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System

Paris, the capital of France (9 million inhabitants in Greater Paris), is one of Europe's metro flagships. After London (1863), Glasgow and Budapest (both 1896) this is the continent's fourth oldest metro system and probably the densest.

History & Projects

The first line (ligne 1) was opened exactly in 1900 (see map above) as part of a planned six line network. At the end of 2003 Paris has 14 Métro lines and 2 branches (see full map here) that are operated as separate lines. The total length of the network is 212.5 km (168.5 km within Paris):

100 Years L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 | L5 | L6 | L7 | L8 | L9 | L10 | L11 | L12 | L13 | L14

Ligne 1 (16.5 km):

19/07/1900: Porte de Vincennes - Port Maillot (8 stations of 18, the rest were opened between 06/08/1900 and 01/09/1900); 03/1934: - Château de Vincennes; 04/1937: Port Maillot (new station) - Pont de Neuilly; 04/1992: - Grande Arche de La Défense

An extension from La Défense to Nanterre is being examined.

Ligne 2 (northern ring line, until 14/10/1907 called ligne 2 Nord) (12 km):

13/12/1900: Porte Dauphine – Charles de Gaulle Etoile; 10/1902: Charles de Gaulle Etoile – Anvers; 31/01/1903: Anvers – Rue de Bagnolet (since 1970 Alexandre Dumas); 02/04/1903: Rue de Bagnolet (Alexandre Dumas) – Nation

Ligne 3 (12 km):

10/10/1904: Père Lachaise - Villiers; 01/1905 - Gambetta; 05/1910: - Péreire; 02/1911: - Pte. Champerret; 09/1937: - Pont de Levallois/Bécon; 02/04/1971: - Gallieni

Ligne 3bis (1.3 km):

27/11/1921: Gambetta - Porte de Lilas (part of line 3, since 1971 separate)

Photos © Jörg Kuntz (1), Wieger van der Slikke (2) and Thomas Schunk (3,4)

Ligne 4 (10.5 km):

21/04/1908: Porte de Clignancourt – Châtelet; 10/1909: Porte d'Orleans – Raspail; 09/01/1910 Châtelet - Raspail (station Les Halles reconstructed and reopened 03/10/1977 with new RER station).

The first step of the southern extension from Porte d'Orléans to Mairie de Montrouge (0.8km, 1 station) is scheduled to be finished by 2010. Later two more stations, Verdun-Sud and Bagneux will complete the 2.7km extension.

Ligne 5 (14.5 km):

02/06/1906: Place d'Italie – Gare d’Orléans (now Gare d’Austerlitz); 07/1906: - Place Mazas (now Quai de la Rapée); 12/1906: - Lancry (now Jacques Bonsergent); 15/11/1907 - Gare du Nord; 10/1942: - Eglise de Pantin; 25/04/1985: - Bobigny/Pablo Picasso

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Ligne 6 (southern ring line) (13.5 km), until 14/10/1907 called ligne 2 Sud; then until 1942 Étoile - Pl. d'Italie section was a part of line 5; Pl. d’Italie – Nation was a ligne 6:

02/10/1900: Étoile - Trocadéro; 11/1903: - Passy; 04/1906: - Pl. d'Italie; 03/1909: - Nation

At Étoile - Charles de Gaulle trains reverse in a loop, there is also such a loop at Nation which is only used during rush hours.

Ligne 7 (22.5 km):

05/11/1910: Porte de la Villette – Opéra; 07/1916: - Palais Royal; 04/1926: - Pont-Marie; 02/1930: (Odéon (L10) -) Place Monge – Pl. d’Italie; 03/1930: - Pte de Choisy; 06/1930: - Pont Sully (now Sully Morland); 26/04/1931: Pont Sully (now Sully Morland) - Place Monge - Porte d'Ivry; 01/05/1945 - Mairie d'Ivry;10/1979 - Fort d'Aubervilliers; 12/1982: Maison Blanche - Le Kremlin-Bicêtre; 02/1985 - Villejuif-Louis Aragon; 06/05/1987 - La Courneuve

An extension to Le Bourget may be considered in the future.

Ligne 7bis (3 km):

18/01/1911: Pré-St.Gervais - Louis Blanc (line 7 branch, separate line since 1967)

Ligne 8 (22 km):

13/07/1913: (Charles Michels on today's Line 10) - La Motte Picquet Grenelle - Opéra; 06/1928: Richelieu-Drouot; 05/1931 - Porte de Charenton; 7/1937: La Motte Picquet Grenelle - Balard; 10/1942 - Charenton-Écoles; 09/1970 – Maisons-Alfort Stade; 04/1972: - Maisons-Alfort Les Juilliottes; 09/1973: - Créteil-l’Échat; 10/09/1974: - Créteil-Préfecture. At Commerce platforms are not opposite each other.

A 1.3km surface extension is planned from Créteil-Préfecture to Créteil - Parc des Sports for 2008 (1 station).

Ligne 9 (20 km):

08/11/1922: Exelmans - Trocadéro; 05/1923: - Saint-Augustin; 06/1923: - Chaussée d'Antin; 09/1923: Exelmans – Porte de Saint Cloud; 06/1928: Chaussée d'Antin - Richelieu-Drouot; 12/1933 - Pte. de Montreuil; 02/1934 - Pont de Sèvres; 10/1937 - Mairie de Montreuil

An extension to Montreuil-Mur-à-Pêches with 2 stations may be built in the future.

Ligne 10 (12 km):

13/07/1913: La Motte Picquet Grenelle – Beaugrenelle (now Charles Michels) (as a branch of Ligne 8); 09/1913: - Porte d'Auteuil; 12/1923 (Invalides - Duroc) - Croix Rouge (closed after WWII); 1925: - Mabillon; 02/1926: - Odéon; 02/1930: - Maubert Mutualité (- Pl. d’Italie, after Place de Monge using the tracks of today's Ligne 7); 04/193: Maubert Mutualité - Jussieu; 07/1937: La Motte Picquet Grenelle - Duroc; 07/1939 - Gare d'Austerlitz; 10/1980: - Boulogne Jean Jaurès; 02/10/1981: - Boulogne Pont de St.Cloud

Ligne 11 (6.5 km):

28/04/1935: Châtelet – Pte de Lilas; 17/02/1937: Mairie de Lilas.

A 5 km extension to Rosny-sous-Bois with 5 stations is considered.

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Ligne 12 (14 km):

05/11/1910: Porte de Versailles – Notre Dame de Lorette; 04/1911: - Pigalle; 10/1912: Jules-Joffrin; 08/1916: - Porte de la Chapelle; 24/03/1934 - Mairie d'Issy

Line 12 is to be extended north from Porte de La Chapelle to Mairie d'Aubervilliers via Proudhon-Gardinoux and Pont de Stains. Porte de la Chapelle - Proudhon-Gardinoux is now scheduled for 2010. The two further stations could open around 2012/13.

Ligne 13 (21 km):

26/02/1911: St.Lazare - Porte de St.Ouen; 01/1912: La Fourche - Porte de Clichy; 12/1923 Invalides - Duroc (formerly a part of a line 10; then line 14); 01/1937: Montparnasse-Bienvenüe - Pte. de Vanves; 7/1937: Montparnasse-Bienvenüe - Duroc; 06/1952 - Carrefour Pleyel; 06/1973: Miromesnil; 02/1975: Champs-Elysées Clémanceau; 05/1976 - St. Denis-Basilique; 11/1976: - Invalides (connection with ex-line 14) and - Châtillon-Montrouge; 05/1980 Gabriel Péri Asnières-Gennevilliers; 25/05/1998 - St.Denis Université. At Liège platforms are not opposite each other at La Fourche the trains coming from St.Denis stop on a lower level.

Construction work started in February 2005 on line 13 from Asnières-Gennevilliers Gabriel Péri to Asnières-Genevilliers III (Le Luth), with an intermediate station at Asnières-Genevilliers II (name still unknown): 1.9 km, scheduled opening mid-2008. The line should later be extended to Port de Gennevilliers.

An extension from Saint-Denis to Stains-Le Globe is being examined.

Ligne 14 (8 km):

Finally in the 1990's Paris started to build a new metro line, the so-called METEOR (Métro Est Ouest Rapide) although from the day of inauguration (15/Oct/1998) it is called ligne 14. This line is meant to alleviate ligne 1 and RER ligne A in the central area and starts at Maison Blanche in the south, then runs parallel to ligne 1 and A between Gare de Lyon and Châtelet-les Halles and finally turns north to St. Lazare from where it will be connected to the western branch (Gabriel Péri) of ligne 13. After some years of delay the first stretch from Bibliothèque F. Mitterrand (planned as Tolbiac-Masséna) to Madeleine was finally opened in October 1998. In summer 1998 construction work for the second section to St. Lazare started, which was finished in Dec. 2003.

15/10/1998: Madeleine - Bibliothèque François Mitterrand
16/12/2003: Madeleine - St. Lazare

From autumn 2000 a southern extension is underway to Olympiades scheduled to be completed by late 2007. Later the line is planned to be extended to Maison Blanche, M7, with a possible connection to the Villejuif branch of line 7; projects of further extension to Orly Airport seem to be dropped, a tram line may be built instead)

Ligne 14 could be later extended north to Place de Clichy and La Fourche and connected to the north-western branch of ligne 13 extended to to Asnières-Gennevilliers and Port de Genevilliers or to the north-eastern branch to Saint-Denis.

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RER

After World War II actually only metro extensions outside the city limits were built (apart from St.Lazare - Invalides). In the 70's and 80's special emphasis was put on the RER System (Regional Express Network) which currently consists of five lines (A, B, C, D, E) crossing the city underground (line C only partly) and connecting formerly existing suburban rail lines. This network is operated jointly by RATP (Métro and buses) and SNCF (French National Railways). The last of these lines, which was formerly referred to as EOLE, now ligne E, opened in July 1999 between St. Lazare and Magenta. On 3 Dec 2000, a new station was opened on Line C at Bibliothèque François Mitterrand to provide transfer to Line 14. This new station replaces the former Masséna station.

Photos © Thomas Schunk

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Books

NEW: Larry Yust: METRO. - Oct. 2004. 136 p., Gingko Press, ISBN: 1584231742 Spectacular photos of Paris metro stations

F. Descouturelle, A. Mignard, M. Rodriguez: Le Métropolitain d'Hector Guimard . - Oct. 2003, 152 p., Somogy, ISBN 2850566691

Jean-Pierre Rigouard: Le Métro de Paris. Tome 2: Les lignes complémentaires (Lignes 7 - 13). - Feb. 2003, 128 pages, Alan Sutton; Collection : memoire en images, ISBN 2842538471 (Also available here)

Jean-Pierre Rigouard: Le Métro de Paris. Tome 1: Les premières lignes.- 2002, 128 pages, Alan Sutton ISBN 2842537777 (Also available here)

Gaston Jacobs: Le métro de Paris. Un siècle de matériel roulant. - 2001, 223p. La Vie du rail , ISBN 2902808976

Gérard Rolland: Stations de métro Le dictionnaire des 366 stations. - Christine Bonneton Éditeur, Paris, 2003 (new edition). - Explains origin of station names.

Jean-Paul Carminati: Dictionnaire imaginaire des stations de métro

Clive Lamming: Paris Ferroviaire. - 2002, Parigramme, ISBN 2840962926

Clive Lamming: Paris Tram. - 2003, Parigramme, ISBN 2840961962

Jean Orselli: Les nouveaux tramways: Comment ne pas rater son tram. - 2004, Paradigme, Collection: Transports et communication, 268 p., ISBN 2868782388

Christoph Groneck: Neue Straßenbahnen in Frankreich. - 2003, 167p., Ek-Verlag, ISBN 388255844X

Plotkin, Susan L.: The Paris Metro - A Ticket to French History. - ISBN 0738852473, April 2001 (US orders)

Roland, Gérard: PARIS METRO RETRO - C. Bonneton, 2001. ISBN 2862532797
This small book (pocket sized, printed on glossy paper) is a story of the Metro at the beginning of the 20th century through old postcards (building, trains, stations, ...) with comments by the author.

Hardy, Brian: PARIS METRO HANDBOOK. Capital Transport, new 1999 edition.

Lamming, Clive: MÉTRO INSOLITE. - Parigramme, Paris, 176 p., many photos (March 2001). ISBN 2840961903

Various: Le kiosque des noctambules, une oeuvre de Jean Michel Othoniel.
- Flohic, Dec. 2000, ISBN 2842341082, 80 pages - It' s the story of the new metro entrance called "Le Kiosque des Noctambules" at station Palais-Royal.

Chansons Metropolitains. (CD) - 48 songs from 1900-2000 related with the Métro (leaflet included). Feb. 2001

Jean Tricoire: Un Siècle de Métro en 14 Lignes - Best book on Paris Metro

Jean Tricoire: Le métro de Paris: 1899-1911 : images de la construction

Game/Michaud: Métro histoires illustrees des stations

Je travaillais dans le métro...

Satoshi Kako: Les travaux du métro

Sheila Hallsted-Baumert, a.o.: Métro-cité : le chemin de fer métropolitain à la conquête de Paris, 1871-1945

Jean-Claude Demory: Le métro de chez nous

Le métro a cent ans - agenda 2000

Berton, Claude and Alexandre Ossadzow: FULGENCE BIENVENÜE et la construction du Métropolitain de Paris. - Presses de l'école nationale des Ponts et chaussées, Paris, 1998.

Bruno Latour: ARAMIS ou l'amour des techniques. - La Decouverte (Textes a l App); ISBN 2707121207. Explains a former MATRA project of a small automatic metro tested in Paris in the 1980's.

Michael Brein's GUIDE TO PARIS BY THE METRO for only $5.00

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