Line 12 of the subway of Paris

The line 12 of the subway of Paris is a line of the underground railway network of Paris. It crosses all the city according to a northern/south-western total direction.

History

November 5th 1910: inauguration of the section Porte de Versailles - Our-Lady-with-Lorette of the line has North-South Compagnie, directed by Jean-Baptiste Berlier, competitor of the Compagnie of the metropolitan railway of Paris (CMP (Fulgence Bienvenüe), managing “the other” lines); the station Porte de Versailles - was organized in terminus with connection with the workshop, which is connected to the circular railway what allows the routing of the oars by the rail; in addition, a section of tunnel with three ways with a central garage is arranged with the provisional terminus of Our-Lady-with-Lorette.
April 8th 1911: prolongation in north with Pigalle.
October 30th 1912: prolongation in north with Jules Joffrin.
August 23rd 1916: prolongation in north until Door of the Vault.
January 1st 1930: The Company of North-South is repurchased by the CMP.
March 24th 1934: prolongation until Town hall of Iso.
August 30th 2000: A derailment, resulting from an excess speed causes the inversion of a car to the station Our-Lady-with-Lorette and fact 24 wounded.

See also: Derailment of Our-Lady-of-Lorette

In 2010, line 12 should be prolonged in north with Proudhon - Gardinoux, with the limit of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Aubervilliers. Two other additional stations are envisaged thereafter, with Pont of Stains and Mairie of Aubervilliers. Lastly, an ultimate prolongation is considered to the station of the RER B with Courneuve; the tunnel will be dug until there, but the startup is not financed.

Material

Line 12 is equipped with oars of the type MF 67 since 1978.

Previously, it was equipped in the following way:

of creation at 1930: Material Sprague equipped with pantographs (+600V) and wipers (- 600V), which made it possible to hold the guide rails to indication,
in 1930, the North-South overhead line was deposited and the pantographs also, during the resumption of the North-South network by the CMP. But the material remained specific (in particular for the colors: gray-blue and yellow-red, instead of green and red). This situation will last until 1972…
… where the line n°7 will receive MF 67 and will transfer its Sprague to the line 12 which thus demolishes somewhat fatigued North-South. The 12 will keep its “new” Sprague during approximately 6 years, until 1978.

Projects

Extension envisaged to the north of the line on 3 stations: Proudhon - Gardinoux, Bridge of Stains and Town hall of Aubervilliers, all located on the commune of Aubervilliers.
Le building site will start with the second half-year 2007 with the deviations of networks, so as to allow the startup of the station Proudhon - Gardinoux in 2012. The tunnel nevertheless will be dug to the town hall of Aubervilliers, but the stations Pont of Stains and Mairie of Aubervilliers will be carried out later on.

the once prolonged line will be in correspondence with the future tram Saint-Denis-Carries of Paris/Paris-Gospel the RER E to the station Proudhon-Gardinoux.

For some time, one speaks again of a prolongation to the south, within Iso-the-Moulineaux. The project, lengthily evoked since the last extension to Mairie of Iso in 1934 should prolong the line at least towards Iso the RER and at best towards Moulineaux, thus allowing a correspondence with the Tramway T2. This project, evoked by the town of Iso-the-Moulineaux and the RATP remains very remote and no date is advanced. The prolongation of the tram Tramway T2 towards the Porte de Versailles (Exhibition site of Paris) is likely to remove relevance with this project.

Stations and traced

List

While starting with the northern terminus of line 12 (the possible numbers between brackets are the correspondences available to this station):

Characteristics

the overall length of the line 12 is of 13,888 km.
the Company of North-South gave place to a design stations slightly different from those of the CMP. The walls are vertical (instead of being in curve) and of ceramics carrying the logo of the company always decorate the advertizing executives.
On the tympanums of the tunnels, at the two ends of the stations between Montparnasse - Welcome and Saint-Lazare appear the mentions " MONTPARNASSE" DIRECTION; or " MONTMARTRE" DIRECTION; accompanied by an arrow indicating the quay located on the right.
the hall of the station Saint-Lazare, until 2004, consisted of a rotunda presenting, on the ground, superb a mosaic with the logo of the Company of the North-South one; this one alas left room to an ordinary ugliness in gray concrete squares…
At the exit of the station Montparnasse - Welcome, direction Mairie of Iso, a tunnel with double track is detached towards the left: it constituted the starter of a junction envisaged towards the door of Vanves (future line C of North-South); this branch in fact was integrated into the line 14 of the subway, now become line 13; this starter of tunnel is currently used of garage and store.
the crossing of the Seine, in underground between the stations National Assembly and Harmony, is carried out by means of two tunnels of circular section to metal wall.
Between the stations Trinity and Our-Lady-of-Lorette, the tunnel is with three ways and a central drawer is connected to the two lanes at the exit of the Trinité station; this drawer was used a long time for the return of the trains of the line 13 of the workshop of Vaugirard towards their line of origin (before fusion with the old line 14, the prolongation towards Châtillon - Montrouge and the creation of a new workshop.)

Workshops

See also: Deposits and workshops of the subway of Paris

The material of line 12 is maintained by the workshops of Vaugirard, located in the 15 {{E}} district between the streets of the Cross-Nivert, Desnouettes and Lecourbe, and the college Louis Armand. They are connected on the line on the ways direction Mairie of Iso just to the north of the station Porte de Versailles. They are also connected to the small belt by the rails which cross the street Desnouettes.

Connections

From its North-South origin, the line has only few connections:

with the line 13 old North-South line, (at the exit of the station Saint-Lazare on the way direction Town hall of Iso, in heel); this connection is with double track.
with the line 4 (at the exit of the station Montparnasse - Welcome on the way direction Door of the Vault, at a peak).
with the line 13 old line 14, (at the exit of the station Montparnasse - Welcome on the way direction Mairie of Iso, at a peak). This connection gives access to a position of garage usable by trains of building site.

Tourism

Monuments and tourist districts:

ridges Montmartre
Gare Saint-Lazare
church of the Madeleine
Place of the Harmony
National Assembly
Tour Montparnasse, Gare Montparnasse and district of the same name

Random links: