Major disruptions on line 1 of the Lille metro: Alstom and Keolis under pressure

Nightmare week on the Lille metro. Line 1 was partly interrupted all evening this Wednesday, September 16, then Thursday, September 17, due to a problem with the automatic pilot. In videos posted on social networks, we see travelers descending into the tunnel from their blocked trains, complaining about the lack of information. “We remained locked up alone without help, without water, without air, for more than an hour in the metro,” describes an angry user.

One more hitch for a network which has been struggling for several years. Line 1, in particular, saw the arrival this year of new, longer and more modern trainsets ordered from Alstom... In 2012. Delivery, planned from 2016, was ten years late and led the metropolis and Alstom to face off in court. In 2024, it was the discovery of asbestos on line 2 trains which led to a deterioration of service, causing a rant from Martine Aubry, at the time mayor of Lille.

Alstom and Keolis summoned by the MEL

These new incidents are linked to a bug in the automatic pilot software installed by Alstom, the railway manufacturer admitted. “Our teams are mobilized to resolve it,” the company indicates to Le Figaro, explaining that it has for the moment returned to the previous software to allow the metro to operate normally.

The president of the Lille metropolitan area (MEL) Éric Skyronka summoned Alstom and Keolis, the operator, to a meeting on Friday. The manufacturer was ordered to “submit to the MEL a detailed assessment of the incidents of September 16 and 17, specifying the causes identified, the malfunctions observed, the corrective measures undertaken and their implementation schedule,” indicates the community in a press release. Alstom will also have to “present a precise action plan to sustainably secure the operation of line 1”.

The MEL also pointed out the failures in passenger information during the incidents of the week, which “in particular highlighted technical failures generating an impossibility of communicating with users on board the trains”. This meeting, specifies the metropolis, will be renewed every month “until the reliability and robustness of the autopilot are restored”.