the ropes. During this process, the track ropes are shortened by several meters on their supports (towers). During construction, an extra 400 meters of length was intentionally left for the track ropes for this purpose.

“The challenge lies in performing the work within a tight time window so as not to interrupt operations longer than absolutely necessary,“ reports Michael Fauche, Strategy and New Market Director at POMA:

“Since we cross roads and rivers and travel over private property, safety is our highest priority. Rope tension and position are monitored in real-time; furthermore, we plan all scenarios far in advance and execute the plan precisely.“

Special tool Strand Jack

An important component is the use of the “Strand Jack“: This innovative tool, developed one hundred percent in-house, was designed and manufactured by the teams of COMAG, POMA SAVOIE, and POMA to carry out complex maintenance work on multi-rope systems.

Thanks to this new tool, the specialized teams were able to exert a force of 200 tons on the two track ropes of “Téléo“ moving them simultaneously over a length of 30 meters. This handling with adapted equipment minimized the impact on operations and achieved all goals in a record time of just 4.5 days.

“Combined with the concept and procedure, I estimate that we are three times faster as we would have been using conventional methods,“ says Cyprien Carroso, Maintenance Engineer from POMA. Additionally, cranes or scaffolding were avoided, saving costs and material. Finally, the procedure significantly reduced the physical workload of the employees.

Predictive maintenance

Less time, material, and labor – the track rope displacement according to the POMA concept is part of the LIFE R’way strategy, with which ropeways are planned, built, operated, and maintained sustainably, as POMA project manager David Blanchet can confirm with another fact:

“We carried out the track rope relocation, which is actually required every six years, three years earlier to limit operational interruptions and optimize the availability of the ropeway.“