This video should be shown to Musk who in his last show pictured a crowded old London Underground metro line to illustrate that robotaxis are needed! Line 14 is what a modern, high capacity metro line looks like!
@@asheiou I agree that it would be ideal if the cost remained the same as an intercity journey, but I can't fault the reasoning. It is cheaper than a taxi. It would be interesting to see RMTransit make a video about fare decisions like this - or the finances of transit agencies in mega regions like Paris, London, NYC, Tokyo, etc. Obviously some countries have better local/regional/national funding cooperation regarding fare subsidizing than others...
@@asheiou Why is it an issue? Never heard that it was an issue in the other cities in the world and the locals don't have to pay it. For the visitors there are alternatives for those who don't want to contribute to the infrastructure cost and maintenance, they can use the RER C, tramway 7 and several buses lines.
The line's extension is already a massive success, the ridership at Orly airport in the south to go right in Paris center is 50% more than expected! And the extension has been launched just two months ago!
Certainly looks like it would be easier to get to my uncle via it.... Eurostar to Paris, walk from GdN to Châtlet and then M14 to Orly rather than having to go via the Orlyval and RER As the flight to Réunion is normally from Orly
@@cracktheegg5830The Yamanote and the ligne 14 are completely different lines serving a different purpose. The only line close to the Yamanote will be the ligne 15, without all the shaking.
Paris' love affair with automation actually started in the 70s with the rollout of the PA135 semi-automatic train control on pretty much all its subway lines to increase capacity. The system could be viewed as a primitive GoA2 ATC (wich still requires a driver in the cab) and was developed by a company called Interelec. This company was later on bought by MATRA and the PA135 fixed block signalling technology was used as the baseline for the VAL ATC (fully driverless hence GoA4) in the 80s. In the 90s, MATRA was then tasked to develop the METEOR ATC used on line 14 (Alstom providing the rolling stock), the SACEM for RER A and later on the SAET for line 1 and 4 automation projects. Line 14 ATC got upgraded right in time before the Paris 2024 games with the SAET NG, developed by Siemens (that bought MATRA in the 2000s) and RATP. SAET NG is a proper CBTC system that builds on more than 50 years of automatic train control technology.
@@etbadaboum Thanks! Actually most of my knowledge on the topic comes from a single journal article written by a former MATRA engineer "VAL automated guided transit characteristics and evolutions" (1993), it is easily accessible online. Everything else I know is from wikipedia, twitter and some forums 😂
To give even more context, the obsession with automation started with RATP itself. In 1951 RATP, with CSEE (now Ansaldo STS) fitted its first automated GoA2 ATO on the first rubber tired metro prototype MP51 (also known as "the Grandmother"). This one was purely analog and worked greatly with passenger on the now defunct service between Porte des Lilas and Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais. Theses tests validated the concept of the PA BF system which will start deployment on bigger lines in 1967 when money came along. The target was not to replace drivers at first, it was to uniformise driving style. This allowed trains to stick to the timetable more closely, hence evening the load in cars, hence allowing more people to travel. What happened next is perfectly told by the comment above and the video itself !
@@LeGrandJuju49 Thank you for this additional information. The history of the development of these systems is fascinating and RATP is truly a pioneer in this field.
Thanks Reece for an excellent video! I would just add that line 14 is also the model for the 'mini' Metro line M2 in Lausanne, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. This extremely successful line in a city with less than a quarter of a million population has only two-car trains. And Lausanne is now going to build an M3 line using the same technology. (Note that line M1 in Lausanne is an older line using Light Rail technology.)
I’m from Australia who was on holidays in Paris a bit less than a month ago, my hotel that I stayed was closest to the Porte de clichy train station, and I must say that the line 14 really has no downsides to it even though being there for a good 11 days, the frequency can be as good as 1-2 mins, also was a very good substitute for line 13 that take more stopes to saint lazare while the line 14 zips to saint lazare in around 2 stops. Being from Australia this is the first time I have seen adequate mass metro transit and was very fun to get around. I would love to one day get good metro in all main Australian cities in the next 10-15 years but unfortunately takes way too much effort to get the cogs working, hopes are up 😂
@@neddymcneddy1738 it's a shame that it seems to take so much longer these days. Paris opened its first metro line in 1900 and by 1920, it already had about 10 lines.
I would say Sydney Metro and Paris M-14 are very similar. I would say that the NSW Government and Transport for NSW borrowed a lot ideas from Paris public transport network.
@@michaelcobbin I think that the Sydney metro is awesome, but the connectivity and reliability of the Paris metro really does put the Sydney metro to shame. Just having one line going through the CBD really isn’t enough
@@neddymcneddy1738 Give it time. There are three metro lines under construction. There are still gains to be obtained with Sydney Trains, Sydney’s version of Paris’s RER, through the removal of bottlenecks, digital signalling and expansion. I am expecting the South West Railway Link will be extended to Bradfield.
I was there on the first day when the Line 14 opened. We rode it back and forth. I still remember it. It was so exciting. Like someone opened a door straight into the future. Whenever I’m in Paris, I will go out of my way to take line 14 instead of others. It did lots of things right!
Surprised you didn't mention Singapore. Singapore's North-East MRT Line (NEL) opened in 2003 is remarkably similar to Line 14, also fully underground and driverless, even uses the same underlying technology and rolling stock from Alstom. Now all other older MRT lines have been retrofitted to run like the NEL as well.
i love that they showed the world a new norm because the city i live in retrofitted its old lines and made a whole new line properly with these new systems and it's amazing
@@RMTransit For whatever reason, the retrofit on line 4 has been much longer and more disruptive than a decade before on line 1. If this trends continue, the project on line 13 will be catastrophic...
@@joriss5 The reason is clear, the pandemic kicked in. Do you plan another pandemic for line 13? Siemens also faced some technical issues. Is Semiens the contractor for line 13? Even if they are I take that they will learn from the previous cases.
I haven't seen line 14 but i have to say i am always impressed to see such big trains stopping every 1-2 minutes in Madrid and this line definitely looks like a newer and more beautiful version of line 10 from Madrid metro
Oh shoot! I've ridden a lot of the Paris Metro when I've stayed there, but last year the hotel my group was staying at in Bercy was right on Line 14 and it was such a shock from what I had ridden before. Line 14 is a statement in the future for SURE Also with M14 connecting to Orly, its interesting to see the options provided for transit to CDG because taking the Orlyval to Antony - the RER B North terminates at CDG as well. Just a wonderful example of multiple means of getting to the same place. Redundancy is the best.
Two weeks ago I spent a weekend in Paris, and I had taken line 14 a couple of times that weekend. Hadn't realised how new and modern that line actually is. Thanks for the information!
@RMTransit Ending on "greater international standardization, and I think that's really interesting. Thanks for watching" was a subtle but very nice touch.
2:40 Bibliothèque nationale on line 14 is connected to a huge underground station for the RER C actually. Many stations are also connected to the tram network
Wow, hats-off from a former 40 years-long parisian ! So knowledgeable and full-packed of to-the-point information... Arguably one of the best channels on the whole Internet ! Cheers ! ❤🎉😊
Thank you for highlighting line 14, I've been waiting for this video for a long time with the opening of Orly ! I just want to clarify a few points : 3:10 Metro line 4 automation is finished since december 2023 😉 7:10 the yard is large. A double track connects the yard to the main tracks of the line This allows trains to be quickly injected into the line, and also allows them to be parked. This maintenance and storage site made it possible to maintain the 35 trains actually on the Mairie de Saint-Ouen extension: 6 positions in the connection leading to the workshop, 5 parking positions in front of the workshop, 2 ancillary tracks with a washing machine, including 2 positions for cleaning the inside of the trains + 2 park positions, and finally 5 tracks on piles where maintenance operations were carried out. Finally, to clarify, the site is semi-buried, not really enclosed because it's on a slope, you can see the light! As for the 85-second intervals, they were effective before the northward extension and have since been compensated for by the 120-meter-long trains you explained. (105s/95s headways until now) The 85 seconds will be effective again in a few months, while Alstom delivers the last 10 trainsets to the new Morangis maintenance site. As for the new maintenance site to the south, it has an additional maintenance track (6 instead of 5) and a very large indoor and outdoor storage area with a long back-gauge to the Aéroport d'Orly station. Maintenance will be around 60% in the south and 40% in the north, with 72 trains to be maintained in a few months' time. 8:53 The last station of the extension will open at the end of the year or in January, while the line 15 is still officially scheduled for completion by the end of 2025, although there could be a few months' delay. TYSM Reece 😁🤩
@@Parmatt Another specificity I think he skipped over is that the train is connected to RER C in Bibliothèque François Mitterand. And he also mentioned the connections to Gare de Lyon and Châtelet with the 1 and St Lazare and GdL on the A but Châtelet also is an RER A station (technically it’s Châtelet Les Halles but if Auber/Opera are counted under St Lazare, Châtelet Les Halles definitely can be counted as one) which makes the 14 serve 3 consecutive RER A stations
The depot is connected with 2 track but in the section you have a section with just one track when you join the main line. You can see it when you take the line 14.
line 14 was my first automated metro, i aws in awe and it was one of the reasons i moved to Turin, the fact that it had an automated (VAL but still..) metro. Needless to say, the influence of line 14 are extremely visible in all new metro lines Ital yhas built, starting with Turin's M1
VAL and Paris line 14 have a lot in common: - Both rely on automatic train control systems developed by MATRA (although the VAL system is a lot older). Siemens later on acquired MATRA but kept working closely with Alstom for the Paris metro. - Both the first the generation of VAL (VAL206) and line 14 rolling stocks were made in same factory in Petite-Forêt (now owned by Alstom). - And both the VAL208 (second generation of VAL, the ones used in Turin) and the MP89 (first used on line 14 and then moved to line 4) were designed by french designer Roger Tallon.
@@SpectreMk2 yeah, Turin has heavily modeled its metro system (including future Line 2) after the french experiment, consequently most other Italian automated metros followed Turin's line 1's example and feature similar concepts, although none of them uses the VAL trains, opting instead for Hitachi Driverless. Milan and Brescia are the best examples, they have those utilitarian standardized station designs, brescia even has the big station boxes and the vaulted gallery over the trains very similar to Turin's. Rome, due to the archaeological strata the city sits on, had to create ad-hoc solutions (and sometimes change plans on the fly).
6:45 Fun fact: it's the exact opposite on the moscow metro. Most platforms on the moscow metro are island platforms and the doors open on the left (making the 3rd rail hidden under the platfrom so if a person falls he doesn't get 750V of power running through his body) and if it's on the right then it is announced
This is really a third rail with bottom contact win. In Paris, we put the third rail away to allow people to climb back onto the platform safely and allow workers walk near wall and catch a hiding spots every 50m or so. Indeed you only have roughly 70cm between a train and the tunnel wall in older tunnels.
Notice he says, A better US, not "a better America". Since Canada is in America already. Thank you RMT for recognizing America as a continent and not a country. :)
My favorite line in Paris, I saw it built when I was in Highschool (although I remember seeing promotional material years prior). Suddenly seeing a new line appear on the map when I completely forgot about the project was so mind boggling, then I remembered. Since then, I go see documents about the new projects on a regular basis. First goal of the line was not to go to airports but remain in Paris or take branches of lines 13 and possibly 7 but that was dropped due to -fear of causing to much trouble- ahem, Christian Blanc's dream of what would become the Grand Paris Express... Line 14 first maintenance facility was what is Olympiades station now. Then, it was displaced beyond it (the three track portion just before Maison Blanche. The small size of the yard was partially due to lack of funds but also because the main heavy maintenance yard of Rubber Tyre trains is Fontenay, beyond Château de Vincennes on Line 1, hence the link with Line 6... Without enough space to store trains during the nights, the solution was to keep trains stopped in stations before starting up next morning. With the extentions, St Ouen workshop was created and it has a TWO track tunnel link with the line, not single track. With the new extentions to Orly and St Denis, there is now a second facility South of the airport, big enough to store 60% of the line trains and offer independant heavy maintenance (the network will be private by 2039 so each line or couple of lines shall have the necessary independant facilities...) The link to Line 6 at Bercy is also useful for Track maintenance since the RATP part of the network will still be under RATP charge as far as Infrastructure Maintenance goes (as decided in the Grand Paris Law in 2010, RATP stays Infrastructure owner but rolling stock and tickets go to the Regional Authority, independant of who will run the lines). Grand Paris Express Line 15 expoitation will go to RATP when Lines 16 and 17 (coming together because they have the common trunk and a common train maintenance facility) to Keolis. RATP Infra will still maintain tracks on all lines. Worthy of note, The Morangis Workshop, South of Orly is designed to eventually accomodate a new terminus there, if necessary. That kind of express line is good but if you begin to build your network now, better go the Japanese or Chinese way and mix both -Line 14 style and NY Subway style, in the same infrastructure, it will cost more at first but will be insanely useful and future proof on the long run. Line 14 only has a 80 kph top speed. Despite that, the way the stops are spaced, especially on the Orly extension, make up for it, linking the Airport to Châtelet 10 minutes faster than RER B+Orly Val combo. And if you want to explain relativity to someone, that example is quite the good one...
Forget that, I wish it had fewer drug addicts, rats and criminals in it, as well as slightly refurbished interiors. I am from Russia, and if you ride the Saint Petersburg metro and then the NYC subway, you would think the first country is drowning in riches while the second one is going through an apocalypse. It is one thing to have aesthetically unappealing public transport, it is another thing when it is dangerous and scary to use at night.
The TTC really needs to make lines like Line 14. The Ontario Line got close with its modernity, but it should have been extended further north into the suburbs.
It's the RER It's more a regional train than a metro. Even though its central core can be considered as a metro as it has full grade separation and serve systematically all stations
It's de facto the regional express heavy metro. It even was called "metro express regional" for some time and during the construction of line A. The suburban commuter system is the Transilien (lines H to V).
I remember riding line 14 the morning it opened to the public back in 1998. It was jaw dropping, so unlike any public transportation we had seen before and for many of us, this was the event that propelled Paris into the 21st century. 26 years later, the new extension finally reaches my home town, and the whole family rode almost the full line to Saint-Denis Pleyel to watch the Olympics ! 😊
I had no idea that Line 14 might have been the inspiration for Sydney Metro's amazing looking architecture! I think I speak for all of us rail enthusiasts who were on board the first 5am train out, that it was a great day to be a mass transit enthusiast. I was ecstatic at how well-received and almost tourist-like the metro line had become! It definitely paves the way for bipartisan support for more world class rapid transit infrastructure Down Under.
Villejuif IGR (the 7th station in south section) will open probably in december....before the opening M15. line 14 is an RATP project while lines 15 to 18 are a State project via the SGP. The RATP did not want unnecessary additional costs through unique, grandiloquent stations designed by architects, but functional and standardized stations (this excludes St denis Pleyel which is an SGP station). So, they are less flashy. Only Villejuif IGR is a special case because it is very deep and built around the access shaft of the first tunnel boring machine launched. It will therefore have a platform partially suspended above the void (and the tracks of the 15) and access will be via escalators above the void, the station being placed on the edges of the circular hole. There will be videos on this station, be patient ^^.
As a consequence, the signage in most stations in in the traditional RATP style. Only in Orly airport station has the Grand Paris Express graphic chart been adopted. I'm ready to anticipate that the signage in Villejuif IGR will also follow the GPE graphic chart.
5:05 I think Beijing Subway has a similar idea about the newly-built rapid lines, that parallel to existing lines, with fully automated systems and high capacity. For example, Line 17 and Line 19 (also denoted as R1 and R3 respectively, R stands for rapid line) in was opened in 2022.
I love watching your videos and this one as always is really good, also requesting that you make a video on the RNV tram network, basically a tram network that runs connects 3 cities which all have their own tram lines, it connects Mannheim with Ludwigshafen to the west over the Rhein river and then southeast to heidelberg, there is actually a loop line (5) that runs on a roundtrip from Mannheim to Heidelberg, through Heidelberg and then up north to weinheim and then back southwest towards mannheim and it completes a round trip doing so. another interesting fact is that the trams in heidelberg have a drivers cab in both ends but the trams in mannheim and ludwigshafen do not so they have to go on this track that does a little loop. anyways would be super hyped to see this video!
Line 14 is always there to save the day 1998/2003 - Save RER A - Give a purpose to RER C South-East 2020 - Save line 13 branches - Give a purpose to RER C North 2024 - Save line 7 branches - Save RER B
2030 : "help, line 14 is super-over-crowded, we must do something !" It's already the most used metro line in the network with about 800 000 users per day, so the planned ridership of one million may bell be exceeded. And there's no spare capacity over that... the line was not planned to take all this when it was designed in the previous century.
you do make a good point with the design of the new stations. living there, I really regret that the extensions don't reflect the initial architectural vision of line 14. if you ever wondered why there are circles linking platform doors from one side to the other: they're supposed to represent a wireframe projection of the tunnel into the station. this sounds so much like the future from the 1990s I love it. wish they followed that guideline for the extension to Maison Blanche and further
"What's unique is that Paris Metro Line 14 was built to be fully driverless as a heavy metro with long trains and frequent service" Washington Metro: *that's what I was supposed to be*
Just a little comment here: the first automated heavy metro line in the world isn't M14 in Paris, but line D in Lyon which opened in 1991, seven years before M14 was inaugurated!
You are 100%. Moreover, like for the line 14, it was Alstom and MATRA that made the MPL85 rolling stocks for Lyon line D. The automatic train control developed by MATRA, called MAGGALY (Métro Automatique à Grand Gabarit de l'Agglomération LYonnaise), was a significant step forward compared to the VAL ATC (first put in service in Lille in 1983) as it introduced moving block signaling technology.
This question often comes up, but the argument is capacity with heavy metro: At the time and still in progress: 350 people capacity for Lyon's metro line D (still no double unit) and 700 persons per metro when line 14 opens.
1 to 2 km between stations is really good. Most people can walk ten minutes to or from a station. But being on a train that stops every few hundred meters is slow and frustrating.
the problem in Paris is the city is very very dense (20k people/sq km in average some district are more at 25 or 28k) so you can have 2 subway stations in 500m but they deserve so much people
@@KyrilPG 1-2km between stations means the when you stand right between the two stations you only got 0.5-1km to a station, putting it between 7.5 to 15 minutes of walking at 4kmh
@@KyrilPG "1 to 2 km between stations" , "Most people can walk ten minutes to or from a station" The commenter is clearly talking about the distance to walk to the station if you live alongside the line. How is this so hard to understand? And in that case, you only need to walk 0.5-1 km, as the reply mentions.
This line was my first experience of the Paris metro when I arrived at Orly Airport for the Paris Olympics. The huge entrance hall 'stacked' full or escalators is a sight to behold. The rest of the metro is more like London than the much newer systems in Asia but it's very functional and apart from the lack of AC on most lines a pleasure to use. Just a pity they never fixed accessibility. Also loved the random stylings of some stations. I spent an afternoon jumping on and off the metro to photograph signage and lighting 🙂
M14's nominal frequency during rush is 85 seconds, and that's between departures, not between departure of the previous train and arrival of the next one. So, there's often only a few dozen seconds between 2 trains, it's a constant noria. Especially in Gare de Lyon with its central platform, there's almost always a train. Right now they haven't yet received all 72 new trains, the missing dozen will enter service in the coming weeks. In the meantime the line is reduced to 105 seconds during rush. The return to 85 seconds will help when the line will pass the million daily passengers.
About the grand design of M14’s stations, though architects will try to make you believe it’s entirely on purpose, don’t forget 30m deep station HAVE to be grand as they’re boxes digged from the surface ! That’s a huge volume.
As a relocated but native New Yorker, I can say that a lot of these ideas would be hard to take back home. NYC is slowly shifting to standard door spacing, which helps with door screens. But the way that lines in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx converge on the Manhattan trunk lines makes automation hard and severely restricts headways. Manhattan itself is a giant bottleneck. Any construction debris basically needs to be carried out by the spoonful. NYC really needs the rest of the 2nd Ave Subway, and should revisit a lot of the IND's Second System. Still, the progress in Paris is really heartening, and the Metro and RER are amazing.
Bruno Latour's book _Aramis_ is of singular interest and relevance here, though (or because?!) it deals with a project that was never realized.... Would love to talk with you about that book sometime Reece!!! Keep up the good work!
Always interesting to watch your videos. Thanks ! You should check out the modernization and extension of Paris metro line 11. His success brings a new issue : the overcrowding of the République station, that just got an "emergency" renovation appoval by IDFM to make it suitable for such passenger flows.
You are 100%. Moreover, like for the line 14, it was Alstom and MATRA that made the MPL85 rolling stocks for Lyon line D. The automatic train control developed by MATRA, called MAGGALY (Métro Automatique à Grand Gabarit de l'Agglomération LYonnaise), was a significant step forward compared to the VAL ATC (first put in service in Lille in 1983) as it introduced moving block signaling technology.
it isn't : This question often comes up, but the argument is capacity with heavy metro: At the time and still in progress: 350 people capacity for Lyon's metro line D which is barely better than a tramway (still no double unit) and 700 persons per metro when line 14 opens.
@@Parmatt What is important is the capacity of the line with how many people per hour per direction it can transport. The Lyon Metro has a better PPHPD than a tram line and faster speed. Moreover its gauge is the one of a true subway with a width of 2,89m instead of the way smaller 2,40-45m of the Paris metro that is closer to a light metro than a heavy metro by global standards. With longitudinal seating and wide trains, the Lyon rolling stock better handles high loads of passengers.
@@Subway2400 this is not correct. wide trains doesn't mean high capacity with only 2 cars....2 times less capacity. Longitunidal has nothing to do with capacity, it's a question of gauge. Regarding the PPHPD of Lyon : it is low with 350 persons
I take Ligne 14 everyday to go to uni and it's a pleasure each time ! It's very confortable and efficient :) Also at each of the extremities of the train there is a huge window where you can see the tunnels and other trains passing across!
I am working on a project in which I design some potential rail lines for San Diego's public transit system (MTS). They currently use a variety of Siemens light rail vehicles, all pretty standard. I am constantly hearing that when tunneling you should use higher capacity transit to get the best value out of the tunnel. However in SD's case the line would not need that elevated capacity and they already run Light Rail so would it be better to just stick with light rail?
Induced demand also happens with mass transit. M14 is expected to pass the million daily passengers in the coming months. This line was built to relieve RER A on a portion of its central section, which itself was built to relieve M1. And recently RER E was extended a first step Westward to relieve RER A and M1 on their Western side. There soon will be about 4 million people traveling every day on this East-West axis. So, an efficient transit corridor will likely attract new transit users and planning for sufficient future capacity is always miles better than limiting oneself to constant saturation. A good capacity and fast "structuring line" like a metro does wonders to kick-start a quick modal shift towards transit. You don't want your light rail lines to be as saturated as Paris tramway lines 3a and 3b with their sometimes 700 000 daily passengers.
I'm so glad, we're starting to have rail alternatives to the RERs At Évry, we finally have the T12 tramway since a year even if its frequency isn't as great as it should be
7:37 Line 14 is actually the soul of this project, it's the line that launched the project, line 15 will be the one with the most people but line 14 is a critical part of this project that started studying near line 14's introduction
Good video! And for rapid metro, do you have a plan for introducing Tsukuba Express in the future? This is also a very intersting line. By defination it can be regareded as 'rapid metro', relatively new, featuring technologies like ATO and faster vehicles. But on the other hand it also has some features similar to traditional Japanses private railways like you have both local and fast service and fast service can bypass local service at some station. Also by the arrangement of the timetable, passengers on the local train can even transfer to the fast train at some intermediate stops to save the overall travel time.
I already took the southern expansion 2 times as of now, one time for fun and the other time to go home from the airport, I will take it again in a little more than 4 hours from now too 😊. It's really neat as someone living in the petite couronne (close suburbs) it allows to only take the métro instead of the RER B or the OrlyBus. It really sped up the ride. I also went to Saint-Denis - Pleyel right before the Olympics and seeing such a big station almost completely empty was quite the nice sight to be honest.
15 years ago line 14 felt empty, large and insular. (It terminated at Cour St. Emilion and St. Lazare then.) With each extension it has become busier and more integral to the network and today it feels almost as busy as lines 1 and 4
"Feeling empty" is quite an overstatement... It was packed during rush hours and reasonably attended in off-peak hours. In 2010 it already had a pretty good ridership.
One very important thing you forgot to mention is also that all platforms of the line 14 are accessible by elevator, allowing people with mobility handicaps to finally be able to travel by metro in Paris. This was not the case before, and this is gonna be the new standard for the future lines.
Have a look at São Paulo Metro, you’ll be amazed! Started after Mexico City (actually São Paulo received instructions from Mexico) but now looks similar to Singaporean metro. In addition São Paulo have a very old English train line in crossing the metropolitan area, with a huge central station in a English style!
Dominican Republic is investing heavily in mass transit. You should take a look at what they’re doing. They are building a Monorail, metro extensions and cable cars.
They had extension tunnels where trains "slept". Terminus stations weren't true stub-ends, the tunnel continued for a few hundred meters. It's still the case now : the tunnel extends beyond Saint-Denis Pleyel up to La Plaine - Stade de France RER B station, slightly over a kilometer away. The line used to operate with something like 35 trains, and will now operate with 72. (Tho they haven't received all 72 of them yet, they are missing some that should arrive before the end of the year or February).
Since the opening of the northern section in 2020, the interval had returned to 105 seconds/95 seconds. The stock of rolling stock did not allow for this. What's more, the acquisition of new rolling stock, which necessitated the transfer of old rolling stock to line 4 as part of the automation process, meant that the interval was no longer possible. But this was compensated for by a higher-capacity equipment. The 85-second interval will be possible again in the coming months with the latest deliveries.
In Paris, 225m platforms are on RER lines A, B, and E. 260m on RER D and I always forget the platform length for RER C. That's where they have the ginormous double-decker trains carrying up to over 4000 people.
My SWAG says that the "future" future subway systems will deliver even more capacity per concrete poured, using such innovations as advanced train control, high speed passing loops at select stations (can shove an express train past the local train, without paying the cost of full additional set of tracks), and possibly platooning (coupling two short trains from branch lines together into a full length train, automatically, when they arrive at a junction station).
@@u1zha I've never heard it called platooning before. We have that in South East England where a train will split into two, or even three, separate trains to serve different destinations, though not autonomously.
I was on the first train to Orly Airport the day it opened (I know it's the first because they got us all off the train at Olympiades before getting the green light to let us back on and let the train continue). The distances were impressive and I'm surprised the entire extension was underground too. I had a video of the route but unfortunately my phone was stolen a couple weeks after and the video with it.
The DART underground and the Metro for Dublin Airport, Ireland shows great promise, if it’s ever completed, if the Irish government does fully commit to its rail expansion and investment programme
Actually, you’re wrong on the fact that line 14 was the first heavy-rail automated metro. It was in fact the line D in Lyon France ! Line D was operational in 1992, while line 14 opened in 1999.
The design of Paris Line 14 is actually a mix between two opposite goals: be an express line as a part of the Grand Paris Express project and at the same time offer a fine service in Paris with connections to the existing network. Saint-Lazare, Madeleine and Pyramides on the west Paris section and Gare de Lyon, Bercy, Cour St Emilion, Bibliothèque François Mitterrand and Olympiades have an inter station distance consistent with Paris RATP tradition. But two stops are terribly missing in Paris: . Rome, that would provide a connection with line 2, the inner circle half line of Paris, . Sully Morland on line 7, with potentially a link to disused Arsenal station on line 5, that would allow a better mesh network approach.
Can you cover the plans for a BRT system going from Haarlem to Schiphol? I personally think it's kinda stupid and it would make more sense to use lightrail or metro
A few days ago I was having lunch in south east Paris and didn't know what to do for the rest of my day off. And I thought: "Hey, why wouldn't I go to Orly airport? since line 14 go there now" And I just did, I spent a few hours at the airport (and also tried the T7 tramway :p ).This was just unthinkable a few monthes ago, not that it was impossible to do it (there is a direct bus that is actually pretty fast), but damn how easy it is to just take the subway.
When you realize that the first extension project of the line 14 planned to link the main airport Charles de Gaulle too...this line could be more legendary than it is already
Il will already be Hell with just Orly... Having CDG connected too would crush the line altogether, so it was dropped. For that, transforming RER B into a proper heavy automated metro, Japan style in train length could be the solution... however it has common tracks with regular suburban trains., so that's not likely to ever heppen. I had a project idea to cut Line B at St Michel, build a new Northern section and turn the Southern section linked to the new Northern one into such a heavy metro line while a new RER tunnel would be built to link Montparnasse station, Southern suburbs and a branch to Orly to have a proper Airport to Airport via City center RER line, faster with less stops and same specs all the way through. The current Southern section was a very slow railway turned into a suburban line and it would benefit more of being a metro than a RER line. Same goes for RER C central section which should be turned into a metro and the RER line displaced to enhance connectivity of the whole RER network elsewhere. Alas, our political authorities think short term gains only...
The new line 14 is the example of future mass transit. Easy automated efficient transportation when access by car to Paris has become a nightmare any time of the day …
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
line 14 is the reason why I'm into transit now, the arches in the stations and the original mp89 trains are too iconic
They are beautiful, really an amazing vision of the future!
This video should be shown to Musk who in his last show pictured a crowded old London Underground metro line to illustrate that robotaxis are needed! Line 14 is what a modern, high capacity metro line looks like!
That guy hates public transport.
Don't bother. All that guy wants is to have as much as car dependebcy as possible. All he wants is to sell as much teslas as possible.
crowded means it's popular. lol
Elon hates mingling with the poors (and almost everyone is poor to him)
@@szurketaltos2693 You might notice he also presented a 'Robovan'... basically a bus! Oh the horror, public transport!
I rode the Paris 14 to Orly Airport days after the extension opened. Absolutely fabulous to stand at the front of the train and look out the window!
I'm jealous - exciting times in Paris!
the issue is that horrid fare spike to orly
@@asheiou I agree that it would be ideal if the cost remained the same as an intercity journey, but I can't fault the reasoning. It is cheaper than a taxi. It would be interesting to see RMTransit make a video about fare decisions like this - or the finances of transit agencies in mega regions like Paris, London, NYC, Tokyo, etc. Obviously some countries have better local/regional/national funding cooperation regarding fare subsidizing than others...
@@asheiouwait when they are going to open CDG Express… 26€ / person !
@@asheiou Why is it an issue? Never heard that it was an issue in the other cities in the world and the locals don't have to pay it. For the visitors there are alternatives for those who don't want to contribute to the infrastructure cost and maintenance, they can use the RER C, tramway 7 and several buses lines.
The line's extension is already a massive success, the ridership at Orly airport in the south to go right in Paris center is 50% more than expected! And the extension has been launched just two months ago!
Not surprised. Orly Airport is still heavily used for inter-European flights and some long-distance international flights.
Can't wait for CDG express and M17 !
@@St0rrrm 2027 and late 2026 respectively!
Certainly looks like it would be easier to get to my uncle via it....
Eurostar to Paris, walk from GdN to Châtlet and then M14 to Orly rather than having to go via the Orlyval and RER
As the flight to Réunion is normally from Orly
Wow that is amazing, but I guess it just shows the value of direct airport services as opposed to those connected with "airtrains"
I take this line everyday and it’s still SO impressive to see one train leaving and the next one immediately entering the station at peak hours 🤩
Its one of the most frequent rail lines in the world, so so impressive, and the rubber tires help!
yeah, only yhe yamanote in tokyo is more impressiv in that regars (not technicaly a metro line but use for the same purpose as line 14
@@cracktheegg5830The Yamanote and the ligne 14 are completely different lines serving a different purpose.
The only line close to the Yamanote will be the ligne 15, without all the shaking.
Paris' love affair with automation actually started in the 70s with the rollout of the PA135 semi-automatic train control on pretty much all its subway lines to increase capacity. The system could be viewed as a primitive GoA2 ATC (wich still requires a driver in the cab) and was developed by a company called Interelec. This company was later on bought by MATRA and the PA135 fixed block signalling technology was used as the baseline for the VAL ATC (fully driverless hence GoA4) in the 80s. In the 90s, MATRA was then tasked to develop the METEOR ATC used on line 14 (Alstom providing the rolling stock), the SACEM for RER A and later on the SAET for line 1 and 4 automation projects. Line 14 ATC got upgraded right in time before the Paris 2024 games with the SAET NG, developed by Siemens (that bought MATRA in the 2000s) and RATP. SAET NG is a proper CBTC system that builds on more than 50 years of automatic train control technology.
I love your comments. You should concentrate them and open a substack or something like online!
@@etbadaboum Thanks! Actually most of my knowledge on the topic comes from a single journal article written by a former MATRA engineer "VAL automated guided transit characteristics and evolutions" (1993), it is easily accessible online. Everything else I know is from wikipedia, twitter and some forums 😂
To give even more context, the obsession with automation started with RATP itself. In 1951 RATP, with CSEE (now Ansaldo STS) fitted its first automated GoA2 ATO on the first rubber tired metro prototype MP51 (also known as "the Grandmother"). This one was purely analog and worked greatly with passenger on the now defunct service between Porte des Lilas and Porte du Pré-Saint-Gervais. Theses tests validated the concept of the PA BF system which will start deployment on bigger lines in 1967 when money came along.
The target was not to replace drivers at first, it was to uniformise driving style. This allowed trains to stick to the timetable more closely, hence evening the load in cars, hence allowing more people to travel.
What happened next is perfectly told by the comment above and the video itself !
@@LeGrandJuju49 Thank you for this additional information. The history of the development of these systems is fascinating and RATP is truly a pioneer in this field.
@SpectreMk2 well when your drivers like to go on strike for any reason you find solutions 😁
Thanks Reece for an excellent video! I would just add that line 14 is also the model for the 'mini' Metro line M2 in Lausanne, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. This extremely successful line in a city with less than a quarter of a million population has only two-car trains. And Lausanne is now going to build an M3 line using the same technology. (Note that line M1 in Lausanne is an older line using Light Rail technology.)
I lived in Porte de Clichy for many years, line 14 literally has been lifechanging!
I’m from Australia who was on holidays in Paris a bit less than a month ago, my hotel that I stayed was closest to the Porte de clichy train station, and I must say that the line 14 really has no downsides to it even though being there for a good 11 days, the frequency can be as good as 1-2 mins, also was a very good substitute for line 13 that take more stopes to saint lazare while the line 14 zips to saint lazare in around 2 stops. Being from Australia this is the first time I have seen adequate mass metro transit and was very fun to get around. I would love to one day get good metro in all main Australian cities in the next 10-15 years but unfortunately takes way too much effort to get the cogs working, hopes are up 😂
That Northern extension of Line 14 was designed to be both a link with Grand Paris Express network and a relief of Line 13.
@@neddymcneddy1738 it's a shame that it seems to take so much longer these days. Paris opened its first metro line in 1900 and by 1920, it already had about 10 lines.
I would say Sydney Metro and Paris M-14 are very similar. I would say that the NSW Government and Transport for NSW borrowed a lot ideas from Paris public transport network.
@@michaelcobbin I think that the Sydney metro is awesome, but the connectivity and reliability of the Paris metro really does put the Sydney metro to shame. Just having one line going through the CBD really isn’t enough
@@neddymcneddy1738 Give it time. There are three metro lines under construction. There are still gains to be obtained with Sydney Trains, Sydney’s version of Paris’s RER, through the removal of bottlenecks, digital signalling and expansion. I am expecting the South West Railway Link will be extended to Bradfield.
I was there on the first day when the Line 14 opened. We rode it back and forth. I still remember it. It was so exciting. Like someone opened a door straight into the future.
Whenever I’m in Paris, I will go out of my way to take line 14 instead of others. It did lots of things right!
Surprised you didn't mention Singapore. Singapore's North-East MRT Line (NEL) opened in 2003 is remarkably similar to Line 14, also fully underground and driverless, even uses the same underlying technology and rolling stock from Alstom. Now all other older MRT lines have been retrofitted to run like the NEL as well.
i love that they showed the world a new norm because the city i live in retrofitted its old lines and made a whole new line properly with these new systems and it's amazing
Lausanne ?
Line 4 is now fully automated, the next to be automated will be line 13, the most immobilized in relation to its capacity.
@@marty4262 great more jobs being taken away
Seeing the automation retrofits in Paris over the years has been super impressive!
@@RMTransit For whatever reason, the retrofit on line 4 has been much longer and more disruptive than a decade before on line 1. If this trends continue, the project on line 13 will be catastrophic...
@@joriss5 The reason is clear, the pandemic kicked in. Do you plan another pandemic for line 13? Siemens also faced some technical issues. Is Semiens the contractor for line 13? Even if they are I take that they will learn from the previous cases.
@puccaland This is not the reason for so much more line closures.
I haven't seen line 14 but i have to say i am always impressed to see such big trains stopping every 1-2 minutes in Madrid and this line definitely looks like a newer and more beautiful version of line 10 from Madrid metro
Oh shoot! I've ridden a lot of the Paris Metro when I've stayed there, but last year the hotel my group was staying at in Bercy was right on Line 14 and it was such a shock from what I had ridden before. Line 14 is a statement in the future for SURE
Also with M14 connecting to Orly, its interesting to see the options provided for transit to CDG because taking the Orlyval to Antony - the RER B North terminates at CDG as well.
Just a wonderful example of multiple means of getting to the same place. Redundancy is the best.
More impressive than the latest tesla
Two weeks ago I spent a weekend in Paris, and I had taken line 14 a couple of times that weekend. Hadn't realised how new and modern that line actually is. Thanks for the information!
@RMTransit Ending on "greater international standardization, and I think that's really interesting. Thanks for watching" was a subtle but very nice touch.
2:40 Bibliothèque nationale on line 14 is connected to a huge underground station for the RER C actually. Many stations are also connected to the tram network
Wow, hats-off from a former 40 years-long parisian ! So knowledgeable and full-packed of to-the-point information... Arguably one of the best channels on the whole Internet ! Cheers ! ❤🎉😊
Looove taking the Ligne 14, along with the 6 my favorites to take
Thank you for highlighting line 14, I've been waiting for this video for a long time with the opening of Orly !
I just want to clarify a few points :
3:10 Metro line 4 automation is finished since december 2023 😉
7:10 the yard is large. A double track connects the yard to the main tracks of the line
This allows trains to be quickly injected into the line, and also allows them to be parked. This maintenance and storage site made it possible to maintain the 35 trains actually on the Mairie de Saint-Ouen extension: 6 positions in the connection leading to the workshop, 5 parking positions in front of the workshop, 2 ancillary tracks with a washing machine, including 2 positions for cleaning the inside of the trains + 2 park positions, and finally 5 tracks on piles where maintenance operations were carried out.
Finally, to clarify, the site is semi-buried, not really enclosed because it's on a slope, you can see the light!
As for the 85-second intervals, they were effective before the northward extension and have since been compensated for by the 120-meter-long trains you explained. (105s/95s headways until now)
The 85 seconds will be effective again in a few months, while Alstom delivers the last 10 trainsets to the new Morangis maintenance site.
As for the new maintenance site to the south, it has an additional maintenance track (6 instead of 5) and a very large indoor and outdoor storage area with a long back-gauge to the Aéroport d'Orly station. Maintenance will be around 60% in the south and 40% in the north, with 72 trains to be maintained in a few months' time.
8:53 The last station of the extension will open at the end of the year or in January, while the line 15 is still officially scheduled for completion by the end of 2025, although there could be a few months' delay.
TYSM Reece 😁🤩
@@Parmatt Another specificity I think he skipped over is that the train is connected to RER C in Bibliothèque François Mitterand. And he also mentioned the connections to Gare de Lyon and Châtelet with the 1 and St Lazare and GdL on the A but Châtelet also is an RER A station (technically it’s Châtelet Les Halles but if Auber/Opera are counted under St Lazare, Châtelet Les Halles definitely can be counted as one) which makes the 14 serve 3 consecutive RER A stations
when you say line 15 will be completed in late 2025 you mean just the southern section right ?
The depot is connected with 2 track but in the section you have a section with just one track when you join the main line. You can see it when you take the line 14.
@@St0rrrm yeah
@@ykpr obviously you can't do anything else...
line 14 was my first automated metro, i aws in awe and it was one of the reasons i moved to Turin, the fact that it had an automated (VAL but still..) metro. Needless to say, the influence of line 14 are extremely visible in all new metro lines Ital yhas built, starting with Turin's M1
VAL and Paris line 14 have a lot in common:
- Both rely on automatic train control systems developed by MATRA (although the VAL system is a lot older). Siemens later on acquired MATRA but kept working closely with Alstom for the Paris metro.
- Both the first the generation of VAL (VAL206) and line 14 rolling stocks were made in same factory in Petite-Forêt (now owned by Alstom).
- And both the VAL208 (second generation of VAL, the ones used in Turin) and the MP89 (first used on line 14 and then moved to line 4) were designed by french designer Roger Tallon.
@@SpectreMk2 yeah, Turin has heavily modeled its metro system (including future Line 2) after the french experiment, consequently most other Italian automated metros followed Turin's line 1's example and feature similar concepts, although none of them uses the VAL trains, opting instead for Hitachi Driverless.
Milan and Brescia are the best examples, they have those utilitarian standardized station designs, brescia even has the big station boxes and the vaulted gallery over the trains very similar to Turin's. Rome, due to the archaeological strata the city sits on, had to create ad-hoc solutions (and sometimes change plans on the fly).
@@mygetawayart Rome is different beast and I wouldn’t like to be running Rome’s metro system expansion
6:45 Fun fact: it's the exact opposite on the moscow metro. Most platforms on the moscow metro are island platforms and the doors open on the left (making the 3rd rail hidden under the platfrom so if a person falls he doesn't get 750V of power running through his body) and if it's on the right then it is announced
And in Warsaw it's Moscow-style metro with just one side platform's station but still the side of a platform is always announced
This is really a third rail with bottom contact win. In Paris, we put the third rail away to allow people to climb back onto the platform safely and allow workers walk near wall and catch a hiding spots every 50m or so. Indeed you only have roughly 70cm between a train and the tunnel wall in older tunnels.
Notice he says, A better US, not "a better America". Since Canada is in America already. Thank you RMT for recognizing America as a continent and not a country. :)
My favorite line in Paris, I saw it built when I was in Highschool (although I remember seeing promotional material years prior). Suddenly seeing a new line appear on the map when I completely forgot about the project was so mind boggling, then I remembered.
Since then, I go see documents about the new projects on a regular basis.
First goal of the line was not to go to airports but remain in Paris or take branches of lines 13 and possibly 7 but that was dropped due to -fear of causing to much trouble- ahem, Christian Blanc's dream of what would become the Grand Paris Express...
Line 14 first maintenance facility was what is Olympiades station now. Then, it was displaced beyond it (the three track portion just before Maison Blanche.
The small size of the yard was partially due to lack of funds but also because the main heavy maintenance yard of Rubber Tyre trains is Fontenay, beyond Château de Vincennes on Line 1, hence the link with Line 6...
Without enough space to store trains during the nights, the solution was to keep trains stopped in stations before starting up next morning.
With the extentions, St Ouen workshop was created and it has a TWO track tunnel link with the line, not single track.
With the new extentions to Orly and St Denis, there is now a second facility South of the airport, big enough to store 60% of the line trains and offer independant heavy maintenance (the network will be private by 2039 so each line or couple of lines shall have the necessary independant facilities...) The link to Line 6 at Bercy is also useful for Track maintenance since the RATP part of the network will still be under RATP charge as far as Infrastructure Maintenance goes (as decided in the Grand Paris Law in 2010, RATP stays Infrastructure owner but rolling stock and tickets go to the Regional Authority, independant of who will run the lines).
Grand Paris Express Line 15 expoitation will go to RATP when Lines 16 and 17 (coming together because they have the common trunk and a common train maintenance facility) to Keolis. RATP Infra will still maintain tracks on all lines.
Worthy of note, The Morangis Workshop, South of Orly is designed to eventually accomodate a new terminus there, if necessary.
That kind of express line is good but if you begin to build your network now, better go the Japanese or Chinese way and mix both -Line 14 style and NY Subway style, in the same infrastructure, it will cost more at first but will be insanely useful and future proof on the long run.
Line 14 only has a 80 kph top speed. Despite that, the way the stops are spaced, especially on the Orly extension, make up for it, linking the Airport to Châtelet 10 minutes faster than RER B+Orly Val combo.
And if you want to explain relativity to someone, that example is quite the good one...
I wish every underground subway line in New York was as nice as this with platform screen doors and spacious interiors
Forget that, I wish it had fewer drug addicts, rats and criminals in it, as well as slightly refurbished interiors. I am from Russia, and if you ride the Saint Petersburg metro and then the NYC subway, you would think the first country is drowning in riches while the second one is going through an apocalypse. It is one thing to have aesthetically unappealing public transport, it is another thing when it is dangerous and scary to use at night.
When New York gets rebuilt
@@Ruzzky_Bly4t clean, modern & frequent is much better than old & over the top
The TTC really needs to make lines like Line 14. The Ontario Line got close with its modernity, but it should have been extended further north into the suburbs.
Line 4 would be a good candidate for automation!
@RMTransit Something tells me that future Eglinton east LRT could be turned into a fully automated line in the not too distant future.
Dumb question, is the Ontario line designed to be fully automated? If not I'll keep laughing at TTC/Metrolinx for the rest of my life😁
@@PaulYason it's fully Automated
@@IndustrialParrot2816 thanks that's a big relief, now let's wait for 2 decades for it to complete
Another great video, i always found m14 fascinating so its good to see a video about it on the channel
1:30 Never seen double decker metro cars before they are beautiful ❤️
It's the RER
It's more a regional train than a metro. Even though its central core can be considered as a metro as it has full grade separation and serve systematically all stations
Those are Suburban Trains
@@cdrw92 including subway stations?
@@Railenroute Yes many RER stations are connected to subway stations.
It's de facto the regional express heavy metro.
It even was called "metro express regional" for some time and during the construction of line A.
The suburban commuter system is the Transilien (lines H to V).
Using it everyday it is amazing, even though some stations now feel a bit too small on rush hours
I remember riding line 14 the morning it opened to the public back in 1998. It was jaw dropping, so unlike any public transportation we had seen before and for many of us, this was the event that propelled Paris into the 21st century.
26 years later, the new extension finally reaches my home town, and the whole family rode almost the full line to Saint-Denis Pleyel to watch the Olympics ! 😊
Some transit projects change the direction of transit forever, others are called cybercab.
Elon "re-invented" the Mashroutka/Sarvis/Sherut - literally the worst forms of public transit.😂
Boo
I had no idea that Line 14 might have been the inspiration for Sydney Metro's amazing looking architecture! I think I speak for all of us rail enthusiasts who were on board the first 5am train out, that it was a great day to be a mass transit enthusiast. I was ecstatic at how well-received and almost tourist-like the metro line had become! It definitely paves the way for bipartisan support for more world class rapid transit infrastructure Down Under.
Villejuif IGR (the 7th station in south section) will open probably in december....before the opening M15.
line 14 is an RATP project while lines 15 to 18 are a State project via the SGP.
The RATP did not want unnecessary additional costs through unique, grandiloquent stations designed by architects, but functional and standardized stations (this excludes St denis Pleyel which is an SGP station).
So, they are less flashy. Only Villejuif IGR is a special case because it is very deep and built around the access shaft of the first tunnel boring machine launched. It will therefore have a platform partially suspended above the void (and the tracks of the 15) and access will be via escalators above the void, the station being placed on the edges of the circular hole. There will be videos on this station, be patient ^^.
As a consequence, the signage in most stations in in the traditional RATP style. Only in Orly airport station has the Grand Paris Express graphic chart been adopted. I'm ready to anticipate that the signage in Villejuif IGR will also follow the GPE graphic chart.
5:05 I think Beijing Subway has a similar idea about the newly-built rapid lines, that parallel to existing lines, with fully automated systems and high capacity. For example, Line 17 and Line 19 (also denoted as R1 and R3 respectively, R stands for rapid line) in was opened in 2022.
Always good info and now getting some chill vibes with the music choices!
3:10 that is a bit inexact, line 4 automation is fully completed already
Currently watching this video ina L14 train ! 😁
I love watching your videos and this one as always is really good, also requesting that you make a video on the RNV tram network, basically a tram network that runs connects 3 cities which all have their own tram lines, it connects Mannheim with Ludwigshafen to the west over the Rhein river and then southeast to heidelberg, there is actually a loop line (5) that runs on a roundtrip from Mannheim to Heidelberg, through Heidelberg and then up north to weinheim and then back southwest towards mannheim and it completes a round trip doing so. another interesting fact is that the trams in heidelberg have a drivers cab in both ends but the trams in mannheim and ludwigshafen do not so they have to go on this track that does a little loop. anyways would be super hyped to see this video!
Line 14 is always there to save the day
1998/2003
- Save RER A
- Give a purpose to RER C South-East
2020
- Save line 13 branches
- Give a purpose to RER C North
2024
- Save line 7 branches
- Save RER B
You forgot "save the olympics " 😂
A lot of heavy lifting for one rapid transit line 💪😏
Line 14 route within Central Paris is basically what a good RER C should have been.
2030 : "help, line 14 is super-over-crowded, we must do something !"
It's already the most used metro line in the network with about 800 000 users per day, so the planned ridership of one million may bell be exceeded. And there's no spare capacity over that... the line was not planned to take all this when it was designed in the previous century.
@@Clery75019The RER C is good, it stops at all the touristy landmarks and connects the center East to West on the left bank.
you do make a good point with the design of the new stations. living there, I really regret that the extensions don't reflect the initial architectural vision of line 14. if you ever wondered why there are circles linking platform doors from one side to the other: they're supposed to represent a wireframe projection of the tunnel into the station. this sounds so much like the future from the 1990s I love it. wish they followed that guideline for the extension to Maison Blanche and further
Yeah, we have the best metro, we already know😏
I’m a simple man, I see the 14 I watch and I like.
"What's unique is that Paris Metro Line 14 was built to be fully driverless as a heavy metro with long trains and frequent service"
Washington Metro: *that's what I was supposed to be*
Just a little comment here: the first automated heavy metro line in the world isn't M14 in Paris, but line D in Lyon which opened in 1991, seven years before M14 was inaugurated!
You are 100%. Moreover, like for the line 14, it was Alstom and MATRA that made the MPL85 rolling stocks for Lyon line D. The automatic train control developed by MATRA, called MAGGALY (Métro Automatique à Grand Gabarit de l'Agglomération LYonnaise), was a significant step forward compared to the VAL ATC (first put in service in Lille in 1983) as it introduced moving block signaling technology.
Lyon is more like a light metro!
Nope@@etbadaboum
Thanks
This question often comes up, but the argument is capacity with heavy metro: At the time and still in progress: 350 people capacity for Lyon's metro line D (still no double unit) and 700 persons per metro when line 14 opens.
1 to 2 km between stations is really good. Most people can walk ten minutes to or from a station. But being on a train that stops every few hundred meters is slow and frustrating.
1 or 2 kilometers aren't a 10 minute walk...
The average person needs more than that as the average walking speed is between 3 and 5 km per hour...
the problem in Paris is the city is very very dense (20k people/sq km in average some district are more at 25 or 28k)
so you can have 2 subway stations in 500m but they deserve so much people
@@KyrilPG 1-2km between stations means the when you stand right between the two stations you only got 0.5-1km to a station, putting it between 7.5 to 15 minutes of walking at 4kmh
@@viken3368 Yeah, but we're not talking of being on the path of the line right between two stations, but being 1 to 2 km away from a station.
@@KyrilPG "1 to 2 km between stations" , "Most people can walk ten minutes to or from a station" The commenter is clearly talking about the distance to walk to the station if you live alongside the line. How is this so hard to understand? And in that case, you only need to walk 0.5-1 km, as the reply mentions.
This line was my first experience of the Paris metro when I arrived at Orly Airport for the Paris Olympics. The huge entrance hall 'stacked' full or escalators is a sight to behold. The rest of the metro is more like London than the much newer systems in Asia but it's very functional and apart from the lack of AC on most lines a pleasure to use. Just a pity they never fixed accessibility.
Also loved the random stylings of some stations. I spent an afternoon jumping on and off the metro to photograph signage and lighting 🙂
Less than 120 seconds between trains in peak hour 😱. I wish all mega and capital cities could justify that level of frequency
M14's nominal frequency during rush is 85 seconds, and that's between departures, not between departure of the previous train and arrival of the next one.
So, there's often only a few dozen seconds between 2 trains, it's a constant noria.
Especially in Gare de Lyon with its central platform, there's almost always a train.
Right now they haven't yet received all 72 new trains, the missing dozen will enter service in the coming weeks. In the meantime the line is reduced to 105 seconds during rush.
The return to 85 seconds will help when the line will pass the million daily passengers.
Are you planning to do a video about the newly opened Sydney Metro extension?
About the grand design of M14’s stations, though architects will try to make you believe it’s entirely on purpose, don’t forget 30m deep station HAVE to be grand as they’re boxes digged from the surface ! That’s a huge volume.
As a relocated but native New Yorker, I can say that a lot of these ideas would be hard to take back home. NYC is slowly shifting to standard door spacing, which helps with door screens. But the way that lines in Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx converge on the Manhattan trunk lines makes automation hard and severely restricts headways. Manhattan itself is a giant bottleneck. Any construction debris basically needs to be carried out by the spoonful. NYC really needs the rest of the 2nd Ave Subway, and should revisit a lot of the IND's Second System. Still, the progress in Paris is really heartening, and the Metro and RER are amazing.
As the daily user of the M14 thanks for the highlighing. the extension to Saint Denis and Orly was a massive project
Bruno Latour's book _Aramis_ is of singular interest and relevance here, though (or because?!) it deals with a project that was never realized.... Would love to talk with you about that book sometime Reece!!! Keep up the good work!
Always interesting to watch your videos. Thanks !
You should check out the modernization and extension of Paris metro line 11. His success brings a new issue : the overcrowding of the République station, that just got an "emergency" renovation appoval by IDFM to make it suitable for such passenger flows.
Tbh it justs cosmestic : it doesn't mean new access that the station need, it's just adaptation of the existing station
4:00 Isn't Lyon line D considered to be the first automated heavy metro line ? (1991)
You are 100%. Moreover, like for the line 14, it was Alstom and MATRA that made the MPL85 rolling stocks for Lyon line D. The automatic train control developed by MATRA, called MAGGALY (Métro Automatique à Grand Gabarit de l'Agglomération LYonnaise), was a significant step forward compared to the VAL ATC (first put in service in Lille in 1983) as it introduced moving block signaling technology.
@@evanzai1771 thanks, I was looking for this comment
it isn't : This question often comes up, but the argument is capacity with heavy metro: At the time and still in progress: 350 people capacity for Lyon's metro line D which is barely better than a tramway (still no double unit) and 700 persons per metro when line 14 opens.
@@Parmatt What is important is the capacity of the line with how many people per hour per direction it can transport. The Lyon Metro has a better PPHPD than a tram line and faster speed. Moreover its gauge is the one of a true subway with a width of 2,89m instead of the way smaller 2,40-45m of the Paris metro that is closer to a light metro than a heavy metro by global standards. With longitudinal seating and wide trains, the Lyon rolling stock better handles high loads of passengers.
@@Subway2400 this is not correct. wide trains doesn't mean high capacity with only 2 cars....2 times less capacity. Longitunidal has nothing to do with capacity, it's a question of gauge. Regarding the PPHPD of Lyon : it is low with 350 persons
When will be there a video about Budepest's metro and HÉV system?
Watching this before I go to Paris tomorrow lol
8:58 Actually Gustave Roussy station should open in December
Rail daddy with the weekend upload!
I take Ligne 14 everyday to go to uni and it's a pleasure each time ! It's very confortable and efficient :) Also at each of the extremities of the train there is a huge window where you can see the tunnels and other trains passing across!
They have that on the 4 too!! so cool
Your content hasn't been coming up on my feed recently! Time to go check out the vids I missed!
Milan just extended M4, you should make a video on Milan's trams and Suburban and Regionale network
I am working on a project in which I design some potential rail lines for San Diego's public transit system (MTS). They currently use a variety of Siemens light rail vehicles, all pretty standard. I am constantly hearing that when tunneling you should use higher capacity transit to get the best value out of the tunnel. However in SD's case the line would not need that elevated capacity and they already run Light Rail so would it be better to just stick with light rail?
Induced demand also happens with mass transit.
M14 is expected to pass the million daily passengers in the coming months.
This line was built to relieve RER A on a portion of its central section, which itself was built to relieve M1.
And recently RER E was extended a first step Westward to relieve RER A and M1 on their Western side.
There soon will be about 4 million people traveling every day on this East-West axis.
So, an efficient transit corridor will likely attract new transit users and planning for sufficient future capacity is always miles better than limiting oneself to constant saturation.
A good capacity and fast "structuring line" like a metro does wonders to kick-start a quick modal shift towards transit.
You don't want your light rail lines to be as saturated as Paris tramway lines 3a and 3b with their sometimes 700 000 daily passengers.
@@KyrilPG Thank You!
1:09 Watching from Gif sur yvette, where we have the rer B and ligne 18 in construction... that is still somewhat true.
I'm so glad, we're starting to have rail alternatives to the RERs
At Évry, we finally have the T12 tramway since a year even if its frequency isn't as great as it should be
7:37 Line 14 is actually the soul of this project, it's the line that launched the project, line 15 will be the one with the most people but line 14 is a critical part of this project that started studying near line 14's introduction
Good video! And for rapid metro, do you have a plan for introducing Tsukuba Express in the future? This is also a very intersting line. By defination it can be regareded as 'rapid metro', relatively new, featuring technologies like ATO and faster vehicles. But on the other hand it also has some features similar to traditional Japanses private railways like you have both local and fast service and fast service can bypass local service at some station. Also by the arrangement of the timetable, passengers on the local train can even transfer to the fast train at some intermediate stops to save the overall travel time.
I already took the southern expansion 2 times as of now, one time for fun and the other time to go home from the airport, I will take it again in a little more than 4 hours from now too 😊.
It's really neat as someone living in the petite couronne (close suburbs) it allows to only take the métro instead of the RER B or the OrlyBus. It really sped up the ride.
I also went to Saint-Denis - Pleyel right before the Olympics and seeing such a big station almost completely empty was quite the nice sight to be honest.
And hopefully the Sepulveda Pass subway in LA will also be automated heavy metro
15 years ago line 14 felt empty, large and insular. (It terminated at Cour St. Emilion and St. Lazare then.) With each extension it has become busier and more integral to the network and today it feels almost as busy as lines 1 and 4
So... time to build another line to relieve it? 😅
Valérie Pécresse, president of the IdF region and IdF Mobilités, call them the millionaire line because it transports daily more than a million people
"Feeling empty" is quite an overstatement...
It was packed during rush hours and reasonably attended in off-peak hours.
In 2010 it already had a pretty good ridership.
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Line 15 is coming for that very purpose
The line was originally between Bibliothèque and Madeleine. With recent extensions, it now exceeds lines 1 and 4.
I wish you talked about constructione times + cost of all these lines. I'm always curious to know as a point of comparison
I remember taking it for the first time around 1998. It was very pleasant. Pity I never needed it in my latest trip to Paris.
One very important thing you forgot to mention is also that all platforms of the line 14 are accessible by elevator, allowing people with mobility handicaps to finally be able to travel by metro in Paris. This was not the case before, and this is gonna be the new standard for the future lines.
Have a look at São Paulo Metro, you’ll be amazed! Started after Mexico City (actually São Paulo received instructions from Mexico) but now looks similar to Singaporean metro. In addition São Paulo have a very old English train line in crossing the metropolitan area, with a huge central station in a English style!
Dominican Republic is investing heavily in mass transit. You should take a look at what they’re doing. They are building a Monorail, metro extensions and cable cars.
Hello❤❤
Milan has now a new metro line, it’s definitely worth a video about it!!!
7:25 how on earth did they manage to run the line with such high frequency before the new yard was open?
They had extension tunnels where trains "slept".
Terminus stations weren't true stub-ends, the tunnel continued for a few hundred meters.
It's still the case now : the tunnel extends beyond Saint-Denis Pleyel up to La Plaine - Stade de France RER B station, slightly over a kilometer away.
The line used to operate with something like 35 trains, and will now operate with 72. (Tho they haven't received all 72 of them yet, they are missing some that should arrive before the end of the year or February).
Since the opening of the northern section in 2020, the interval had returned to 105 seconds/95 seconds. The stock of rolling stock did not allow for this. What's more, the acquisition of new rolling stock, which necessitated the transfer of old rolling stock to line 4 as part of the automation process, meant that the interval was no longer possible. But this was compensated for by a higher-capacity equipment. The 85-second interval will be possible again in the coming months with the latest deliveries.
And this yard didn't exist before 2020. I think line 14 trains used to go on line 6 yard
@@evanzai1771 Yeah it opens in 2020. No, on line 4 and metro of line 4 on line 6.
The blue subway line in Stockholm has 225m platforms. (Part of north red also has that, but it can’t be utilized with longer trains)
In Paris, 225m platforms are on RER lines A, B, and E.
260m on RER D and I always forget the platform length for RER C.
That's where they have the ginormous double-decker trains carrying up to over 4000 people.
[3:00] this video's obligatory Platform Screen Doors mention
My SWAG says that the "future" future subway systems will deliver even more capacity per concrete poured, using such innovations as advanced train control, high speed passing loops at select stations (can shove an express train past the local train, without paying the cost of full additional set of tracks), and possibly platooning (coupling two short trains from branch lines together into a full length train, automatically, when they arrive at a junction station).
@@u1zha I've never heard it called platooning before. We have that in South East England where a train will split into two, or even three, separate trains to serve different destinations, though not autonomously.
I was on the first train to Orly Airport the day it opened (I know it's the first because they got us all off the train at Olympiades before getting the green light to let us back on and let the train continue). The distances were impressive and I'm surprised the entire extension was underground too. I had a video of the route but unfortunately my phone was stolen a couple weeks after and the video with it.
Love your channel. Was curious if you will do an episode on the Rio grande project in salt lake City anytime soon.
can you make a video covering the Ile de France bus network?
my right ear loved this video
@@thedumbaviator5536
The audio works fine for me. Try different headphones or earbuds.
nice to see you crushing the view count big g proud of how far u have come
The DART underground and the Metro for Dublin Airport, Ireland shows great promise, if it’s ever completed, if the Irish government does fully commit to its rail expansion and investment programme
In madrid we're automating Metro Line 6, I'm really expectant to see how it turns out and hope the rest of lines follow suit shortly after.
and the only (for now, until the Grand Paris Express opens) 100% fully accessible metro line in Paris!
Actually, you’re wrong on the fact that line 14 was the first heavy-rail automated metro. It was in fact the line D in Lyon France ! Line D was operational in 1992, while line 14 opened in 1999.
1998*
to be honest, each operator uses the terms as they see fit. Regarding line D, it doesn't have a large carrying capacity
Line D definately isn't a heavy metro
The design of Paris Line 14 is actually a mix between two opposite goals: be an express line as a part of the Grand Paris Express project and at the same time offer a fine service in Paris with connections to the existing network. Saint-Lazare, Madeleine and Pyramides on the west Paris section and Gare de Lyon, Bercy, Cour St Emilion, Bibliothèque François Mitterrand and Olympiades have an inter station distance consistent with Paris RATP tradition. But two stops are terribly missing in Paris:
. Rome, that would provide a connection with line 2, the inner circle half line of Paris,
. Sully Morland on line 7, with potentially a link to disused Arsenal station on line 5, that would allow a better mesh network approach.
Just a suggestion: please make a content on the best transit systems in low or lower income countries (low-middle income countries and below).
Thank to la 14 I’m not late at university, I love you so much la 14
Talk about the "407 Transit Way" in Ontario. Make it popular so they build it. And explain why it hasn't been built/continued on yet.
Can you cover the plans for a BRT system going from Haarlem to Schiphol?
I personally think it's kinda stupid and it would make more sense to use lightrail or metro
0:35 What do you mean by future orbital tram-trains ? T11, T12 and T13 are already there :)
@@evanzai1771 yea but they're not fully extended yet
@@kalliase But T11 and T12 extensions are postponed indefinitely
A few days ago I was having lunch in south east Paris and didn't know what to do for the rest of my day off. And I thought: "Hey, why wouldn't I go to Orly airport? since line 14 go there now" And I just did, I spent a few hours at the airport (and also tried the T7 tramway :p ).This was just unthinkable a few monthes ago, not that it was impossible to do it (there is a direct bus that is actually pretty fast), but damn how easy it is to just take the subway.
time travelling trains sound pretty convenient
When you realize that the first extension project of the line 14 planned to link the main airport Charles de Gaulle too...this line could be more legendary than it is already
it was...too attractive and the line would be a real hell
Il will already be Hell with just Orly... Having CDG connected too would crush the line altogether, so it was dropped.
For that, transforming RER B into a proper heavy automated metro, Japan style in train length could be the solution... however it has common tracks with regular suburban trains., so that's not likely to ever heppen.
I had a project idea to cut Line B at St Michel, build a new Northern section and turn the Southern section linked to the new Northern one into such a heavy metro line while a new RER tunnel would be built to link Montparnasse station, Southern suburbs and a branch to Orly to have a proper Airport to Airport via City center RER line, faster with less stops and same specs all the way through. The current Southern section was a very slow railway turned into a suburban line and it would benefit more of being a metro than a RER line. Same goes for RER C central section which should be turned into a metro and the RER line displaced to enhance connectivity of the whole RER network elsewhere.
Alas, our political authorities think short term gains only...
The new line 14 is the example of future mass transit. Easy automated efficient transportation when access by car to Paris has become a nightmare any time of the day …
A study recommended against building the RER-A between Étoile and Nation because "it would only interest 120 people per day"...