FRANCE: Transport Authority Île de France Mobilités and operator RATP officially inaugurated the northern extension of driverless metro Line 14 on December 14
The extension was inaugurated by Prime Minister Jean Castex, at a ceremony attended by Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebarri, President of Île-de-France Regional Council Valérie Pécresse, RATP CEO Catherine Guillouard and Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge.
The 5·8 km extension from St-Lazare to Mairie de St-Ouen initially serves intermediate stations at Pont Cardinet and Clichy Saint-Ouen RER, where connections will be provided to Line C. The Line 13 interchange at Porte de Clichy is not expected to be ready until January.
Under construction since 2014, at a cost of €1·38bn (2012 prices), the line had been expected to open in 2019. It is intended to relieve overcrowding on the northern section of Line 13 by around 25%. Following the completion of signalling enhancements, the rubber-tyred trains are expected to operate at headways of just 85 sec at peak times. A commercial speed of 40 km/h will give a journey time from Mairie de St-Ouen to the central interchange at Châtelet of just 15 min.
A fleet of 35 air-conditioned eight-car trainsets designated MP14 is being supplied by Alstom under a framework contract that also includes six-car driverless trains for Line 4 and five-car sets for Line 11. The first of these entered service on October 12, augmenting the six-car MP89CA sets that have operated Line 14 since it opened in 1998; 20 of the MP14 trains are due to be delivered during 2021. A new depot has been built at Docks de Saint-Ouen to service and maintain the expanded fleet of 120 m long trainsets.
Line 14 is being further extended as part of the Grand Paris Express project, with three sections being funded by Societé de Grand Paris. A 1·6 km northern extension from Mairie de Saint-Ouen to the business hub at Saint-Denis Pleyel is expected to open in 2022, providing interchange to the future lines 15, 16 and 17. The 14 km southern extension from Olympiades to Orly Airport will be completed in two phases, opening as far as Villejuif Institut Gustave-Roussy in 2023 and to Orly the following year, taking the line to a total length of 27 km.
- The first two of 73 double-deck Regio2N double-deck EMUs ordered from Bombardier Transportation by Île-de-France Mobilités for SNCF Transilien suburban Line N entered service on December 14, operating on between Paris-Montparnasse and Sèvres-Rive Gauche.
