Val.

VAL 208 from Lille metro.

VAL is a type of automatic rubber-tired people mover technology, based on an invention by Professor Robert Gabillard. It was designed in the early 1980s by French Matra, for the then new metro system in Lille.

The acronym was originally for Villeneuve d'Ascq à Lille (Villeneuve d'Ascq to Lille), the route of the first line to be projected (and inaugurated). It now officially stands for Véhicule Automatique Léger (automatic light vehicle).

In contrast to some other driverless metro systems like the Docklands Light Railway or Vancouver's SkyTrain, the VAL design uses platforms that are separated from the rollways by a glass partition, to prevent waiting passengers from straying or falling onto the rollways. Platform screen doors, which are produced by Swiss glass door manufacturer Kaba Gilgen AG, embedded in these partitions open in synchrony with the train doors when a train stops at the platform.

When VAL has been introduced to Taipei, the term medium capacity system is coined to differentiate VAL from heavy rail (metro). Thus this term is being applied mainly among Asian cities and railway planners though they are not using VAL's technology.

List of VAL systems

VAL 206 from Toulouse Metro.

The Lille metro was inaugurated on April 25, 1983. VAL systems were subsequently built in several other French cities, including:

• Paris Orlyval line in 1991
• Toulouse Metro in 1993
• Rennes Metro in 2002

A VAL system is also used as transit system for the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, CDGVAL, and was opened in April 2007.

Outside of France, VAL systems are also used in:

• Chicago O'Hare's Airport Transit System (opened in 1993)
• Taipei's Muzha Line (opened in 1996)
• Turin's Metrotorino (opened in 2006, just before the 2006 Winter Olympics)

A VAL system is in project in Uijeongbu, South Korea [1]PDF (73.8 KiB).

The Chicago O'Hare and Taipei lines use the wider VAL 256 version of the system.

Jacksonville had a VAL line inaugurated in 1989, which was shut down in December 1996 and replaced by a monorail, the JTA Skyway. The rolling stock was sold to O'Hare International Airport.

Other uses of VAL technology

VAL 256 from Taipei's Muzha Line.

The automatic trains on line 14 of the Paris Métro are not VAL, but they use part of the VAL technology. Siemens (the company that acquired Matra) is going to transform line 1 of the Paris Métro into an automatic system like line 14. Lyon's metro line D is a larger rubber-tyred metro; it was originally developed independently but ended up incorporating some components of VAL technology. The type of vehicle is the same of Paris lines 1, 4, 6, 11 and 14: rubber-tyred metro (trains that run on rubber tyres and steel wheels, in contrast to VAL trains, that use only rubber tyres).

NeoVal

In 2006, the NeoVal project, successor of the VAL, is announced. It will feature regenerative braking. 40 % of the 62 millions Euros of the programme will come from the AII (tech. supporting project). The program is managed by Siemens, in association with Lohr industrie. The NeoVal will be guided by a single central rail and will be able to operate without any electrical supply between the stations (no third rail or overhead), making the cost of infrastructure much lower [2].

Other uses of platform screen doors

The use of platform screen doors is becoming more widespread on non-automatic systems, with some operators seeing this as a future safety 'upgrade' for existing systems. The first example in London, UK was their employment on underground stations along the newest stretch of the Jubilee Line, commencing with Westminster station, and continuing until North Greenwich (home of the Millennium Dome). They are also employed on the Singaporean 'MRT', on a few subways in Japan (Tokyo's Namboku Line and Kyoto's Tozai Line), and in Hong Kong on all underground stations of the Mass Transit Railway 'MTR'. The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is in the process of adding screens to all of its stations.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

VAL rolling stock

• Transportation in France
• Rubber-tyred metro
• Rubber-tyred trams
• Medium capacity system
• Bombardier Guided Light Transit

External links

• Lille subway at UrbanRail
• Toulouse subway at UrbanRail
• Taipei subway at UrbanRail
• RoissyVAL (in French)
• Turin Metrotorino official page
• Website Siemens TS about the VAL and NeoVAL

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