Transport in Lille

Lille is an important crossroads in the European TGV network: it lies on the Eurostar line to London and the Thalys network to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. It has two train stations, which stand next door to each other: the Lille-Europe station (Gare Lille-Europe) and the Lille-Flandres station (Gare Lille-Flandres).

The VAL system (vehicule automatique leger = light automated vehicle) is a driverless metro. Line 2 is 32 km long with 43 stations, the first and longest automatic metro line in the world, opened May 16, 1983. Trains are only 26 m long (two linked cars) and are rubber-tired. There are 60 stations which go as far as the Belgian border.

Highways

Five autoroutes pass by Lille, the densest confluence of highways in France after Paris:
Autoroute A27 : Lille - Tournai - Brussels / Liege - England
Autoroute A23 : Lille - Valenciennes
Autoroute A1 : Lille - Arras - Paris / Reims - Lyon
Autoroute A25 : Lille - Dunkerque - Calais - England
Autoroute A22 : Lille - Anvers - Netherlands

A sixth one, the A24, should link Amiens to Lille.

Air Traffic

Lille Lesquin (http://www.lille.aeroport.fr/) International Airport is 15 minutes from the city center. It is the 12th most frequented French airport in number of passengers:
around 970,000 passengers in 2001
almost 873,000 passengers in 2003

In terms of shipping, it ranks fourth, with almost 38,000 tonnes of freight which pass through each year.

Waterways

Lille is the 3rd largest French river port after Paris and Strasbourg. The river Deule is connected to regional waterways with over 680 km of navigatable waters. The Deule connects to Northern Europe via the River Scarpe and the River Escaut (towards Belgium and the Netherlands), and internationally via the Lys (to Dunkerque and Calais).