Line 14 of the subway of Paris

The line 14 of the subway of Paris is a line of the underground railway network of Paris. It connects the station Saint-Lazare to the station Olympiades while crossing the center of Paris. It is the first line with control automated of the Métro of Paris. Before its commercial startup, it was known under its name of project: Meteor for Fast East-West Subway.

The current line 14 is an automatic line, therefore in general the only one in functioning order even the days of strike, and is also used of window of the know-how of the RATP (via its subsidiary company Systra) and as Alstom when these two companies answer invitations to tender for the realization of subways.

History

The first line 14

Until 1976 existed a first line 14: that which went from Invalides to the Porte of Vanves and which amalgamated in 1976 with the line 13 thanks to the connection of Invalids with Lazare Saint via Miromesnil. It corresponds to the southern part of current line 13.

The current line 14 does not have any common section with this old line.

The line 14 current

The project Meteor aimed at:

to reduce the central section of the RER has, overloaded between Châtelet - the Markets and Auber,
to quickly connect districts of businesses of the east and west of the capital without using a line of the RER,
to improve the service road of Left bank of the the Seine, and in particular the XIII {{E}} district where the zone of activities of Tolbiac is projected.

The government French adopted the project in 1989. Work began in June 1993 and lasted until first half of the year of the year 1995. The ways were posed between March 1995 and March 1997. The first oar was delivered on March 17th and the tests began on May 26th. Many tests of manual control then automatic were thus practiced in 1997 and 1998. The stations were arranged between January 1997 and October 1998. The first automatic line of the network was inaugurated in large pump on October 14th 1998 in the presence of the Head of the State Jacques Chirac. 100.000 travellers borrowed each Météor day lasting this October. The daily traffic approached 175.000 travellers in 2003. This same year, the traffic was stopped on several occasions to add the equipment making it possible to manage the prolongation between Madeleine and Saint-Lazare, prolongation which was inaugurated the December 16th 2003 and which led to a sudden increase of 30% of the frequentation. Since, the traffic does not cease increasing: 384.000 people use this line each day. The change of the terminus Bibliothèque François Mitterrand in Olympiades should further increase the traffic.

Outstanding dates

October 15th 1998: inauguration and startup of the line 14 between Madeleine and Bibliothèque François Mitterrand
December 16th 2003: The first prolongation constitutes with the startup of the section: Holy Lazare - Madeleine
June 25th 2007: Inauguration of Olympiads, old workshop refitted in station, thus serving a district densément populated and still badly served.
June 26th 2007: The second prolongation of the line between Library François Mitterrand and Olympiads, in the middle of XIIIe district is brought into service as of 5:30 of the morning.

Projects

In north, it is considered that the line 14 is prolonged initially to the station the Fork in 2012, for taking again possibly there one of the branches of the line 13. At present, it is rather question of taking again the Asnières-Gennevilliers branch, the studies showing that this branch would be less expensive to automate, the stations being more recent and the less long branch. The grid would be in addition more interesting than with the branch Saint Denis (which in this case would converge towards Châtelet like the RER B and the RER D, by losing the correspondence with the Gare Montparnasse). However, the study of STIF of October 2007 rather recommends a simple prolongation express train of 5,9 km first of all crossing the Genevilliers branch of the line 13 with Porte of Clichy then the Saint-Denis branch of this same line with Mairie of Saint-Ouen from here 2017, station where the line 4 from here 2013

must also be prolonged

In the south, is projected the recovery by the line 14 of one of the branches of the line 7 starting from the station White House. The preliminary draft envisaged a service road of the airport of Orly, which is currently very hypothetical taking into account the competitor project of a tram line in exclusive right of way between Villejuif and Athis-Mons while passing by Orly. Moreover the prolongation to the airport of Orly could strongly call in question the tariff system in Ile de France: indeed applicable tariffing on the whole of the Parisian subway corresponds to that of bets intramurally for the RER (currently 1,50€, the normal tariff with the unit) what strongly differs from the tariffs of access to the airport by Orly-Rail (RER-C) or Orlyval (of 6€ with 9,30€ according to the means used) or even those of the transport ticket (zone 4).

Lastly, the experiment of automatic control and the landing doors inspired several embryos of projects:

In 1998, the RATP projected the automation of the control of lines 1,4,6,7,9 and 13 by 2050. That should be effective on the line 1 from here 2010, with startup of a new rolling stock MP 05, that of the line 4 is currently being studied.
Installation of landing doors to manage flows of passengers. In January 2004, of the tests of descriptive on the ground to materialize spaces of opening of the doors were tried on the line 13 at the station Saint-Lazare. Several models of low landing doors were then tested during the year 2006 and the Kaba manufacturer was selected (see line 13). After the tests the landing doors will be initially installed on certain stations of line 13 in priority then on the whole of line 1 in order to allow its automation.

Material

The line 14 is equipped mainly:

of rolling stock of the type MP 89 CA (Material Tire 1989 Automatic Control), known in its nonautomatic version (MP 89 DC, Led Conducting) on the line 1. This material was designed by Alstom;
of automatisms, a video embarked and a PC of ordering of the line which were designed by Matra Transport International (today Siemens Transportation Systems, German group Siemens),
of landing doors which were provided by Faiveley Transport.

Automation

The line is controlled by:

the automatic system of control DIGISAFE which ensures the safety of the movement of the trains. It is carried out with calculators threes-processor of the type 68020 and a software owner system MRTK (Matra Real Time Kernel)
the centralized checkpoint which provides the functions of information and regulation. It is carried out with stations DEC Alpha and the operating system OpenVMS.

The technical choice of automation allows a flexibility in use of the oars without common measurement with that of the traditional lines. One can in particular quote:

the insertion of oars in a few minutes on the line to mitigate a delay or a large surge of passengers,
a high minimal frequency out of the rush hours: a minimum of oars keep operating whatever the number of travellers,
a maximum frequency (an oar every 90 seconds) in rush hour, impossible to reach on a nonautomatic line,
more need for returning the oars the evening and for redeploying them the morning: the oars can remain with quay during the night, the garages being used for nothing certain times.

In the facts, this automation leads to an significant improvement of the quality of the service, through its regularity.

The Block speed with the multitude reaches almost 40 km/h, all the traditional lines being in lower part of 30. The reasons this speed are:

a very rectilinear layout, authorizing high speeds (80 km/h) on most of the layout,
of the spaced stations,
of the landing doors, prohibiting the delays related to the intrusions on the ways,
flexibility of automation, optimizing the management of the incidents.

Stations and traced

The design of the stations of the line 14 was the subject of architectural research resulting in privileging space and the transparency. The size of the stations (volume of the station, cuts corridors and rooms of correspondence) bring closer more this line of the RER that existing underground lines. One can quote in particular:

the station Gare de Lyon and its exotic garden (only station with central quay of the line),
the station Madeleine ,
the station Library François Mitterrand with his monumental pillars and its staircases forming a hemicycle.
the station Saint-Lazare and his well of visible natural light of the quays is 5 levels in lower part of the roadway system.

List

The line 14 extends out of 9,2 kilometers. On the basis of the western terminus

Characteristics

Of the sliding doors controls the rises and descents of the travellers (the subway is stalled on those, as an elevator would do it on its landing doors), and prevent the fall of the passengers, which authorizes with the oars more an high speed of circulation (impressive accelerations and brakings).
By creating the line 14, the RATP chose an architectural charter specific to this line: clear tilings on the ground rather than bituminizes for example. For the first time, the space quality of architecture is worked in a really contemporary way: great volumes where generous light and modern materials mix, clearly improving flows of travellers, the wellbeing and sense of security at the stations Gare de Lyon and Olympiades.
Madeleine includes/understands several video devices making it possible to carry out promotional operations cultural. For example, for an exposure on the actress Marlène Dietrich during the autumn 2003.
Gare de Lyon has a sight on the tropical garden, of the right-sided of the oars bound for the station Olympiades, at the time of the entry in the station. This garden is located at the basement of the House of the RATP to the foot of which the station is built. It occupies a space originally reserved for the museum of Transport.
Gare de Lyon is the only station of the line to being equipped with a central quay. This provision was the only possible one in comparison with the density of the underground installations at this place.
the exit of the station Saint-Lazare is a bubble of glass carried out by the architect Jean-Marie Charpentier located right in front of the St-Lazare station in direction of exit towards the bus stops.
Each oar comprises cameras embarked which allow in the event of pulling of the alarm signal, to look at remotely what occurs in all the oar. The system took as a starting point the bus.
the integral landing doors remain longer open in all the stations in rush hours in order to avoid the scuffle to go down. If the closing of doors is génée by an obstacle or somebody, the doors " attendent" a little before retenter a closing. So at the end of the third time the door was still not closed again, the oar does not set out again.
It is possible, thanks to the PCC (Unit Controls Centralized), to give orders particular to oars, for example not to serve certain stations and to control speed automatically in order not to stop at the station concerned; this system is currently places from there on the line.
the line is the only one to be equipped with the information system in real-time SIEL as of its opening to the public.
the line does not have enough places to park all the oars during the stops of service (night), that is indeed useless, the oars being parked directly in station thanks to SAET.
It is characterized finally by the presence of a characteristic odor of moisture which one can sometimes find at certain stations until on the quay of the rooms of correspondence.
the stations Pyramids and Madeleine are equipped with a particular lighting because if there is much sun outside, there will be also much light on the quays. The system does not function during the night.
the automation of the line makes it possible to the travellers to be put in front of the oar, to see the way as a driver would see it since the cabin.

Workshops

See also: Deposits and workshops of the subway of Paris

The maintenance of the oars is carried out in an underground workshop located after the terminus Olympiades, it is geographically close to the station White House. Before work of the prolongation, it is the Olympiades station, whose civil engineering was already carried out, which was used as workshop. It is in particular equipped with an overhead travelling crane especially designed for the station, and makes it possible to convey heavy materials (iron wheels, etc) at the time of the maintenance actions.

Connections

The line is characterized by a single connection, with the line 6, between the stations Bercy and Gare de Lyon, in heel on the way direction Saint-Lazare.

Tourism

the line 14 is in correspondence with the 5 lines of the RER and quickly connects the Gare Saint-Lazare to the Gare de Lyon. It is also a link of the connection, via Châtelet, between the Gare Saint-Lazare and the Gare de Lyon.
the architecture of the stations and the possibility of sitting down with before and of looking at ravelling the tunnels make line a tourist attraction in itself.
Punctually, the RATP organizes ludic demonstrations on this line. In October 2003, for the festival of Halloween, a decorated oar made a filled up return ticket of fêtards disguised.

The line also serves:

the Holy-Marie-Madeleine church,
the district of the Markets,
Bercy: ministry for Finances, palate omnisport and park raised,
the National library of France, site François Mitterrand.
the district of the Olympiads

In 2007, the line 14 accommodates more than 380.000 daily travellers and more than 62 annual million.

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