Paris Métro Line 14

Line 14
Year opened	1998
Last extension	2007
Rolling stock	MP 89 6 carriages
Stations served	9
Length	9 km (5.6 mi)
Average interstation	1129 m
Journeys made	62,469,502 (per annum)
Paris public transport Métro lines line 1 line 7bis line 2 line 8 line 3 line 9 line 3bis line 10 line 4 line 11 line 5 line 12 line 6 line 13 line 7 line 14 RER lines line A line D line B line E line C Suburban rail (Transilien) Saint-Lazare Nord La Défense Est Montparnasse Lyon Airport shuttles CDGVAL Orlyval Bus Bus (RATP) Noctilien   Bus (Optile)   Tramway Tramway T1 Tramway T2 Tramway T3 Tramway T4 Other Montmartre funicular

Paris Métro Line 14 of Paris Métro crosses the center of Paris and currently runs between the Saint Lazare and Olympiades stations. It is the twelfth busiest line on the network. It was the second automated line in the Île-de-France after Orlyval, but the first fully integrated into the Paris metro network. Before being put into commercial service, it was known by its project name, Meteor, an acronym of Métro Est-Ouest Rapide.

Chronology

• October 15, 1998: The new line 14 was inaugurated between Madeleine and Bibliothèque F. Mitterrand.
• December 16, 2003: Line 14 was extended north from Madeleine to Saint-Lazare.
• June 26, 2007: Line 14 was extended south from Bibliothèque François Mitterrand to Olympiades.^[1]

The Meteor Project

Line 14 — St Lazare station

The Meteor project had the following objectives:

• To reduce the burden on RER line A, which was overloaded on the section crossing Paris;
• To connect East Paris with West Paris without using an existing RER line;
• To improve service to the left bank of the Seine, especially in the XIIIe arrondissement.

The French government started the project in 1989 and the tunnels were dug between 1993 and 1995. It was opened to the public in 1998 and had its first automatic run in October 1998.

Before the current line 14 was built, there was another line 14 that existed until 1976. It corresponded to the southern section of the current line 13 (connecting Invalides with Porte de Vanves.)

Some features of Line 14's train control system are run under the OpenVMS Operating System. Its control system is noted in the field of software engineering of critical systems because safety properties on some safety-critical parts of the systems were proved using the B-Method, a formal method.

Line 14 has some unusual design features — its floor tiling is not bitumenized, and platform edge doors at stations prevent passengers from falling onto the track or from committing suicide.

The southern extension of the line to Olympiades in June 2007, an area of high rise towers in the XIIIe arrondissement that was not served very well, was not a real extension: the tunnel was built at the same time as the rest of the line, but it was used as a train maintenance area, so a new maintenance area was constructed. The building of this extension caused the collapse of the courtyard of an elementary school; fortunately, on that day, no children were present. For various reasons, the underground of much of Paris is quite fragile and considerable care must be exercised before tunnelling work. (See Catacombs of Paris.)

Technology

Signaling System

Météor as CBTC (Communication-based Train Control) system was supplied by Siemens Transportation Systems including monitoring from an operations control centre, equipment for 7 stations and equipment for 19 six-car trains, resulting in a headway of 85 seconds. ^[2]

Future

1/10 scale model of the new m2 metro in Lausanne, of the same type as the Paris line 14.

There are plans to extend the line from Olympiades to Maison Blanche, with a connection to Line 7's Villejuif branch possible.

Line 14 will also be extended north from Saint-Lazare. The solution adopted crosses between the branches of line 13 with stations at Porte de Clichy on the Asnières - Gennevilliers branch and Mairie de Saint-Ouen on the Saint-Denis branch.

The former line 14

The first line 14 was actually planned as line C of the Nord-Sud Company (line A being today's line 12 and line B being today's line 13). Unfortunately, the Nord-Sud company went bankrupt in 1930 and was taken over by the other company operating Paris metro: the CMP (which later became the RATP). The CMP subsequently implemented Line C as line 14. In the 1970s, the line was incorporated to the line 13.

Chronology

• January 21, 1937: The line 14 was inaugurated between Bienvenüe and Porte de Vanves.
• July 27, 1937: The line was extended northbound from Bienvenüe to Duroc. The section between Invalides and Duroc which used to be served by line 10 was transferred to line 14.
• November 9, 1976: Line 14 was incorporated into line 13, which became a complete north-south line.

Stations renamed

• October 6, 1942: Bienvenüe was renamed as Montparnasse - Bienvenüe (today on line 13).

Map and stations

Map of Paris Métro Line 14

List of stations

Tourism

Metro line 14 passes near several places of interest:

• Two 19th-century train stations: Saint-Lazare and Gare de Lyon.
• The Church of the Madeleine.
• At Bercy, the Ministry of Finance, Paris-Bercy sports Arena and its gardens.
• Bercy village.
• The Bibliothèque nationale de France National Library of France and Paris' largest library.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (November 2007)

• The subway of Lausanne (new m2 line) uses a shortened version of the trains used on line 14, with only two cars per train.
• The line is the deepest of the regular Métro lines, mainly because the higher subterranean levels of the city were already crowded with other Métro lines and infrastructure.
• Stations are audibly announced twice at each stop on the line.
• Visible indicators near the doors alert the hearing-impaired to door closure.
• All trainsets on line 14 allow passengers to walk from one end of the train to the other inside the train.
• All stations are accessible to wheelchairs on Line 14.
• Line 14 uses the "SAET" system, which consists in using "moving block" signalling as opposed to traditional "fixed block" signalling. The purpose of this system is to generate a greater train frequency and to avoid the "traffic jams" that traditional signalling would cause. The RER A, which is the urban rail line experiencing the heaviest traffic in the western world, also use moving blocks, but with the partially automated SACEM system. Line 13 and Line 1, both among the busiest metro lines in Paris, should be converted to moving blocks, line 1 fully automated with SAET, line 13 with the partially automated "Ouragan" system, in the upcoming years. The SAET system allows the simultaneous use of automatic and non-automatic trains on the line.
• The immersed tunnel needed to cross the river Seine was built by Spie Batignolles.

Gallery

Bibliothèque François Mitterrand	Châtelet	Châtelet
Cour Saint-Émilion	Gare de Lyon	Gare de Lyon exotic garden
Olympiades	Olympiades	Olympiades
Pyramides	Saint-Lazare	Mysterious blue door above Châtelet station

See also

• List of stations of the Paris Métro
• List of stations of the Paris RER

References

External links

• (French) RATP official website
• (English) RATP english speaking website
• (English) Interactive Map of the RER (from RATP's website)
• (English) Interactive Map of the Paris métro (from RATP's website)
• (French) Mobidf website, dedicated to the RER (unofficial)
• (French) Metro-Pole website, dedicated to Paris public transports (unofficial)