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CDGVAL is a free shuttle rail service at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), using the VAL (English: automatic light vehicle) driverless, rubber-tyred people mover technology. The first line, which connects the three airport terminals, train stations, and parking lots, opened on 4 April 2007. The second line, which connects Terminal 2 to two satellite terminals, opened on 27 June 2007.
Since 2015, the two lines have been operated by Transdev every day from 4:00 AM to 1:00 AM with bus services running during system closure. The 60 million annual passengers of the airport and its 85,000 employees generate an annual traffic of 10 million journeys on CDGVAL.
Charles de Gaulle is Europe's largest airport with an area of 3500 hectares. The airport terminals are relatively far apart. Terminal 2 opened in 1982. At that time links between terminals, including the rail link at Roissypole and the long-stay car parks, were achieved by a shuttle system of buses which progressively became an increasing percentage of airport road congestion. It was not uncommon for the journey between terminals to take nearly half an hour during peak periods. This problem revealed the requirement for a rapid and modern transport solution for airport users. Aéroports de Paris (ADP) planned to overhaul the transport system within the airport perimeter by introducing an internal train link.
The VAL metro system project was launched and project specific infrastructure work commenced shortly afterwards. After the project was under way in 1992, use of the SK6000 train system built by French company Soulé was imposed on ADP by the French government. Infrastructure had to be adapted and Line 1 was now due to open to the public on 1 May 1996. However, during testing the People mover did not perform as hoped revealing several flaws in the system. Deemed unreliable and incapable of meeting availability targets, ADP were forced to consider alternatives despite the amount already invested which had attained nearly 150 million Euros of state funds. In June 1999 the project was abandoned so ADP had to invest urgently in order to renew its fleet of ageing coaches and maintain road service. SK Line 2, which was due to open during the summer of 1997, was still nowhere near completion after almost one billion Francs invested. A new project codenamed CDGVAL was undertaken in 2000. Building on the original project, CDGVAL largely followed the SK path while adapting existing infrastructure to allow transit of automatic metro-type equipment. Work began in 2003.
Developed by Siemens Mobility, this train system has already equipped the French cities of Lille Metro, Toulouse Metro and Rennes Metro, Italian city Turin Metro and formerly, Chicago O'Hare International Airport (VAL256). The company has supplied and installed seven trains with two VAL 208 cars each, automation, the command centre, track-side facilities, electrical installations and cabling, station floors and landings and workshop equipment.
The launch was initially forecast for autumn 2006, ten years after the scheduled opening for the SK6000 line, but the launch still underwent 6 further months delay. The first CDGVAL line opened to the public on 4 April 2007 after a full test run on 19 March 2007. The bus routes ran alongside the new tramway for the first ten days.
| CDG Terminal 1 |
| Parking area PR |
| CDG Terminal 3 Roissypole Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 1 station |
| Parking area PX |
| CDG Terminal 2 Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 – TGV station |
| K Gates |
| L Gates |
| M Gates |
File:Terminal1 cdgval.jpg|Terminal 1 station File:CDG Val 0363.JPG|Terminal 2 station exterior File:Cdgval terminal2.jpg|Terminal 2 station interior File:Cdgval 2rames val208 terminalT3.jpg|Terminal 3 station File:Cdgval auparcPR.jpg|Park PR station looking east File:Station PR.jpg|Park PR station looking west File:Station PX.jpg|Park PX station File:CDG - CDGVAL - LISA - 12.JPG|Terminal 2E station File:CDG - CDGVAL - LISA - 03.JPG|Satellite S3 station
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