photo(s) Paris metro and other network

[Minato ku 631]

Overview

 

Paris metro opened in July 1900.

The network is 214 km long and has 301 stations (302 on December 17).

 

There is 16 lines, numeroted from 1 to 14.

 

The oldest line is the line 1 (1900) and the newest the line 14 (1998)

The longest line is the line 13 (24.3km) and the shortest the line 3bis (1.3km)

The line with the highest number of station is the line 8 (38 stations) and the line with the lowest number is the line 3bis (4 stations) .

The buseist line is the line 1 (725,000) and the least busy is the line 3bis (10,000).

 

Two lines have a driverless operation: line 1 and 14.

Only three lines don"t have an automatic operation (lines 3bis, 7bis and 10)

 

Rolling stock

There are 8 main rolling stock on the network.

Train are called by there mode (steel or rubber tired) and the date of conception.

MF for steel train and MP for rubber tired train.

 

MF59 (1963 - 1974): lines 4 and 11

There is only 3 trains left on line 4, I don't think that any will be on the line 2013.

 

MF67 (1967 - 1976): line 3, 3bis, 5, 9, 10 and 12

The MF67 has been withdraw of the line 2 and is being replaced on line 5. The line 9 will follow by 2013

 

MP73 (1974 - 1976): line 6

 

MF77 (1978 - 1986): lines 7, 8 and 13

 

MF88 (1992 - 1994): line 7bis

 

MP89 (1995 - 2000); CC for lines 1 and 4 CA for line 14

CC for Conduite Conducteur, the manual driver.

The MP89 CC of the line 1 are being transfered to the line 4 as the line 1 become driverless

CA is for Conduite Automatic, driverless.

 

MF01 (2008 - 20...): lines 2 and 5

 

MP05 (2011 - 2012) line 1

 

 

Ridership

 

 

The network carried 1.524 billion passengers in 2011.

It is the second highest ridership reccorded by the network.

 

This is five busiest years of Paris metro.

1946: 1.598 billion

2011: 1.524 billion

1945: 1.508 billion

2010: 1.506 billion

2009: 1.479 billion

 

Why such a high ridership in 1946 ? It is because just after the WW2, the metro was the only rapid mode of transportation.

Because of the war the number of private cars and buses was low and gas was lacking.

Unlike many other cities, Paris abolished its tram network during the 1930's.

 

Infact the WW2 did a boost in the network before the network carried less than one billion

 

1920: 0.688 billion

1925: 0.794 billion

1930: 0.888 billion

1935: 0.831 billion

1940: 0.650 billion

It is in 1941 that the traffic of Paris exceeded for the first time the billion annual passengers with a ridership of 1.035 billion.

It never felt under the billion mark since then.

 

After the few difficult years after the WW2, traffic back to normal level.

Between 1950 and 2000 the traffic stagnated between 1.1 and 1.2 billion passengers.

1950: 1.129 billion

1955: 1.078 billion

1960: 1.166 billion

1965: 1.202 billion

1970: 1.128 billion

1975: 1.055 billion

1980: 1.094 billion

1985: 1.177 billion

1990: 1.226 billion

1995: 1.029 billion (big strike)

1996: 1.091 billion

2000: 1.247 billion

 

It is really in the 2000's that traffic began to really grow again.

 

This is the 20 busiest station by the number of entry in 2011

Note this is only the entrances coming from outside the RATP railway network.

A transfer between the RER and the metro at Chatelet-Les-Halles is not included in the number of Châtelet while a transfer between the RER and the metro at Bibliothèque François Mitterrand is included in the number of Bibliothèque François Mitterrand. The RER serving BFM station is SNCF.

The number of entry of some stations are in reality much higher.

​I believe that there are over 40 million entry at Chatelet, over 20 million at Opéra, Charles de Gaulle Etoile and Nation and over 15 million at Denfert-Rocherau and Havre Caumartin. Some are not in the ranking because

• Gare du Nord: 48,146,629
• Saint-Lazare: 46,790,941
• Gare de Lyon: 34,523,049
• Montparnasse-Bienvenue: 31,152,275
• Gare de l'Est: 19,671,320
• République: 17,095,806
• Bibliothèque François Mitterrand: 15,826,727
• Châtelet: 14,440,964
• La Défense: 13,853,216
• Les Halles: 13,113,834
• Hotel de Ville: 12,760,823
• Franklin D Roosevelt: 12,640,577
• Bastille: 12,517,181
• Opéra: 12,389,715
• Place d'Italie: 12,168,442
• Belleville: 11,794,952
• Porte d’Orléans: 9,598,097
• Palais Royal: 9,559,535
• Nation: 9,481,963
• Barbès–Rochechouart: 9,323,474

[Via Garibaldi 8 9,649]

Maybe you can shed some light on why the Metro is so clean compared to the NYC subway system? Even the old stations there are spotless...

[Minato ku 631]

Paris metro is not spotless, infact it can be quite dirty.

The dirtiness is not visible in picture.

There are homeless living in some stations and tunnels have graffiti. It is not Tokyo.

 

A picture for you, Garibaldi station.

The station is located on the Saint Denis branch of the line 13, it opened in 1952.

Funny fact Paris had a Garibaldi metro station before any Italian city.

It is one of the last station built in the old metro style.

The station had 3,088,530 entries in 2011 and it is the 171th busiest of the network.

 

[FamousNYLover 578]

I loved it.

If possible, can you take pictures of Paris Bus fleet network as well?

[Minato ku 631]

RATP bus network

There are other bus network in suburbs but this post will be only about the RATP network that serves inner Paris and the inner suburbs.

 

351 lines

~12,000 stops

4,544 buses in Deccember 2012

3,787 normal bus

554 articulated bus

193 minibus

 

1,001 billion passengers in 2011

 

Since November 2011, all the stock is low floor.

The last high floor stock (1988-1996 Renault R312 was withdraw).

 

Some pictures

The most common bus stock are the Renault/Irisbus Agora and Irisbus Citelis.

There are several versions of those, it would be too complicated to detail all.

 

Renault Agora

Irisbus Citelis and Renault Agora

Scania Omnicity

Man Lion'City and Irisbus Citelis

Mercedes Citaro

Irisbus Agora L

Man Lion's City G

[Minato ku 631]

Paris suburban rail network

 

The network is 1,500km long and has 448 stations.

It is made of RER lines running underground in Central Paris and other suburban serving the surface platform of the main railway terminals.

There are 5 RER line and 8 suburban lines/networks based on the terminal stations.

 

Gare de Nord: H, K

Gare Saint Lazare: J, L

Gare Montparnasse: N

Gare de l'Est: P

Gare de Lyon: R

La Défense: U The U line is the only that don't serve any station in Central Paris.

 

The suburban network is operated by two compagny SNCF and RATP, the RATP operated most of the RER A and the central and southern part of the RER B.

The SNCF operate the rest of the network

 

Unlike the metro I will not review all the rolling stock

 

MS61 of the RER A at Nation

MI09 of the RER A at Charles de Gaulle Etoile

MI79 of the RER B at Bourg la Reine

MI2N of the RER E at Pantin

On the Left Z5000 of H network and on the right a Z2N of the RER C arriving at Ermont Eaubonnes in northwestern outer suburb.

Z5300 of the network R in Melun

Z6400 of the network L at la Garenne Colombes

VB2N of the network J passing thru Clichy-Levallois station

 

Ridership

 

Suburban commuters at Montparnasse

 

2011

SNCF RER and suburban train: 0.698 billion

RATP RER: 0.469 billion

Total suburban rail network: 1.167 billion

 

The average workday traffic by line

RER A: over 1 million

RER B: 900,000

RER C: 540,000

RER D: 550,000

RER E: 316,000

H: 200,000

J: 226,000

K: 10,230

L: 291,600

N: 117,000

P: 83,000

R: 60,000

U: 50,000

 

In bonus, a timelapse video of train arriving or departing at Saint Lazare terminal in Central paris.

There is a train arriving or departing every 28 seconds in rush hours.

[Minato ku 631]

Paris tram network

 

Paris has a relatively small tram network, mostly on the periphery but it will grow as there are four lines under in construction.

the end of 2012 has been very busy year on extension opening, 23.6 new km, 43 new stations and a new lines.

 

The first line T1 opened in 1992 and the last T3b in December 2012.

Paris has a large tram network in the past but it had been abolished in the 1930's.

 

The network is 65,2km long and has 112 stations.

The network is made of 5 lines

 

The T4 is operated by the SNCF as it is a tram train using train track, the rest are operated by the RATP.

Paris tram system carried 114 million passangers in 2011

 

T1: TFS (1992-1997)

T2: Citadis 302 (2002-2012)

T3a and T3b: Citadis 402 (2006-2012)

T4: Avento S70 or U 25500 (2006)

 

Paris tram network toward 2020

Note that the T3a to Porte de Vincennes and the T3b form Porte de Vincennes to Porte de la Chapelle run since December 2012.

[Minato ku 631]

Yesterday the 302th stations of Paris metro opened

 

Front Populaire.

This station is the first step of extension to Mairie d'Aubervilliers (2 other stations) in northeastern inner suburb of Aubervilliers.

Paris city limits are quite small, so the inner suburbs are equivalent to the outer boroughs of New York City.

For Aubervilliers, think of the South Bronx.

 

Unlike many other extensions in several steps, in this one they build the whole tunnel to Mairie d'Aubervilliers, so only the stations remain to be built. The two other stations will open by the end of 2017.

 

The previous noprthern terminal station of line, Porte de la Chapelle, opened in 1916.

The last extension of the line 12 was in 1934 with the station Mairie d'Issy in the southern part of the line.

 

The area (Plaine Saint Denis) around the station is a huge former industrial district in redevelopment.

Main entrances hall with the new type of turnsikes.

skylight

Map of the line on the elevator

 

MF67 rolling stok of the line 12.

Note the last time the MF67 has seen the opening of a new station was in 1985 with the extension of the line 5 to Bobigny.

 

[Minato ku 631]

As the extension opened, there been some minor changes at the former terminal station.

 

Porte de la Chapelle

They added new fare gates, the former turnstiles only provided entrance to the southbound platforms.

A picture of the former turnstiles.

These were closer to the platforms but could only give access to the southbound platform.

A view of the platforms

Northbound platform is no a longer a terminus but they haven't added yet the real-time information planel.

 

Porte de la Chapelle has three tracks and two island platforms, the station is in the Nord Sud style, with green ceramics lines.

Nord Sud (North South) was a metro company that operated the lines 12 and 13 (A and B) before the company was taken by the CMP (Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris, the other and main metro company) in the 1929.

The main difference between the Nord Sud and CMP metro is the height of the vault, Nord Sud used overhead wires while CMP used the third rail.

Also the stations of the Nord Sud have more ornaments.

 

For the stats, Porte de la Chapelle had 3,431,552 entrances in 2011. It is the 149th busiest of the network.

[FamousNYLover 578]

Excellent pictures.

By the way, is your city close to Eurostar? If possible, can you take pic of it and can make seperate photo/video section here?

[Minato ku 631]

Thank you.

For the Eurostar, you will need to wait a bit, the weather is quite bad these days and I am going in the South of France for Christmas holiday.

 

Porte de Vincennes

The station opened in 1900, it was the eastern terminal stop of the line. It is made of two platforms hall.

Originally the station had four tracks and two island platforms, this is why platforms are so wide.

The station was lengthened during the 1960's to cope with 6 cars trains.

Porte de Vincennes had 4,363,767 entries in 2011, the 107th of the network.

 

There are platform doors and the train is a driverless MP05.

Note that this December 21 is the last day with some manually driven trains running on line 1.

[Minato ku 631]

End of the MP 59 stock on the line 4.

According some people working at the RATP, this December 21 was the last day of service for the MP59 on line 4.

This stock served the line 4 since 1966.

 

Note that many running were even older, in the end of the 1990's, the RATP scrapped many of the unrefurbished MP59 of the line 4 and replaced them by the older but refurbished MP59 of the line 1 when the MP89 arrived on line 1 .

It is the same MP89 (former of the line 1) that will replace the MP59 (former of the line 1) on line 4.

 

 

It is not the end of the MP59 on the network, this rolling stock is still running on line 11.

[Minato ku 631]

Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame

Platforms of the line B opened in 1988, this is the only Tube style station on Paris network.

This station has also the particularity to be built under the Seine river, there are exits on two sides of the river (left bank and Cité island).

Saint-Michel-Notre-Dame had a terrorist attack in July 1995, causing the death of 8 people.

 

 

_________________________________________

 

The RER B is the second busiest railway line in Paris with 900,000 daily passengers.

The line is 80km long and serves 47 stations.

The south of Gare du Nord is operated by the RATP and the north of Gare du Nord is operated by the SNCF.

 

Map of the RER B by wikipedia

<south - north >

[Minato ku 631]

Boulevard Masséna

This station closed in 2000 when the station Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand (located 500m more in the north) opened.

The "new" station is connected with the metro (line 14).

Boulevard Masséna was a small station with a very low ridership, on the other hand the new Bibliothèque François Mitterrand is a major station. It is the second busiest station of the RER C thanks to a connection with the line 14 and the development of the area.

 

Former station building.

A Z2N of the RER C, we can see a bit of the platform of the former station

When Boulevard Massena closed in 2000, the area was an industrial wasteland around the tracks of Austerlitz train terminal, It changed a lot since then.

In few years, this "hole" will be covered by buildings

[Minato ku 631]

Nation

Nation is a big square and traffic circle located at the east end of Central Paris.

The station is served by four metro lines (1, 2, 6 and 9) and the RER A.

The metro station had 9,481,963 entries in 2011 but this number doesn't include the transfer with the RER A.

I made some estimation with the data of the RER A I have and it get me a number of entry above 25 million.

 

The platform of the line 2 opened in 1903, it is the eastern terminal station of the line.

The line 2 forms the northern side of the "circular" of Paris metro (line 2 and 6), note that the two lines are independent and have never formed a single circular line.

The platform of the line 6 opened in 1909.

As for the line 2, Nation is also the eastern terminal stop of the line 6. The line 6 is rubber tired.

 

Both terminal stations have two tracks, one island platform and are followed by a loop to reverse train.

Track map of Nation

 

If you want any information or photo about the network don't hesitate to ask.

[compobus fan 55]

Paris tram network

 

Paris has a relatively small tram network, mostly on the periphery but it will grow as there are four lines under in construction.

the end of 2012 has been very busy year on extension opening, 23.6 new km, 43 new stations and a new lines.

 

The first line T1 opened in 1992 and the last T3b in December 2012.

Paris has a large tram network in the past but it had been abolished in the 1930's.

 

The network is 65,2km long and has 112 stations.

The network is made of 5 lines

 

The T4 is operated by the SNCF as it is a tram train using train track, the rest are operated by the RATP.

Paris tram system carried 114 million passangers in 2011

 

T1: TFS (1992-1997)

T2: Citadis 302 (2002-2012)

T3a and T3b: Citadis 402 (2006-2012)

T4: Avento S70 or U 25500 (2006)

 

Paris tram network toward 2020

Note that the T3a to Porte de Vincennes and the T3b form Porte de Vincennes to Porte de la Chapelle run since December 2012.

 

 

Love the grass under layer, that would go well here !!!

[Via Garibaldi 8 9,649]

Paris metro is not spotless, infact it can be quite dirty.

The dirtiness is not visible in picture.

There are homeless living in some stations and tunnels have graffiti. It is not Tokyo.

 

A picture for you, Garibaldi station.

The station is located on the Saint Denis branch of the line 13, it opened in 1952.

Funny fact Paris had a Garibaldi metro station before any Italian city.

It is one of the last station built in the old metro style.

The station had 3,088,530 entries in 2011 and it is the 171th busiest of the network.

 

 

lol... Some stations can be spotless just as we have them in Italy... The Metro in Milan comes to mind as being very clean... There are always exceptions of course, but the stations generally are far cleaner than your usual subway station here. Yes graffiti can be a problem as we have it in Italy too but overall the stations are cleaner. Graffiti is a problem throughout Europe though.

[Minato ku 631]

Compared with New York subway maybe (but I never been here so I cannot really judge) but if we compare with other european networks, Paris metro is not spotless.

We could do much better about cleaness and maintaining.

 

There are some stations in pretty bad state. Water infiltration is quite a big problem on the network.

Among the worst

 

Porte des Lilas

This stations is a step back 50 years ago.

Good point: I quite like the ticket hall but it need a little refresh.

Add the fact that Porte des Lilas is quite deep and it also served by the empty and tiny line 3bis, this reinforces the impression of being in another era.

 

Jaures

Well, Facilities are more modern than in Porte des Lilas but the station has some big problem with water and humidity.

Good point: a big renovation is planned but for the moment it is the platform of the line 5 that are closed.

 

Anyway even with its flaws I love Paris metro.

It has a heart and a pulse, it is not soulless unlike many newer system.

 

[bad faith]OK, German subway systems are cleaner but Paris metro carrying more passsengers than all the metro network of Germany combined and Germany is the second country of the European Union by metro ridership[/bad faith]

 

Love the grass under layer, that would go well here !!!

 

It is pretty common in France.

[Minato ku 631]

I don't know if you know Carto.Metro.

It is a site with the track map of Paris metro, RER, and tram network.

It also feature maps for other cities like London, Madrid etc...

Carto.metro

 

I will quite often post link of maps from this site, it already was the case for Nation, a few posts above.

The pictures are good for showing things, but they are not always sufficient to show some details.

[Minato ku 631]

Renault Agora S GNV (natural gas vehicle).

Maisons-Alfort Ecole Vétérinaire (metro line 8) is the best place to see those buses.

 

Bus lines 24, 103, 104 and 181 use it, that 4 of the 7 lines that use the Agora GNV on the RATP network.

The 6th and 7th line, the number 109 and 217 also run in this area but don't serve Maisons-Alfort Ecole Vétérinaire.

 

 

 

There are 91 buses of this type, built between 1999 and 2003.

All these buses are managed by the bus center of Créteil.

[FamousNYLover 578]

I don't know if you know Carto.Metro.

It is a site with the track map of Paris metro, RER, and tram network.

It also feature maps for other cities like London, Madrid etc...

Carto.metro

 

I will quite often post link of maps from this site, it already was the case for Nation, a few posts above.

The pictures are good for showing things, but they are not always sufficient to show some details.

 

 

Excellent shot.

I love that track map. It give me idea for story.

 

Do you know Veolia Transportation aka Transvdev?

[Minato ku 631]

Yes, it is a big french transportation operator company that operates many transportation systems all over the world.

I wouldn't say "Veolia aka Transdev"..

Until 2011, Veolia transport and Transdev were two different companies, they merged into a single one Veolia Transdev.

 

There are plenty of bus networks in Paris suburbs operated by Veolia Transdev.

 

Here some buses (silver lively) of the TRA Veolia network (serving the northeastern surbs) at Aulnay sous Bois.

Veolia Montesson (serving the western outer suburbs) in Versailles.

Plenty more... but I don't have the pictures in my laptop.

All these small or medium networks are regrouped in an organisation called Optile

 

PS: The STIF (in the first picture) is the regional transportation organisation autority for Paris region (Ile de France, it is more or less Paris metropolitan area).

the STIF controls the transportation infrastructures and coordinates the different transport companies operating in the area.

[FamousNYLover 578]

How is Veolia is doing their job in France transportation?

In Nassau County, some passengers aren't happy with Veolia.

[Minato ku 631]

It really depends, as I heard it goes from good to bad but I cannot really judge because I almost never taken a network operated by Veolia.

A big company like Veolia manages several networks in different ways.

[Minato ku 631]

La Défense

La Défense is a big commercial hub located at the west of Paris, it is the largest concentration of skyscrapers in Europe.

The RER station of la Defense opened in 1970. It has four tracks and two huge island platforms.

It had 34.9 million entries in 2011 (only for the RER).

 

The big transportation hall of la Défense was built with the RER station.

It connects the RER with the metro, suburban trains, tram and bus.

There are plenty of retail spaces, fast foods restaurants and it is directly connected with shopping malls of la Défense.

The platform hall is HUGE

In rush hours, trains use the four tracks, this allow a higher boarding time.

In off peaks, the two central tracks are only used by the services limited to la Défense.

 

A common situation in the RER A.

_______________________________________________

 

The RER A is the busiest railway line in Paris and in western Europe with 1.1 million daily passengers.

The line is 107km long and serves 46 stations.

Most of the line is operated by the RATP excepted the Poissy/Cergy - Nanterre branches at the west of the line which are operated by the SNCF.