After a suitably decadent breakfast, I needed to get to Lyon airport which is a location that I’ve never been to before. There is the Rhônexpress but it’s a ridiculously priced service at €16, so I went for a transportation solution that involved a metro journey and a bus that was about €4. The price of the Rhônexpres is sub-optimal, there’s no need for the airport and city to decide on a price point at that level.
It was a pleasant walk crossing the Rhône.
My journey started from Cordeliers on Line A of the metro system and the station and the line opened on 2 May 1978. They made life considerably easier for themselves by building the station beneath a public square. The engineers simply dug the whole thing up before putting it back together again afterwards, a classic cut-and-cover approach that would have looked very familiar to those constructing the early London Underground.
I liked the dividers between the tracks, it made the whole arrangement looked clean and modern.
The metro swept into the platform and wasn’t overly busy at this point.
The train was busy and too hot, but I was able to get a photo at the end of the line of the seating arrangement. It was at least and punctual though, so I had no complaints there.
My train arrived into Vaulx-en-Velin – La Soie, which was an extension to Line A and this bit opened in 2007 and note the trees at the metro station, all rather lovely.
Looking down from above the station.
It was something of a transport hub as this signage shows.
And what happens when a city tries to treat airport routes as a cash cow? It forces people onto other services which simply cannot cope.
I got the seat behind the driver but the bus soon filled and it was unable to pick passengers up at some stops. This is a sub-optimal arrangement for an airport bus which departs every thirty minutes as some passengers tend to leave slightly less time than I do to get to the airport. Missing a bus is one thing, but missing a flight because the bus couldn’t physically take any more passengers is rather another.
A sculpture near the airport.
And safely at Lyon–Saint Exupéry Airport, whose striking station building was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava (1951-). It’s an impressive piece of modern architecture and a suitably dramatic gateway to the city. I’d love to tell you that arriving there finally brought some relief from the heat, but France remained entirely committed to proving otherwise.