photo(s) Paris metro and other network

[Minato ku]

 Mairie de Clichy

The station opened in 1980 when the northwest branch of the line 13 was extended from Porte de Clichy to Asniere-Genevilliers (it was latter extended of two stations in 2008).

Mairie de Clichy is located in the densely populated northwestern inner suburbs of Clichy, the station has a typical design of the end 1970's early 1980's.

A simple box with two mezzanines for the ticket halls.

 

Mairie de Clichy had 6,892,451 entries in 2011.

 

The station is located on one of the most crowded section of Paris metro. Why? Because of the branches, note that both are overcrowded.

Both sections would need a full metro service to cope with the passengers traffic but because of the branches, they get only half of the frequencies.

I took this picture in the middle of the day, so offpeak.

 

After Mairie de Clichy in northwest bound the line goes elevated to cross the Seine river.

Forget the elegant elevated bridges built in the early 1900's and welcome to the utilitarian concrete.

 

[Minato ku]

 Ghost running

The T5 is the 6th tram line that will open in Paris area, unlike the other tram lines opened before, the T5 is a Translohr.

Translohr is a rubber tired tram system, it runs on tires and is guided by a single central rail.

 

T5 links Saint-Denis center at Marché de Saint-Denis station (transfer with T1 and metro line 13)  with Garges-Sarcelles (RER D) in northern suburbs.

The line is 6.6km long with 16 stations.

 

The opening of the T5 is planned for the end of July early August.

The line is in ghost running phase, during four weeks the line will be operated like normal commercial service but without passengers.

At bottom of the picture you can see Marché de Saint-Denis station, the southern terminal stop of T5 and a tram of the line T1 (see post#154)

The area where cars are parked is bike lanes, some cars parked here obstruct the tram, especially the delivery vans.

 

 

First days of ghost running have been rather chaotic, many people use the tram lanes as parking or fast way to avoid traffic.

Especially some youth with scooters. 

[Minato ku]

New bus stop design

The former model style was in place since 1949, the RATP decided to update it.

Only a few bus stop have this new design, the overall majority still has the old model.

 

Out of a more modern design the main difference of this new model is that the stop name is more visible.

In the old model, the station name is on the road side, it is not easy for pedestrian to see it.

 

[realizm]

Woah, you're not playing with this thread, it looks way better then even the wiki article (or the other transit sites that covers this mass transit system) on this that's for sure. I got alot of catching up to do on the good reads here.

 

Add: Five solid stars on this one!

[bobtehpanda]

Like the design, but is there any particular reason for the odd bulge in the pole at the bottom of the new design?

 

New York could use some better signage as well...

[Minato ku]

Like the design, but is there any particular reason for the odd bulge in the pole at the bottom of the new design?

Just design.

 

 Automation of line 4 has been approved by regional autority.

 

 

RATP cleared to automate Paris metro Line 4

12 Jul 2013

FRANCE: The board of Ile de France transport authority STIF voted on July 10 to approve the conversion of Paris metro Line 4 to fully-automated operation, endorsing proposals submitted by operator RATP on June 28.

 

Carrying 740 000 passengers/day, the north-south Line 4 is the second-busiest metro line in Paris after east-west Line 1, where the conversion to unattended operation was completed in December 2012. The 12·1 km rubber-tyred line links Porte de Clignancourt with Mairie de Montrouge, serving 27 stations including the main line termini at Nord, Est and Montparnasse. It is the only line that interchanges with all other metro and RER routes in the city. A 1·7 km southern extension from Montrouge to Bagneux is currently under construction.

 

Work on Line 4 is expected to begin next year for completion in 2019. This will include the installation of half-height platform screen gates at all stations, as well as the ATO equipment. Total cost of the conversion is put at €256m, of which €100m will be provided by STIF.

 

Under RATP’s proposal, Line 4 will be operated by the existing fleet of driverless trainsets now used on the Météor automated Line 14, which are due to be replaced by new trains when that route is extended from Saint-Lazare to Mairie de Saint-Ouen. Line 14 currently has a mix of MP89CA trainsets supplied by Alstom for the opening of the line, augmented by a handful of MP05 sets of the type introduced on Line 1 during the automation of that route. Transferring these sets to Line 4 would in turn enable RATP to cascade the manually-driven MP89 sets which Line 4 inherited from Line 1 to replace older stock on other rubber-tyred routes.

 

Citing its experience on Line 1, RATP said the conversion of Line 4 to UTO would allow it to increase capacity, improve punctuality and the quality of service, as well as enhancing its ability to react to changing demand patterns. It would also improve safety, thanks to the introduction of the platform screen doors.

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/ratp-cleared-to-automate-paris-metro-line-4.html

[Minato ku]

  Z 50000 enter in service on the Transilien L network.

After the H (Gare du Nord) and P (Gare de l'Est), it is the L network that see its first Z 50000 trains, like for the two other network it is a big change.

L is dominated by Z 6400 train built between 1976 and 1979 and there is a few double decker Z 20500 (Z2N) built in early 1990's, none have air conditioning.

The Z 50000 introduce air conditioning and many other high tech feature.

Almost ten years ago I was jalous of the Japanese train with LCD screen, now we have train that easily beat them, maybe too much.   

 

For now, the Z 50000 on network L are limited to the short Saint-Lazare to Bécon-les-Bruyères local service (5.7km and 5 stops).

Ceiling lights change colors (there is red, blue, orange). Unnecessary maybe but before we our trains were too limited to basics. 

Z 5000 at Bécon-les-Bruyères

Unlike the Z 50000 on the H and P, those on L network have a shorter car in the middle because the platform on Saint-Lazare networks are shorter.

For the moment on the Saint-Lazare to Bécon-les-Bruyères local service, we don't need two EMU but in the future when Z 50000 will run on all the line L, many services will use two EMU.

Z 6400 next to a Z 50000

Some passengers switch of train because the Z 6400 run in a more "express" service (serves every station except one). It doesn't stop at the next station Asnières-sur-Seine.

 

As in the other Parisian suburban network were this stock was introduced, passenger welcomed the change, especially the having shiny, clean and air-conditioned trains.

Note that this is not the first roilling stock with air conditioning.

This is a more common feature on suburban train than subway or bus but we still have many old trains without them in service.

 

The Z 50000 had numerous technical problems during its early month, now the train is reliable.

[Minato ku]

 Barbès - Rochechouart

The platforms of line 2 are closed until August 30 to renovate the glass canopies.

The summer (July and August) is the vacation period and the number of people in Paris significantly decreases (despite being the busiest period for leisure tourism but Paris life and economy don't revolve around tourism), the traffic demand is lower and as this fact the frequencies in public transport decrease.

This is the time where many major renovation projects are done, by example a part of the central section of the RER C closes every summer since more than 15 years to renovate an over a century old tunnel next to the Seine river.

This summer, the elevated section of line 5 (see posts #148 and 149) is closed for major work and there are dozen of other works (metro line 13, RER A, B, C, D... all will have some disruption) to have a better network in September when the city life is back to normal pace.

 

Barbès - Rochechouart is a busy station in the north of central Paris located in a busy working class shopping district, the lines 2 and 4 intersects here.

The platforms of line 2 are elevated and the platforms of line 4 are underground.

The elevated platform opened in 1903 and the underground in 1908.

 

It is among the oldest elevated metro station build in Paris with the following stations on line 2 (La Chapelle, Stalingrad, Jaurès).

Unlike the elevated stations on the line 6 built few years later, the elevated stations of the line 2 are not completely covered by a single glass canopy.

Line 4 plaforms are curved

Distance between station are short in Paris metro, you can see Château Rouge the previous stations.

 

Barbès - Rochechouart had 9,323,474 entries in 2011, this number does not include transfer between line 2 and 4.

[Minato ku]

 Château-Landon

The station opened in 1910.

Château-Landon is located at the northeastern side of Gare de l'Est terminal.

The station is directly connected to the platforms of Gare de l'Est by an underground corridor.

 

Connection to Gare de l'Est

Southbound platform

 

Château-Landon had 1,600,022 entries in 2011.

[Minato ku]

 Noisy-le-Grand - Mont d'Est

A new entrance with a new bus station opened last month.

The former bus station was old and cramped, it will be demolished to increase the size of the 60,000 sq ft Les Arcades shopping mall.

 

Noisy-le-Grand - Mont d'Est is the located in Noisy-le-Grand, a eastern suburbs of Paris, in the district of Mont d'Est an edge city developped during the end 1970's-1980's. The station is directly connected with the mall.

It is part of the new town of Marne-la Vallée even if most people (including me) really define the new town with the areas located further east where is located Disneyland (10 miles from here).  

The station opened in December 1977 with the Marne la Vallée branch of the RER A. It was at this time the eastern terminus of this branch which has been extended twice since then.

Noisy-le-Grand - Mont d'Est has three tracks and two island platforms, the middle track is used for the services that terminate at this station.

 

The new entrance

Some buses, the bus station is served by 7  lines during the day (120, 206, 207, 303, 306, 310 and 320) and two night bus lines (N34 and N130)

Inside the new ticket hall

Eastbound platform, the central track called Z is for the service terminating here.

The older and other ticket hall

 

Noisy-le-Grand - Mont d'Est had 6,866,727 entries in 2011, making it the second busiest station in Marne la Vallée branch.

[realizm]

Wow, like +2 on the posts on the line 4 curves and the quality of the shots, beautiful architecture incorporated into these stations.  

[Minato ku]

End of the bus line 168

Yesterday was the last service day of the RATP bus line 168.

This bus line between Saint-Denis and Garges-Sarcelles in northern Paris suburbs follows the route the tram line T5.

In few hours, the tram T5 will begin service and this puts an end to a bus line created in 1945.

 

 

 

This is also the end for these Renault Agora in service on this line since January 1998.

 

[Minato ku]

As you may expect after the previous post

 

  First day of service

Today, the sixth tram line of Paris opened. I already did a post about this line (post #227).

This is a rubber tired tram guided by a single central rail, a system called Translohr. T5 is 6.6 km long and has 16 stop.

 

Paris tram network has now 6 lines (T1, T2, T3a, T3b, T4 and T5) 71.1km and 127 stations. 

Note that there is only three stations wich provides connection between two tram lines because the lines are dispersed all around the city.

The next opening of a tram line will be the T7 in southern suburbs at the end of the year.

 

Marché de Saint-Denis, the southern terminus stop of the line, it provides connection with tram line T1 and metro line 13.

With the summer schedules, I find that the frequencies were a bit too low, this will be better in September.

Inside the tram with a map of rail network in northern Paris.

Translohr are quite narrow

Near Pierrefitte town hall. Just mentioning the names of municipalities served by this line is enough to scare a wealthy inhabitant of central or west Paris.   

The northern last station, Garges - Sarcelles which provides a connection with the RER D and numerous bus lines.

 

 

The ride is a bit less smooth than a regular tram but Translohr can take tighter curve

Many Paris transit fans (including me) would have prefered a normal tram, Paris tram network is a mess of several lines which are incompatible with each other. Translohr has also a pretty reputation because of several derailments and fires. The system has been improved since then.

[Minato ku]

Same area as the previous post.

 

 Garges - Sarcelles

Garges - Sarcelles opened in 1959 as a very small stop to serve the new housing blocks district, the size was then increased in 1965 and in 1988 the station was rebuilt to cope with the traffic.

 

The station is located on the Paris-Lille main line in the northern suburbs of Sarcelles and Garges-lès-Gonesse.

Garges - Sarcelles  is only served by the RER train but there are various high speed trains, regional and other trains passing through this station without stopping (almost all the intercity traffic of Gare du Nord).

The station has five tracks (one without access to a platforms) and three platforms (one side and two island), only two platforms are used.

 

With the arrival of the T5, the front of the station and the bus station is being redeveloped.

A part of the bus station

A northbound RER D train leaving the station. You can see the unused platform where pass the non stopping trains.

The different traffics are segregated, RER D and others trains don't use the same tracks.

A southbound train RER D arriving 

An Eurostar train (old picture taken in Fall 2010).

 

[Minato ku]

You have been warned, sometimes our operators can drive trains abruptly. 

Our old ATO system is also quite abrupt in some case.

 

[Minato ku]

Looking the thread about the 100th anniversary of Chamber street extension of the BRT, I noticed that I forgot the 100th anniversary of Paris metro the line 8.

The first section of the line 8 opened on July 13 1913 between Beaugrenelle (now called Charles Michels) and Opéra but the line no longer follow this path.

​Today the station Charles Michels is part of the line 10 while Opéra is still part of the line 8.

As I already wrote in the post about Motte-Picquet-Grenelle (see post #165), in 1937 a big rerouting was done between lines 8 and 10.

 

 Charles Michels

The station took the its actual name in 1945, Charles Michels was a communist deputy killed by the Nazi in 1941.

The square above the station took its name and then the station.

Beaugrenelle,  the former name was publicity name created by the property developers during the urbanization of this part of Grenelle district. Beaugrenelle means beautiful Grenellle. This name has remained, today this area is still called Beaugrenelle.

The funny note is that Beaugrenelle is maybe aesthetically the ugliest part of Grenelle. The area was very industrial in the early 20th and was redeveloped during the 60-70's. Today with the construction of a mall (the largest mall in construction in inner Paris since 1979), this asthetical aspect of the district is improving.

I like this neighborhood, it is a rather wealthy and expensive area near the Eiffel tower but it is still socially mixed.

 

The station had carrossage (metal paneling) style (see post #128) and like many other it was removed during the end of the 2000's with a renovation of the station.

Charles Michels had 3,892,728 entries in 2011.

 

 Opéra

Opéra opened in 1904 with the line 3, what is particular about this stattion is that all big infrastructures was built at the beginning.

So even of the line 8 opened in 1913,  almost ten year latter, the structural work for the line 8 at Opera was done during the construction of line 3.

When Parios metro project was approved in 1896, it is not just the fist line that was planned 

I will write more about this big station in a later post.

 

In  the 1970's with the construction of the RER A, the station was reorganized and its walls had became blue.

Opéra lost its blue color with renovation done during the mid 2000's. I miss the former style of the station. 

[Minato ku]

 Yellow jacket RATP agents

Also called flow regulators, their jobs is to decrease the dwelling time by taking care of the closing doors, ensuring that passengers entering let other passengers leaving before going on and other things for having a smooth service.

A lower dwelling time means that more trains can run, more trains running is a bigger capacity and a bigger capacity means less crowding. 

 

The RER A with 1.1 million passengers is the busiest line in Western Europe.

The line is a mix of four different rolling stocks which do not have the same dimensions.

There are one level trains and double-decker trains, there are 220m long trains and some other are only 208m.

This heterogeneous mix of trains means that there is a difference between passenger flow from one stock to an other, complicating even more the operation of the line.

 

MI 84

Some difficulty to close one door.

MI 09

 

In the next years the stock of the RER A will become more homogeneous, the MI 84 built in the end of the 1980's are under withdrawal, replaced by the new MI 09.

It is not the oldest stock of the line but those are less long, narrow and have much less capacity that the other trains of the line.

After the full withdrawal. of the MI 84 of the RER A in 2014, it is the MS 61 built between 1967 and 1979 that will be replaced again by the MI 09.

 

The third stock of the RER A, the MI 2N was built between 1996 and 2005 and the MI 09 have the same dimensions.

Infact the MI 09 is just the new generation of the MI2N.

 

A MI 09 next to a MI 2N.

 

Double-decker trains are not necessarily the best choice for a high frequencies line like the RER A, even if those trains are the only bi-level with three doors by cars to have a good exchange capacity compared with other double-decker trains which pale with their long dwelling time on stations.

[Minato ku]

 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre

Le Kremlin-Bicêtre station opened in December 1982, the station is located in the southern inner suburbs of Kremlin-Bicêtre.

This is the first station in Villejuif branch after the central section.

Until 1985 and the opening of three other stations, le Kremlin-Bicêtre was the only station in this branch and the southern terminal stop.

 

While this section is very busy due to the smaller size of its branches it has much less issues than the line 13 .

 

Le Kremlin-Bicêtre is built in the same style that many other Paris metro stations of the 70's, early 80's.

It is basically a big box with a mezzanine. The cheapest way possible.

I wrote a post about Mairie de Clichy (post #226) but unlike the previous Le Kremlin-Bicêtre has even the right colors to feel back in the 1970's, early 1980's. 

Cheap and functionnal

 

Le Kremlin-Bicêtre had 4,492,364 entries in 2011.

[Turbo19]

Wow. Awesome shots!

 

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the detailed info!

[Minato ku]

 Denfert-Rochereau

The station opened in 1906 with the line 2 south, now line 6.

The station is located under Place Denfert-Rochereau in the south of Central Paris.

The platforms of line 4 opened in 1909, so unlike what the numbers might say the platforms of line 6 are older than those of line 4. Infact the line 6 is older than line 4.

Denfert-Rochereau metro station provides an interchange with the RER B. 

 

Both the platforms of lines 4 and 6 are curved at this station.

 

Line 4 platforms, Denfert-Rochereau is the only station on line 4 with carrossage (metal paneling) style.

This means that platforms has been renovated during the 60's.

Line 6 platforms. Here we have an Andreu-Motte style with the use of white tiles combined orange or other colorful colors.

It indicates a renovation done during the 70's 80's.

Denfert-Rochereau hasn't been renovated since a long time and still has a lot of old style colorless signaling planels from the 80's.

I took this picture before the opening of Mairie de Montrouge but today only the signs to the southbound line 4 have been updated, the other are still old.

Also note the old lighting system. Cables and pipes are hidden in the more recently renovated stations.

 

Denfert-Rochereau had 4,335,086 entries in 2011 but this number doesn't include the connection with the RER B.

I estimate that if we include people coming from the RER B, Denfert-Rochereau metro station has more than 15 million entries.

 

The next post will be obviously about the RER B station of Denfert-Rochereau.

[Minato ku]

 Denfert-Rochereau

The station was at first called Paris d'Enfer station.

D'Enfer because it was the name of the square at that time, an entry of the City of Paris. The square and the station was renamed after the colonel Pierre Philippe Denfert-Rochereau who successfully defended the besieged City of Belfort during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71.

The station was build in 1842 and it opened in 1846.

 

It was the Paris railway terminal of Sceaux line, a line that linked Paris with the rural town of Sceaux (now an inner suburb of Paris).

The station building has a circular sharpe because of the system used by the first Sceaux line, the train could use sharpe curve. 

This system was created because the area around Sceaux was hilly, steam trains at that time could not could not climb the slopes and it was too expensive to create tunnel.

Later in the end of the 19th century the line was rebuilt and extended and this system was abandonned in favor of convientional train. 

In 1895, Sceaux line was also extended from Denfert-Rochereau to Luxembourg station more in Central Paris.

This extention is the first underground railway section with stations in Paris. (also see post #182 with Port-Royal station). 

With this extension, semi-underground platforms were built at Denfert-Rochereau.

 

In the 1930's the line of Sceaux was heavily modernized and electrified. Its operation was took over by the company of Paris metro, the CMP which was absorbed by the newly created RATP after the WW2.

It was the first suburban railway managed by an urban railway company in Paris.

Nothing changed much until the northern extension of the Sceaux line from Luxembourg to Chatelet-les-Halles in 1977, the birth of the RER B.

 

Denfert-Rochereau RER station has been renovated during the 2000's and was made accessible to wheelchairs.

Note that the interchange to the metro is not accessible.

 

The station building. (The Australian flags is for an Austrain Pub located inside the building)

Nowadays most the passengers at Denfert-Rochereau are transferring with the metro using underground corridors.

Here we can see un unusued surface platform  (while the train goes underground).

It is part of the former surface terminal platforms, much of the place of the former terminal platforms of the station has been taken over by new buildings during the end of the 20th century.

Platforms. The white panel indicates the stations served by the train.

A refurbished MI 79 entering in station

The overground part of the platforms, in this picture we can also see the unused platform.

There are plans to make it functional again. In case of difficulty in the north of the line, some southern services could end or start from here and thus avoiding a total havoc on the line. 

 

Denfert-Rochereau is the third busiest station on the RER B. It is the first point of entry for many southern suburbanites to the subway.

[Minato ku]

They put big "no entry" signs on the exits doors in the stations of line 2, as if it was an effective solution to fight against fare dodgers.

You may believe that this entrance is impenetrable without a ticket or pass but you don't know how acrobatique are fare dodgers in Paris.

 

[realizm]

Wow. Awesome shots!

 

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the detailed info!

 

Thats what I'm saying. Notice the only reason I am making this post is to bump this thread. This thread is a good read. All I can do is shut up, read and give out gravy points for a well done thread.

[Cyberider]

Great photos and information.  Thanks for sharing!

[realizm]

 Yellow jacket RATP agents

Also called flow regulators, their jobs is to decrease the dwelling time by taking care of the closing doors, ensuring that passengers entering let other passengers leaving before going on and other things for having a smooth service.

A lower dwelling time means that more trains can run, more trains running is a bigger capacity and a bigger capacity means less crowding. 

 

 

Some difficulty to close one door.

MI 09

 

 

 

Flow regulators as a definite job title, which is interesting. Well the Paris metro is indeed busier in annual passenger ridership then the technically.

 

When we has the Queens Blvd  /   / GOs with the reroutes ( to 2nd Ave via 6th ave and the via 53rd street ) + the   running via Queens Blvd express eastbound and terminating on the express tracks at 71st Street Continental, as I was taking my pics for a  thread I observed that we had a similar setup with on duty personnel to assist passengers off the R160s as quickly as possible for the turnaround from the express tracks because of the highly unusual traffic, with all three lines condensed into one track Jamaica bound. But they were technically T/Ds and C/Rs also T/Os.

 

The same procedure can be observed along the 53rd Street corridor at 53rd/Lex during rush hours due to the insane traffic flow of passengers at that station.