The "Pink City" has a very efficient public transport system which includes:

• two METRO lines VAL (A & B)
• two suburban train lines (C & D)
• about one hundred bus lines
• associated car parks
• one tramway line which will put into service shortly

Very noticeable for a medium size city of 800 000 inhabitants. The public transport network is operated by TISSEO which is a company with public and private shareholders.

The ticketing system relies on two media: the contactless cards and the magnetic tickets (fare structure). Contactless cards are mainly used for season tickets and all other fare products are supported by magnetic tickets (credit card size, HiCo) which have been used for over a decade. This setup allows to cover all fare product needs at the best possible cost. The system is centrally controlled and allows the user to define, introduce or withdraw any type of fare product regardless of the ticket technology.

Planning services in Toulouse takes here a real sens as the city features one of the highest population growth in Europe combined with the fact that the city is a very old city and that streets in the historical centre are extremely narrow. The introduction of an underground has, without any doubt, been a very well adapted solution.