Paris Métro
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Paris Métro (French: Métro de Paris) is the underground rapid transit system in Paris, France. It was expanded later by an additional express network known as the RER to reach further suburbs.
The system comprises 16 lines, identified by numbers from 1 to 14, with two minor lines, 3bis and 7bis, numbered thus because they used to be branches of their respective original lines and only later became independent. The company which originally managed the network was known as Chemin de Fer Métropolitain de Paris (Paris Metropolitan Railway) or C.M.P, shortened as "Métropolitain". Within its first years, that name was quickly abbreviated to Métro.
The development of the network took place during three main stages. Initially, from the 1900s to the 1920s, the core of the metro network exclusively inside Paris proper was developed. Then, from the 1930s to the 1950s, the network was extended to the near suburbs and expanded with the creation of line 11. And finally, from the 1960s to the 1980s, most extension focused on the development of the RER network. At the end of the 1990s the fully automatic line 14 was created.
Contents |
[edit] General use
[edit] Opening hours
Trains run from approximately 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day of the year on every station of the network. The only exception to this rule is the station Liège which is closed on evenings and Sundays. This exception though is planned to disappear for December 2006.
During exceptional events, such as the New Year's Eve, the Fête de la Musique (music day) or Nuit Blanche (white night), the network is partially opened during the whole night. These exceptional openings affect only main stations of main lines.
[edit] Network passes
The standard pass is the single trip ticket "t" which is valid for 2 hours in the whole metro network and in zone 1 of the RER network. It can be bought either as a single unit at a cost of €1.40, or as a pack of ten, a carnet, costing €10.90.
Other passes allow unlimited use of the public transit system within a given period of time:
- weekly or monthly pass (carte orange), one-day pass (Mobilis)
- yearly pass (intégrale, imagine R for students)
- one-day, two-day, three-day or five-day pass for occasional visitors (Paris Visite)
Finally, the Navigo pass is a means of payment for public transportation introduced in 2001 which is progressively replacing the carte orange. It consists of a personal pass which can be reloaded monthly or weekly. Quite different from other passes, Navigo is not a magnetic ticket, but an integrated circuit coupled with a tiny antenna.
[edit] Use of passes
Turnstiles mark the entrance to the network. With regular passes, users should insert their ticket in the designated slot and take it back afterwards. The ticket should be kept during the whole trip, and may be checked by an inspector at any time. For the Navigo pass, on the other hand, bringing it close to the turnstile's sensor is enough. There is no need to insert any ticket. Some users directly bring their bag close to the sensor without even feeling the need to take their Navigo pass out of it.
[edit] Technical summary
[edit] Overview
The métro network has 221.6 km (133.7 miles) of track and 380 stations (87 offering connection between lines). These figures do not include the RER network. The average distance between stations is approximately 562 m (1845 feet). All trains stop at all stations [1]. Each line has dedicated platforms, even at transfer stations (i.e., lines do not share platforms). This feature also applies to RER lines.
In 2004, the annual traffic on Paris metro lines totalled 1,336 billion passengers[2]. The average speed of trains is 35 km/h while the maximum speed for all segments is 70 km/h (80 km/h on line 14), due to the underground restrictions. Circulation is on the right. The track gauge is 1.435 meters (standard gauge, like the French main lines) — but trains are narrower than on the main line, so the metro could run on main lines but not vice versa. Train length varies from line to line: three to six cars, depending on passenger volume. All trains on a given line always have the same number of cars. Power is collected from a third rail, 750 V DC, except on the rubber-tired metro routes where the 750 V DC power is collected from the guide bars. Lines 1, 4, 6, 11, and 14 are rubber-tired. Line 14 is driverless (fully automatic).
The earliest lines (the ones that were dug out by hand) follow the roads above them. For instance, Line 1 follows the Champs Élysées in a perfectly straight line. This was due to the fact that because of poor construction techniques, the construction had to follow the roads; otherwise the workers would encounter cellars. This also explains why some stations (Commerce on line 8 and Liège on line 13) have platforms that do not align; the street above is too narrow.
[edit] Rolling stock
The Paris metro rolling stock is mainly divided in two categories, one consisting of steel-wheel trains and the other of rubber-tyred trains. Steel-wheel rolling stocks are named "MF" (standing for French matériel fer), and rubber-tyred rolling stocks are named "MP" (standing for French matériel pneu). The different versions of both kind are specified by the year of their design (not the year of their first use).
Summary of current rolling stock:
- Rubber-tyred
- Steel-wheel
[edit] The lines
[edit] Paris métro lines
| Line Name | Opened | Last extension |
Stations served |
Length | Average Interstation |
Journeys made (per annum) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Line 1 | 1900 | 1992 | 25 | 16.6 km / 10.3 miles | 692 m | 161,600,000 |
 |
Line 2 | 1900 | 1903 | 25 | 12.3 km / 7.7 miles | 513 m | 92,100,000 |
 |
Line 3 | 1904 | 1971 | 25 | 11.7 km / 7.3 miles | 488 m | 87,600,000 |
 |
Line 3bis | 1971 | 1971 | 4 | 1.3 km / 0.8 miles | 433 m | |
 |
Line 4 | 1908 | 1910 | 26 | 10.6 km / 6.6 miles | 424 m | 154,100,000 |
 |
Line 5 | 1906 | 1985 | 22 | 14.6 km / 9.1 miles | 695 m | 86,100,000 |
 |
Line 6 | 1909 | 1942 | 28 | 13.6 km / 8.5 miles | 504 m | 100,700,000 |
 |
Line 7 | 1910 | 1987 | 38 | 22.4 km / 13.9 miles | 605 m | 120,500,000 |
 |
Line 7bis | 1967 | 1967 | 8 | 3.1 km / 1.9 miles | 443 m | |
 |
Line 8 | 1913 | 1974 | 37 | 22.1 km / 13.8 miles | 614 m | 89,100,000 |
 |
Line 9 | 1922 | 1937 | 37 | 19.6 km / 12.2 miles | 544 m | 116,200,000 |
 |
Line 10 | 1923 | 1981 | 23 | 11.7 km / 7.3 miles | 532 m | 41,500,000 |
 |
Line 11 | 1935 | 1937 | 13 | 6.3 km / 3.9 miles | 525 m | 45,100,000 |
 |
Line 12 | 1910[3] | 1934 | 28 | 13.9 km / 8.6 miles | 515 m | 72,100,000 |
 |
Line 13 | 1911[3] | 1998 | 30 | 22.5 km / 14.0 miles | 776 m | 105,100,000 |
 |
Line 14 | 1998 | 2003 | 8 | 7.9 km / 4.9 miles | 1,129 m | 64,100,000 |
[edit] The additional express network: the RER
| Line Name | Opened | Last extension |
Stations served |
Length | Average Interstation |
Journeys made (per annum) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Line A | 1977 | 1994 | 46 | 108.5 km / 67.5 miles | 2,411 m | 272,800,000 |
 |
Line B | 1977 | 1981 | 47 | 80.0 km / 49.8 miles | 1,739 m | 165,100,000 |
 |
Line C | 1979 | 2000 | 86 | 185.6 km / 115.5 miles | 2,184 m | 140,000,000 |
 |
Line D | 1987 | 1995 | 58 | 160.0 km / 99.6 miles | 2,807 m | 145,000,000 |
 |
Line E | 1999 | 2003 | 21 | 52.3 km / 32.5 miles | 2,615 m | 60,000,000 |
[edit] History
In 1845, the city administration and the railroad companies were already thinking about the creation of an urban rail system to serve Paris. However, discussions stalled rapidly because of the opposition of two radically different views on the shape this network should take:
- the first one consisted of extending the existing suburban lines to a newly built underground network, a solution similar to the one chosen by London authorities;
- the second one consisted of building a brand new and fully independent network which could not be connected with existing lines.
Railroad companies sponsored the first solution whereas the city of Paris sponsored the second solution. This disagreement lasted from 1856 to 1890, blocking all projects.
Meanwhile, the city of Paris was rapidly densifying because of population growth, and the problems of traffic congestion became so massive that it was insoluble without the creation of such a network. The deadlock put pressure on the authorities and gave the city of Paris the chance to enforce its conception.
[edit] Fulgence Bienvenüe project
On April 20, 1896, the Paris authorities adopted the Fulgence Bienvenüe network project, which would only serve the city proper of Paris. Many Parisians were worried that a network that could be extended to the industrial suburbs would reduce the safety of the city. As a result, the Paris authorities decided to forbid any development of the network to the inner suburbs. As a guarantee that such development would not occur, it was decided to make metro trains run on the right, as oppsed to existing suburban lines which ran on the left.
On July 19, 1900, the first line of the network, known as Maillot-Vincennes after the names of its termini, was inaugurated during the Paris World's Fair. The entrances to the stations were conceived in the Art Nouveau style by the architect Hector Guimard. Today, 86 of Guimard's original entrances are still in existence.
Fulgence Bienvenüe's project consisted of ten lines, which correspond to today's lines 1 to 9. The pace of construction was so intense that in 1920, despite a few changes from the original schedule, most of the planned lines had been completed. Lines 1 and 4 were conceived respectively as central east-west and central north-south lines. Two circular lines, known as ligne 2 Nord (line 2 North) and ligne 2 Sud (line 2 South) were originally planned. However, it was finally decided in 1906 to merge line 2 South with line 5. Line 3 was an additional east-west line to the north of line 1 and line 5 was an additional north-south line to the east of line 4. Line 6 would run only from Nation to Place d'Italie. Lines 7, 8 and 9 would connect commercial and office districts around the Opéra to more residential areas in the north-east and the south-west.
An additional circular line, known as ligne circulaire interieur (inner circular line) was also planned by Bienvenüe in order to connect the city's six main railway stations. The first portion of that line was inaugurated in 1923 between Invalides and the Boulevard Saint-Germain before being abandoned.
[edit] Nord-Sud: the competing network
On 31 January 1904, a second concession was granted to a company called the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris (Paris North-South underground electrical railway company) and abbreviated to the Nord-Sud (North-South) company. It was responsible for building three proposed lines:
- line A would join Montmartre to Montparnasse as an additional north-south line to the west of line 4
- line B would serve the north-west of Paris only by connecting Saint-Lazare station to Porte de Clichy and Porte de Saint-Ouen
- line C would serve the south-west only by connecting Montparnasse station to Porte de Vanves.
Line A was finally inaugurated on November 4, 1910, after being postponed because of the flood Paris experienced in January of that year. Line B was inaugurated on February 26, 1911. Because of the high construction costs, the construction of line C was postponed. The Nord-Sud company and the C.M.P company used compatible trains which could be used on both networks. However, the Nord-Sud network distinguished itself from its competitor with the high-quality decoration of its stations.
Unfortunately, despite all the Nord-Sud company's efforts, it did not manage to become profitable and bankruptcy became unavoidable. By the end of 1930, the C.M.P bought the Nord-Sud company. Line A became line 12 and line B became line 13. Line C has never been built.
[edit] 1930-1950: The first inner suburbs are reached
During the 20s, Fulgence Bienvenüe's project was nearly completed. As a consequence, the Paris authorities established a new development plan for the network, including three new lines and extensions of most lines to the inner suburbs, despite the reluctance of Parisians.
As the inner circular line planned by Bienvenüe had been abandoned, it was decided to use the already built portion between Duroc and Odéon for the creation of a new east-west line which would become today's line 10 and it would be extended west to Porte de Saint-Cloud and the inner suburbs of Boulogne.
The line C planned by the Nord-Sud company between Montparnasse station and Porte de Vanves would be finally built as an initial line 14 (different from nowadays line 14). It would also be extended northbound in encompassing the already built portion between Invalides and Duroc which was initially planned as part of the inner circular line.
Because the funicular to Belleville was saturated, it was also decided to replace it by a new metro line, line 11, which would also be extended to Châtelet. Lines 10, 11 and 14 were thus the three new lines envisaged under this plan.
In addition, most existing lines would be extended to the inner suburbs. The first line to leave the city proper was line 9, extended in 1934 to Boulogne-Billancourt; many more would follow it in the 1930s. Unfortunately, World War II forced authorities to abandon various projects such as the extension of lines 4 or 12 to the northern suburbs. By 1949, eight lines had been extended outside the city proper: line 1 to Neuilly and Vincennes, line 3 to Levallois-Perret, line 5 to Pantin, line 7 to Ivry, line 8 to Charenton, line 9 to Boulogne-Billancourt, line 11 to Les Lilas and line 12 to Issy-les-Moulineaux.
World War II had a massive impact on the Paris métro. During the German occupation, metro services were limited and many stations were closed. Because of the bombing risk, it was decided that the service between Place d'Italie and Etoile would be transferred from line 5 to line 6 so that most of the elevated portions of the Paris metro would be on a single line: line 6. As a result, lines 2 and 6 together now form a metro circle.
After the liberation by the Allied forces and the French Resistance in 1944, the network needed a long time to fully recover. Many stations had not yet reopened in the 1960s and some were finally closed, they would later be known as stations fantômes (ghost stations). On March 23, 1948, French authorities created a new company by the merger of the C.M.P (managing the subway) and the STCRP (managing bus and tramways), known as the RATP and it is still the operator of the metro network.
[edit] 1960-1990: the development of the RER
During the 1950s, extensions of the network stopped. The RATP's efforts were concentrated on the modernization of the network which had become very outdated after 50 years of existence. The first replacements of the older Sprague trains began with experimental "articulated" train units and then with new MP-55 and MP-59 trains running on rubber wheels, some of the last of which are still in service today (line 4).
From 1950 to 1980, the population of the Paris metropolitan area boomed. Automobiles became more and more popular and suburbs were situated further and further from the city proper, which still maintained its 19th century boundaries. Paris' main railway stations, which were the termini of the suburban rail lines, were severely overcrowded during the rush hours. The problem was that it was very difficult to extend existing metro lines into the suburbs because the distance separating stations in the center was very short, on average less than 500 meters. As a consequence, any extension too far from the center would not be competitive as it would be far too slow.
In the 1960s, it was decided to revive a project that had been abandoned at the end of the 19th century: joining suburban lines to new underground portions in the city center. The proposed regional metro system would be known as the réseau express régional (regional express network) (RER).
The RER plan initially included one east-west line and two north-south lines. The RATP company bought two unprofitable SNCF lines - the Ligne de St-Germain (westbound) and the Ligne de Vincennes (eastbound) with the intention of joining them and to serve multiple districts of central Paris with new underground stations. The new line created by this merger became RER A. The Ligne de Sceaux, which served the southern suburbs and was bought by the CMP in the 1930s, would be extended north to reach the new Charles de Gaulle Airport. This line would become RER B. These new lines were inaugurated in 1977 and their wild success outperformed all the most optimistic forecasts to the extent that, today, RER A is the most used urban rail line in the world with nearly 300 million journeys a year.
Because of the enormous cost of these two lines, the third planned line was abandoned and the French authorities decided that later developments of the RER network would be more cheaply developed by the SNCF company, alongside its continued management of other suburban lines. However, the RER developed by the SNCF company would never match the success of the RATP's two RER lines. In 1979, SNCF developed RER C in joining the suburban lines of Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare d'Orsay, the latter being converted into a museum dedicated to impressionist paintings. During the 1980s, it would also develop RER D line, which was the second line planned by the initial RER schedule, but would serve Châtelet instead of République to reduce costs.
The same project of the 1960s also decided to merge lines 13 and 14 to create a quick connection between Saint-Lazare and Montparnasse thanks to a new full north-south line. Distance between stations on the lengthened line 13 differs from that on other lines in order to make it more 'express' and hence to extend it further in the suburbs. The new Line 13 was inaugurated on November 9, 1976.
[edit] 1990-2010: Eole and Météor
In October 1998, the line 14 was inaugurated. It was the first fully new metro (not RER) line in 70 years. The project, which was known during its conception as Météor (Métro Est-Ouest Rapide), is still the only fully automatic line within the network. It was also the first to feature platform screen doors to prevent suicides.
It was conceived with extensions to the suburbs in mind, similar to the extensions of the line 13 built during the 1970s. As a result, most of the stations are at least a kilometer apart. Like the RER lines designed by the RATP, nearly all stations of line 14 offer connections with multiple metro lines. The line currently runs between Saint-Lazare and Bibliothèque, though an extension is in progress to Olympiades. Lines 7 and 13 are the only two of the networks to be split in branches. The RATP would like to get rid of those saturated branches in order to improve the network's efficiency. As such, a project consists in attributing to the line 14 one of branches of each line, and to extend them further in suburbs. This project has not yet been approved.
In 1999, the RER E was inaugurated as the latest extension of the network. Known during its conception as Eole (Est-Ouest Liaison Express), it is the fifth RER line serving Paris. Currently, the RER E terminates at Haussmann - Saint-Lazare, but a new project, financed by EPAD, the public authority managing the La Défense business district, should extend the line west into La Défense - Grande Arche and the suburbs beyond.
[edit] Accidents
- August 10, 1903 The Couronnes Disaster (fire), 84 killed.
- August 6, 2005, fire broke out on a train near the Simplon station. The fire injured at least 12 people before it was extinguished. Early reports blamed an electrical short circuit as the cause.
[edit] See also
- List of stations of the Paris Métro
- List of rapid transit systems
- RER, the Paris regional express network
- Transport in Paris
- Transportation in France
[edit] References
- ^ On January the 1st, 2006, a test was done with few lines opening at night on main stops only
- ^ (French) STIF. "Transport en chiffres". Retrieved on 2006-09-21.
[edit] Bibliography
- Bindi, A. & Lefeuvre, D. (1990). Le Métro de Paris: Histoire d'hier à demain, Rennes: Ouest-France. ISBN 2737302048. (French)
- Gaillard, M. (1991). Du Madeleine-Bastille à Météor: Histoire des transports Parisiens, Amiens: Martelle. ISBN 2878900138. (French)
- Hovey, Tamara. Paris Underground, New York: Orchard Books, 1991. ISBN 0531059316
[edit] External links
[edit] English
- (English) Metro Bits — Paris Gallery
- (English) Guide to the Paris Métro (PDF)
- (English) Brief tutorial and other Paris Métro essentials
- (English) Real-distance map of the Paris Métro
- (English) Unofficial site about the Paris subway
- (English) CityMayors.com article
- (English) Photographs of line 14 during the works
- (English) General Paris Métro information
[edit] French
- (French) RATP official site
- (French) Panoramic views of Paris Métro stations
- (French) Public transportations website, Paris urban community
- (French) Map of the Métro and RER
