Paris Metro Line 14

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Line 14 of Paris Métro crosses the center of Paris and currently runs between the Saint Lazare and Bibliothèque François Mitterrand stations. It was the first automated line of Paris Métro. Before being put into commercial service, it was known by its project name, Meteor, an acronym of Métro Est-Ouest Rapide.

1 Chronology
2 The Meteor Project
3 List of stations
4 Future
5 Map
6 Tourism
7 The former line 14
- 7.1 Chronology
- 7.2 Stations renamed
8 Trivia
9 See also
10 External links

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Chronology

October 15th, 1998 : The new line 14 is inaugurated between Madeleine and Bibliothèque F. Mitterrand.
December 16th, 2003 : The line 14 is extended northbound from Madeleine to Saint-Lazare.

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The Meteor Project

The Meteor project had the following objectives:

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

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

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

Some controlling features of Line 14 are run under the OpenVMS Operating System. The controlling system of Line 14 is noted in the field of software engineering of critical systems because safety properties on some safety-critical parts of the systems were proved using the B-Method, a formal method – albeit at high cost.

Line 14 was designed in a unique fashion. Its floor tiling is not bitumenized, and the platform edge doors of the stations prevent passengers from falling onto the track or from committing suicide.

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List of stations

Image:Paris Metro St Lazare.jpg

Saint-Lazare
Madeleine (near the Église de la Madeleine)
Pyramides (named after Battle of the Pyramids)
Châtelet
Gare de Lyon (named after railway station to Lyon)
Bercy
Cour Saint-Émilion
Bibliothèque François Mitterrand (named after François Mitterrand)

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Future

Image:Metro-Meteor-M2-p1010695.jpg Work is underway to extend the line south to Olympiades in 2007, an area of high rise towers in the XIIIe arrondissement that is currently not served very well. Actually, this is not a real extension: the tunnel was built at the same time as the rest of the line, but it is currently used as a train parking area, so a new parking area is under construction. The building of this extension caused the collapse of the courtyard of an elementary school; fortunately, on that day, no children were present. For various reasons, the underground of much of Paris is quite fragile and considerable care must be exercised before tunnelling work. (See Catacombs of Paris.)

This line is also planned to be extended from Olympiades to Maison Blanche, with a connection to Line 7's Villejuif possible. Also, Line 14 may also be extended north to Place de Clichy and/or La Fourche, with a connection to Line 13 possible.

The extension to Orly Airport, is at this point highly unlikely.

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Map

Image:Ligne 14.gif

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Tourism

Metro line 14 crosses several places of interest:

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

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The former line 14

The first line 14 was actually planned as the line C of the Nord-Sud company (line A being today's line 12 and line B being today's line 13). Unfortunately, the Nord-Sud company reached bankruptcy in 1930 and has been bought by the other company operating Paris metro : the CMP (which became later the RATP). Despite this, the line has still been built by the CMP as the line 14 of the network. In the 1970s, the line has been incorporated to the line 13.

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Chronology

January 21st, 1937 : The line 10 is inaugurated between Bienvenüe and Porte de Vanves.
July 27, 1937 : The line is extended northbound from Bienvenüe to Duroc. The section between Invalides and Duroc which used to be served by the line 10 is now incorporated to the line 14.
November 9th, 1976 : The line 14 is incorporated to the line 13, which becomes a full North-South line of Paris metro.

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