After the definitive names of the future stations, here is the first pylon finally standing! The skeptics who still struggled to imagine traveling in the Greater Paris in suspended cabins in the air now have concrete evidence that, within two years, the first cable car in Île-de-France will open the doors of its small cars. This Thursday, in Limeil-Brévannes, in the Val-de-Marne, it is with faces pointed towards the sky that all the officials were able to witness the lifting of the first pylon of Cable 1.
This is the first in a series of 30 white profiled poles on which the cable of the cable car will be attached. Assembled and fixed in 48 hours, this 30-ton pylon reaches a height of 43 meters. At its summit are “metal wings that allow the gaze to rise towards the sky and not remain fixed on the balance beam,” touts Lucie Coursaget, architect at Atelier Schall, in charge of the design of the line. At night, only these wings at the top of the pylons will remain illuminated.
By the end of 2025, Cable 1, the first cable car in Île-de-France, will travel through the air on a route connecting Créteil to Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val-de-Marne) in less than twenty minutes. In total, 30 pylons like this one will be erected along the 4.5 km route to allow the cabins to move on a monicable and descend to the ground at each station to drop off and pick up passengers and possibly their bicycles. Ten passengers per cabin will take place in this transport designed by the Swiss company Doppelmayr.
The tallest of the pylons will reach 53 meters and some will not have a visible concrete base, as is the case with this first pole. “All those on the Vegetale, for example, will be directly installed at ground level, which will surround them to achieve the best possible environmental integration,” explains Christophe Surowiec, project manager for Cable 1.
No delays or cost overruns
The specialist in this project particularly appreciates the attention paid to the assembly of the pylon, which does not have visible nuts, whose galvanized steel is painted and on which technicians climb using a unique and discreet “high step” system, which avoids ladders and their platforms that would have disfigured the whole.
The three funders of Cable 1 – the region (50%), the Val-de-Marne department (30%), and the state (20%) – were delighted on Thursday that the project showed no delays or cost overruns. The first passengers will be able to board Cable 1, with their Navigo pass or a simple metro ticket, in 2025. Construction work on all the stations is currently underway.
“The pylons will sprout like mushrooms in the coming weeks,” jokes Christophe Surowiec, who explains that their installation will begin between Créteil and the Temps Durables station for reasons of a tight schedule with SNCF for flying over the 18-track rail beam. “Unlike metro projects, this time the symbol is clearly visible to the residents of Val-de-Marne who are awaiting this project to open up this area,” rejoices Olivier Capitanio (LR), president of the department.
The top of the first pylon of Cable 1, with its metal wings. LP/Laure Parny
In early October, Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the transport regulatory authority, officially unveiled the names of the future Cable 1 stations: Pointe-du-Lac in Créteil, named after the metro station 8 it will intersect, then Limeil-Brévannes – Plage-Bleue, named after the departmental park, Valenton-Le Château, La Végétale – La Fontaine-Saint-Martin, and finally Villa Nova, inspired by the Gallo-Roman name of the commune.
The region does not intend to stop at this first cable transport. Although no other project is as advanced as that of Val-de-Marne, Valérie Pécresse, president of IDFM, jokingly told the mountaineers from Savoie who came to build the pylon to get used to working in an urban environment. “We hope to do more cables. We have projects. We just need to find the money!”
