VAL

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VAL is a type of automatic (driverless) light rubber-tired metro, technology based on an invention by Professor Robert Gabillard. It was designed in the early 1980s by 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 embedded in these partitions open in synchrony with the train doors when a train stops at the platform.

1 List of VAL systems
2 Other uses of VAL technology
3 Other uses of screens on platforms
4 See also
5 External links

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List of VAL systems

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 currently under construction as transit system for the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, CDGVAL, which will open in 2006.

Outside of France, VAL systems are also used in:

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Transit System
Taipei's Muzha Line in 1996
Turin's Metrotorino, which opened on February 4, 2006 just before the 2006 Winter Olympics

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

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

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Other uses of VAL technology

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 into an automatic system like line 14. Lyon's metro line D is a larger metro on metal wheels; 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: trains that run on rubber tyres and steel wheels, in contrast to VAL trains, that use only rubber tyres.

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Other uses of screens on platforms

The use of screens on platforms 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, such as the Tozai Line of the Kyoto subway, and in Hong Kong on all underground stations of the Mass Transit Railway 'MTR'.

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