GETTING AROUND

Transport in Lille and the Region

There are two metro lines and two tramlines. Plus buses. All the centre is walkable and mostly pedestrianised. Tickets/passes can be bought at all stations, and can be purchased online. It runs until midnight.

The Metro system is fine. The trains are small, driverless, and very frequent. Be warned the doors are something fierce. When they close, they really close hard!

Many streets are pedestrianised and you have to dismount and push bikes. The police regularly stop people.

If you’re here for a few days you can load your phone or a physical card with carnets of 10 tickets for just 15.60€. It’s the same ticket for every tram/metro/bus journey and is transferable for an hour. So you could use a number of different modes within the hour for the cost of one ticket.

Remember when you get on the bus or tram it’s your duty to tap your card on the ticket reader. If you’ don’t validate your ticket on every journey you’re fare-dodging. Which…

Do not be tempted to fare dodge. France (certainly Lille) has more ticket inspectors than any other place I’ve ever visited. You will be caught and fined.

There are the usual hire bikes. Docked and dockless.

You will find all the information you need and ticket purchasing options on the ilévia website.

There are taxi ranks at Gare Lille-Flandres and the Eurostar station (Gare Lille-Europe). Uber, etc., does exist, but in my experience not on anything like the scale of similar UK cities; probably French employment law. Expect impressive surge pricing. If you’re going to use taxis, I’d book from a ‘normal’ taxi company. There are plenty if you do a Google search.

Parking in the centre is all paid for. And with increasing pedestrianisation, installation of cycle lanes and dedicated bus lanes/roads, it’s not much fun getting around by car.

If you are travelling by train to other places on the route, most trains will depart from Lille-Flandres. There are ticket machines dotted around the station.

You don’t have to vaildate your tickets anymore. Only if you have loaded a card with a number of tickets. Same observations about fare dodging as above!

The Trainline app works perfectly well in France.