Pretty good video with a slightly different and very interesting angle! Kudos 👍
A few corrections and complementary info:
The 100km milestone of dug tunnels has recently been passed, so now more than half of the project's heavy duty civil engineering work is done. 🥳🎉
In early September 2023, M17 officially exceeded the half-way milestone for its tunnels : 15km of tunnels have been pierced by 4 TBM's since 2020 (out of a 26.5km long line). A 5.5km part of what's left to build will be on the surface and viaducts before diving back for 6km under CDG airport towards the terminus. 🎉🎉
The expected ridership of the GPE project's new lines has been revised from 2 to 3 million daily riders.
TBM's on line M18 have started digging almost 2 years ago in November 2021, not recently. Mid-July 2023, the "Céline" TBM crossed through Massy Opera station and started its 650 meter long last leg on the Eastern side of M18. This TBM should arrive very soon (if it hasn't already), at its exit point, which will mean that M18's entire Eastern underground section is finished digging. The mid-line viaduct is well advanced too. Only the Western underground section of M18 apparently hasn't started yet.
At the peak of the first phase of massive digging, more than 20 TBM's dug simultaneously on the GPE project alone.
M14 is a fully automated and high frequency line that has been in service since 1998. What's being built as part of the GPE project is the large Southward extension to Orly airport and the shorter Northern extension to Saint-Denis Pleyel, which is the main GPE interchange hub. It's the complete extension at both ends that is set to open in spring 2024, like the Eastern extension of M11 which should open around the same time or slightly earlier.
Nearly 16 kilometers were dug by 4 TBM's for M14's extension and they had to freeze the ground hard with a cold generation factory pushing liquid nitrogen and supercooled saturated brine through a 2km long elaborate system of ground piping loops to avoid major flooding by the surrounding sand aquifer / water table and to avoid the subsidence or collapse of a connecting line operating above.
They've used this ground hard freezing technique in several locations like the M12 North extension and Aulnay-sous-Bois M16 station… and more than a century ago between 1905 and 1910 when the M4 tunnel ran under the Seine river and the banks were too unstable.
Paris soil is pretty terrible : it is filled with countless abandoned quarries, flooded gypsum and sulfur layers / shallow aquifers and unstable, soaked sandy or marly ground. It is a nightmare to dig through… Several sections of tunnels and stations are located through or under aquifers, requiring certain stations to be perfectly sealed and anchored to avoid flooding or buoyancy.
The largest parts that are yet to be dug are the Western and Eastern sections of the gigantic M15 circle line (there's no separate "Northern" section phase, it is blended in the Western and Eastern).
The Southern and largest section of M15 is already finished digging (12 TBM's worked on it to pierce nearly 40km of tunnels) and is currently in the equipment phase, getting ready to open in 2025.
The Northern and main interchange hub of the GPE, Saint-Denis Pleyel station, is set to open in 2024 with M14's extension. The station is being equipped and finished, it is a 26,000m² large and 63 meter tall structure that goes 28 meters deep underground and rises 35 meters above ground. It has 56 escalators and 16 elevators to serve the 9 main levels…
There will be something like 900 escalators (about 620 for M15's stations) and several hundreds of elevators for the whole GPE project and its 68 new stations.
One thing that surprises people the most is that the Grand Paris Express project is only a part of the overall transit expansion in Paris. There are many other projects currently being built or planned that are not part of the GPE.
The RER (Réseau Express Régional : Regional Express Network) is a kind of express heavy metro with a regional scope that has 5 huge lines. RER line E is currently being massively extended to the West with a new 8km long tunnel and 3 very large new stations under central Paris and its business district. This part is set to open in 2024. The rest of the 55km extension deep in the Western suburbs will open in 2025 and 2026.
There's also a new and first urban aerial cable gondola system being built. It will serve 5 stations along a 4.5km line with 10-seat gondola cabins departing every 20 to 30 seconds tops, each way. This "Cable C1" line will extend the line M8's Southeastern terminus to rather isolated neighborhoods.
Among the 14 tram lines of the network, 10 of them have been opened in the last ten years. T9 in 2021, T13 in 2022, T10 in early summer 2023 and T12 later in December 2023… With many extensions being built and planned.
Plus half a dozen new proper busway BRT or "trambus" lines being prepared.
All in all, that is at least 360 kilometers of new public transit lines and infrastructure being built in a rather short period of time. The Grand Paris Express is humongous and shiny but the transit revolution currently underway in Paris goes way beyond.
Ah, and I almost forgot : There's also a massive rolling stock fleet renewal / replacement scheme underway. Literally hundreds of new trains & trams, and thousands of e-buses and trambuses have arrived and continue to arrive until the early to mid 2030's. Once completed, no metro line will have trains older than from the late 90's and the vast majority of them will have entirely new ones.
Lines M11 and M14 already have received their shiny new MP14 trains (that's for rubber tyred lines) and 8 of the steel wheel lines with older trains will receive 410 trains of the new MF19 type between 2024 and 2032.
Same for RER line B receiving nearly 150 new bi-level MI20 trains in the coming years. And lines D and E receiving at least 255 new bi-level RER NG trains, each with a capacity of 1560 or 1860 passengers, between now and 2028. It's transit-a-palooza!
The GPE is NOT about 200 km of track but rather about 200 km of double track underground tunnels. So 400 km of tracks or so. The big advantage is to travel around Paris without having to converge to Chatelet-Les Halles like right now. Speed is also a big plus with peak speeds up to 110km/h and driver-less operation (no constrains to extend hours for special events and adapt the number of trains to the needs. Up to 21 TBM were working simultaneously. Yes not all will be ready for summer olympic in but rather for 2030 and maybe a little beyond.
2 Comments
Pretty good video with a slightly different and very interesting angle! Kudos 👍
A few corrections and complementary info:
The 100km milestone of dug tunnels has recently been passed, so now more than half of the project's heavy duty civil engineering work is done. 🥳🎉
In early September 2023, M17 officially exceeded the half-way milestone for its tunnels : 15km of tunnels have been pierced by 4 TBM's since 2020 (out of a 26.5km long line). A 5.5km part of what's left to build will be on the surface and viaducts before diving back for 6km under CDG airport towards the terminus. 🎉🎉
The expected ridership of the GPE project's new lines has been revised from 2 to 3 million daily riders.
TBM's on line M18 have started digging almost 2 years ago in November 2021, not recently.
Mid-July 2023, the "Céline" TBM crossed through Massy Opera station and started its 650 meter long last leg on the Eastern side of M18. This TBM should arrive very soon (if it hasn't already), at its exit point, which will mean that M18's entire Eastern underground section is finished digging.
The mid-line viaduct is well advanced too.
Only the Western underground section of M18 apparently hasn't started yet.
At the peak of the first phase of massive digging, more than 20 TBM's dug simultaneously on the GPE project alone.
M14 is a fully automated and high frequency line that has been in service since 1998. What's being built as part of the GPE project is the large Southward extension to Orly airport and the shorter Northern extension to Saint-Denis Pleyel, which is the main GPE interchange hub.
It's the complete extension at both ends that is set to open in spring 2024, like the Eastern extension of M11 which should open around the same time or slightly earlier.
Nearly 16 kilometers were dug by 4 TBM's for M14's extension and they had to freeze the ground hard with a cold generation factory pushing liquid nitrogen and supercooled saturated brine through a 2km long elaborate system of ground piping loops to avoid major flooding by the surrounding sand aquifer / water table and to avoid the subsidence or collapse of a connecting line operating above.
They've used this ground hard freezing technique in several locations like the M12 North extension and Aulnay-sous-Bois M16 station… and more than a century ago between 1905 and 1910 when the M4 tunnel ran under the Seine river and the banks were too unstable.
Paris soil is pretty terrible : it is filled with countless abandoned quarries, flooded gypsum and sulfur layers / shallow aquifers and unstable, soaked sandy or marly ground. It is a nightmare to dig through… Several sections of tunnels and stations are located through or under aquifers, requiring certain stations to be perfectly sealed and anchored to avoid flooding or buoyancy.
The largest parts that are yet to be dug are the Western and Eastern sections of the gigantic M15 circle line (there's no separate "Northern" section phase, it is blended in the Western and Eastern).
The Southern and largest section of M15 is already finished digging (12 TBM's worked on it to pierce nearly 40km of tunnels) and is currently in the equipment phase, getting ready to open in 2025.
The Northern and main interchange hub of the GPE, Saint-Denis Pleyel station, is set to open in 2024 with M14's extension.
The station is being equipped and finished, it is a 26,000m² large and 63 meter tall structure that goes 28 meters deep underground and rises 35 meters above ground. It has 56 escalators and 16 elevators to serve the 9 main levels…
There will be something like 900 escalators (about 620 for M15's stations) and several hundreds of elevators for the whole GPE project and its 68 new stations.
One thing that surprises people the most is that the Grand Paris Express project is only a part of the overall transit expansion in Paris.
There are many other projects currently being built or planned that are not part of the GPE.
The RER (Réseau Express Régional : Regional Express Network) is a kind of express heavy metro with a regional scope that has 5 huge lines. RER line E is currently being massively extended to the West with a new 8km long tunnel and 3 very large new stations under central Paris and its business district.
This part is set to open in 2024.
The rest of the 55km extension deep in the Western suburbs will open in 2025 and 2026.
There's also a new and first urban aerial cable gondola system being built. It will serve 5 stations along a 4.5km line with 10-seat gondola cabins departing every 20 to 30 seconds tops, each way. This "Cable C1" line will extend the line M8's Southeastern terminus to rather isolated neighborhoods.
Among the 14 tram lines of the network, 10 of them have been opened in the last ten years.
T9 in 2021, T13 in 2022, T10 in early summer 2023 and T12 later in December 2023…
With many extensions being built and planned.
Plus half a dozen new proper busway BRT or "trambus" lines being prepared.
All in all, that is at least 360 kilometers of new public transit lines and infrastructure being built in a rather short period of time.
The Grand Paris Express is humongous and shiny but the transit revolution currently underway in Paris goes way beyond.
Ah, and I almost forgot :
There's also a massive rolling stock fleet renewal / replacement scheme underway. Literally hundreds of new trains & trams, and thousands of e-buses and trambuses have arrived and continue to arrive until the early to mid 2030's. Once completed, no metro line will have trains older than from the late 90's and the vast majority of them will have entirely new ones.
Lines M11 and M14 already have received their shiny new MP14 trains (that's for rubber tyred lines) and 8 of the steel wheel lines with older trains will receive 410 trains of the new MF19 type between 2024 and 2032.
Same for RER line B receiving nearly 150 new bi-level MI20 trains in the coming years.
And lines D and E receiving at least 255 new bi-level RER NG trains, each with a capacity of 1560 or 1860 passengers, between now and 2028.
It's transit-a-palooza!
The GPE is NOT about 200 km of track but rather about 200 km of double track underground tunnels. So 400 km of tracks or so. The big advantage is to travel around Paris without having to converge to Chatelet-Les Halles like right now. Speed is also a big plus with peak speeds up to 110km/h and driver-less operation (no constrains to extend hours for special events and adapt the number of trains to the needs. Up to 21 TBM were working simultaneously. Yes not all will be ready for summer olympic in but rather for 2030 and maybe a little beyond.