The greater Lille authority (Métropole Européenne de Lille – MEL) renewed its trust in Keolis through the award of a contract running nearly seven years to manage the Ilévia transport network, worth a total value of EUR 2.5 billion.
This contract, effective from 1 April 2025, covers the operation and maintenance of the city’s metros, trams, buses, on-demand transport, services for people with reduced mobility (PRM), and the V’Lille self-hire bike scheme. The contract will cover 95 municipalities across the metropolis and provide approximately 730,000 trips per day.
For several years, Keolis has assisted MEL in its major transformational projects such as the launch of the first automatic metro, the conversion of 100% of the bus fleet to natural gas, and the deployment of the V’Lille bike share scheme, resulting in 200 million trips made every year on the Ilévia network. To accompany passengers ever more effectively in their mobility, Keolis will continue in the coming years to support the major projects of MEL and offer a diverse and enhanced range of transport options, placing innovation and passenger experience at the centre of the roadmap
With this renewed partnership, Keolis and MEL are committed to strengthening and diversifying the mobility offering while developing integration between the various public transport services available on the network. Among the flagship projects signed up to by MEL for the coming seven years:
- Metro: Extending trains on Line 1, renovating 60 existing trains, and increasing service frequencies to provide a smoother travel experience.
- Tramway: 27 new trains to bring down waiting times in due course from 4 minutes today to 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
- Buses: Launch of a new network with several new routes, including 3 express lines, as well as a diversified fleet.
- On-demand transport (ODT): Launching the Flexity service with 30 routes, including 10 new ones, to improve accessibility across the entire region.
- Self-hire bikes: Adding 34 new V’Lille stations and introducing a lighter bike model tailored to urban use and user needs.
To further improve the passenger experience, several customer-centric tools will be deployed, including:
- MOBilévia: A single app integrating all MEL mobility services, enabling users to plan trips, purchase tickets, and track real-time availability across different transport services.
- Fabrik’ilévia: A participatory platform allowing users to be consulted and have their say on projects dealing with the Ilévia network. It will be linked to the LAB’inno Ilévia innovation lab to test new solutions.
- ReKrut’bus: A mobile recruitment agency that will tour the region to attract and hire new talent, including 50 apprentices per year, aiming to reach a total of 2,800 employees.
- New ticketing and Open Payment: On 1 July 2027, contactless payment (Open Payment) will be introduced for metro, tram and bus services. The following year, a new ticketing solution will be rolled out to simplify the travel experience and facilitate access to transport services.
Keolis will place special focus on the green transition of the network. In due course, 100% of trips on the main network services will be powered either by green electricity or by biogas. To date, the Ilévia network’s fleet of 460 buses already runs on CNG. In renewing this partnership, Métropole Européenne de Lille and
Keolis reaffirm their shared commitment to building a safe, diverse, environmentally friendly mobility system that meets the needs of citizens. They will continue to expand the mobility offering with the ambitious goal of increasing ridership by 25%, to reach 253.6 million trips per year by 2031.
Share on:
