Véhicule Automatique Léger

VAL-style track point as used in Taipei

The VAL system uses a fully automated elevated guideway, which may be metal or concrete depending on prevailing weather conditions. Primary suspension is by rubber tires, with pairs of horizontal tires to provide lateral guidance. Electrical power at 750 V DC is collected by shoes from the guidebars.[3]

The vehicles are lightweight 2-car sets (VAL 206) with 124 total capacity, or twin sets (VAL 256) with 80 seated and 160 standing capacity. All axles on these vehicles are motored with 150 kW electrical motors. The system detects the location of trains on the guideway by the use of ultrasonic sensors.[4]

VAL can cope with unanticipated demand by inserting additional trains into the network as required by remote command from the control center. The control center computer system automatically speeds up or slows down trains in order to maintain a timetable. The VAL system can handle headways as small as 60 seconds, and the Lille VAL system rapidly proved itself with a 99.8% availability.[5]

VAL 208 as used on CDGVAL

VAL 256 as used on Taipei Metro Muzha Line

The Lille Metro was inaugurated on April 25, 1983. VAL systems were subsequently built in several other French cities:

• Paris Orlyval, 1991 – VAL 206 cars
• Toulouse Metro, 1993 – VAL 206 and VAL 208 cars
• Rennes Metro, 2002 – VAL 208 cars
• Paris CDGVAL, April 2007 – VAL 208 cars

Outside France, VAL systems are also used in:

• Chicago O'Hare International Airport's Airport Transit System (opened in 1993)
• Taipei Wenhu Line (opened in 1996, larger variant using the MAGGALY technology from Lyon Metro Line D)
• Turin Metrotorino (opened in 2006, just before the 2006 Winter Olympics) – uses VAL 208
• Uijeongbu U Line (South Korea) (opened in 2012) – uses VAL 208[6]

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

Jacksonville, Florida, had a VAL line inaugurated in 1989; this was shut down in December 1996 and replaced by a monorail, the Jacksonville Skyway. The rolling stock was sold to O'Hare.

• The automatic trains on lines 1 (MP 05) and 14 of the Paris Métro (MP 89) are not VAL, but they use part of the VAL technology. Siemens (the company that acquired Matra) is going to transform line 4 into an automatic system like lines 1 and 14.
• Line D of the Lyon Metro is a larger rubber-tyred metro; it was originally developed independently but ended up incorporating some components of VAL technology. The type of vehicle is the same as on Paris lines 1, 4, 6, 11 and 14: rubber-tyred metro (trains that run on rubber tyres and steel wheels, in case a tyre bursts, in contrast to VAL trains that use only rubber tyres).

CityVal for Rennes Metro Line B

In 2006 the NeoVal project, successor of the VAL, was announced. It will feature regenerative braking. 40% of the 62 million Euros set aside for the programme will come from the Agence de l'innovation industrielle (the technology-supporting project agency formerly known as the AII). The program is managed by Siemens Mobility, in association with Lohr Industrie. The NeoVal will be guided by a single central rail, similar to that of the Translohr, and will be able to operate without any electrical supply between the stations (no third rail or overhead lines), making the cost of infrastructure much lower.[7]

When VAL was introduced to Taipei, the term medium-capacity rail transport system was coined by railway planners to differentiate VAL from heavy rail (metro). Since then, this term has begun to be applied on similar capacity transit systems–mainly in Asian cities–even when the systems are not based on VAL's technology. On Siemens' official website, VAL is advertised as the "first fully automated light metro", in which the term "light metro" can be traced back to Moscow Metro Butovskaya Light Metro Line.

• Lille at UrbanRail.net
• Toulouse at UrbanRail.net
• Taipei at UrbanRail.net
• RoissyVAL (in French)
• Turin Metrotorino official page
• VAL and NeoVAL at Siemens TS official page