The dream of a metro for Paris dates back to the very beginning of the Third Republic. Three decades later, line 1 was inaugurated for the 1900 World’s Fair. Twelve others followed until the start of the Second World War. Once out of fashion, the metro is now at the heart of the Greater Paris project.
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The arrival of the metro in Paris was not exceptionally early. Before it, underground railways dedicated to urban transport appeared in London (1863), in Istanbul (1875) on a short route, in Chicago (1892), in Glasgow (1896) which created the first circular line, and finally in Budapest, the same year. The Paris metro inaugurated its first line on July 19, 1900, making it the last network born in the 19th century. It was followed in 1902 by the Berlin metro, in 1904 by the New York metro – after a much earlier aborted attempt – and in 1907 by the Philadelphia metro. The other networks were all after the Great War.
In Paris, the metro made its appearance as part of the Universal Exhibition, which also hosted the first Olympic Games outside Athens – which did not yet bear that name. Parisians will have a metro to get to know “, had acted five years earlier the prefect Poubelle, upon learning that the investments for this celebration were going to focus on daily transport. The right in power had lost the game, it which had pleaded for new prestigious railway infrastructures in the heart of Paris, in order to best accommodate the most fortunate guests.
The first metros: small size, high flow and hazardous security
The Compagnie générale de traction in charge of the works, decided in 1898, belonged to the Belgian baron Empain; by association, it became the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris the following year – again with Belgian capital. Under this name, it would manage or buy all the lines created until 1945, when it was replaced by a provisional administration of Parisian transport, a forerunner of the current Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP), created in 1948.
The originality of the Paris metro is to immediately focus on a small size and a high flow rate. Line 1 then stretched from Porte Maillot to Porte de Vincennes, crossing Paris from west to east on the right bank of the Seine, with a train every three minutes from 1901. This frequency gave it an unprecedented fluidity, especially since its eighteen stations were closely spaced from each other on a total journey of just over ten kilometers covered in less than half an hour. In December 1900, the line had already been used by four million passengers.
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Connections were already planned with new challenges, including a double loop terminus for line 2, which allowed the metros to turn around. The first section was completed in December 1900. In 1903, poorly controlled fires caused a fire in Couronnes and claimed 84 victims, most of them by asphyxiation. Prefect Lépine and engineer Fulgence Bienvenüe, who was directing the metro works, arrived immediately on the scene. The lack of sidings, highly flammable equipment and a rudimentary electrical circuit were blamed.
Post-war Paris no longer sees the metro as the image of its modernity
Line 3 required tunnels to be superimposed on the connections and passed under the Canal Saint-Martin. It opened in 1904. Line 4 was operational in 1908. It was the first to pass under the Seine. Work on this perilous section lasted two years. For the occasion, the overly damp ground was frozen to -25° by refrigeration plants installed on site. It covered a north-south axis perpendicular to line 1 and passed through the Île de la Cité.
Lines 5 and 6 returned to the viaduct solution and new work under the Seine did not take place until 1927, for the extension of line 7, completed in record time. In 1934, line 9 reached Boulogne-Billancourt. This was the first time that a line had ventured outside of Paris intra-muros. In 1937, the first revolution of the metro ended with the creation of line 14, between Portes de Vanves and Invalides, which would only be an extension of line 13 from 1976.
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Subsequently, new stations were created and the post-war period saw the appearance of the first pneumatic-tyred trains, in 1956, on line 11. However, the Trente Glorieuses, all in the glory of the car and the bus, closed the tram lines and abandoned the metro. The time when it appeared as a symbol of modernity seems to be completely over.
From line 14 to line 18: the Paris metro comes to Île-de-France
It was not until 1998 that a new line was created. It was to relieve the busiest section of the RER A (created in 1969, but that’s another story) between Auber and Gare de Lyon. Beyond that, the project was to connect the brand new Bibliothèque nationale de France, on the François Mitterrand site, and to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood, which was undergoing major restructuring. The inauguration took place in October, a few months after the 1998 World Cup, which it was to accompany as a symbol of the new Paris. Extended to Saint-Ouen in the north in 2020, line 14 reduced the ridership of line 13, which was often saturated, by 20% to 25%.
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In 2024, it will provide access to the south to Orly airport and to the north to the Stade de France, two projects implemented in time for the hosting of the Olympic Games. The first fully automated line – a process used on line 1, then on line 4 – with guardrails to prevent passengers from falling from the platforms, this line marks a new stage in the history of the Paris metro. It is therefore a logical part of the new network desired in the Grand Paris project, announced by Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009. The only other line in the existing network to participate in the adventure, without however being part of the Grand Paris Express, is line 11, extended in the eastern suburbs to Noisy-Champs.
Four other lines (15, 16, 17, 18) must be created and completed by 2030. None of them pass through Paris intra-muros. By that date, it will be possible to connect Orly and Roissy airports by metro. The ambition is therefore no longer just to break down “the ring road wall” separating Paris from the so-called Petite Couronne departments, but to make traffic in Île-de-France an issue freed from the centrality of Paris. RER included, the RATP currently manages a network of more than 850 kilometers. The symbolic threshold of 1,000 km will be crossed in 2027.
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