Paris Transport System, France

The Paris transport system is based around three main modes of transport: the metro, the Réseau Express Régional (RER) commuter railway and the bus. The public transport system in Paris is governed by the Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP). The RATP also runs buses from the two airports, Orly and Charles de Gaulle, to various points in the city of Paris. All three modes of transport use the same ticketing system so the basic RATP ticket covers the entire metro system, RER and the bus. Some of the suburban lines for the Paris/Ile-de-France region are run by the French national railway company (Societe Nationale des Chemin de Fer), SNCF. The metro is the second largest in Europe and has just completed a new fully-automated line running from east to west across the city. The direction of the line gives the project its name - Metro Est-Ouest Rapide (METEOR). The French high-speed rail initiative continues to connect Paris with every major European city by high-speed rail link by 2010. Also, the road network of Paris is host to a major civil engineering project, the construction of A86 West tunnel, which will form the final link of the A86 ring road around Greater Paris.

The METEOR project (Line 14) is a 7.5km high-speed metro line running from Bibliothèque François Mitterrand to Madeleine, passing through Gare de Lyon and Châtelet. It forms the first phase of a large automated line operating between the south of the capital and Gennevilliers to provide passengers with more safety and faster travel. The first phase of the line opened in 1998 with a 7km stretch from Bibliothèque François Mitterrand to Madeleine. Since then the project has continued and the latest section is being constructed from Madeleine to Gennevilliers via Gare St Lazare; this section will be 487m long, is costing €133 million and is due to open in December 2003. The whole of the METEOR line has cost €1 billion so far.

The METEOR trains are driverless, have rubber tyres and run on the Matra Transport International SAET automated 'moving block' system at a minimum headway of 85 seconds. This gives a capacity of 40,000 passengers per hour in each direction, by far the highest capacity of any fully automated system of public transport in the world. The journey from one end of the line to the other takes only 11 minutes for the eight stops and travels at an average speed of 40km/h. This means the route is much faster and the burden of commuter traffic at rush hour is relieved from the main Paris metro Line A. The METEOR stations are designed so that the passengers reach the platform via a mezzanine which bridges the tracks with an unobstructed view up and down the line in the station. The platforms are equipped with a glass safety door barrier to prevent passengers falling onto the line. The doors slide open in synchronisation with the train doors. The doors are also equipped with a warning light and sound system so that passengers who are hearing or visually impaired are warned of the opening or closing actions.

The METEOR trains are driverless MP89CA trains built by Alstom and have curved aluminium bodies with three extra wide sliding doors. The individual cars of a train are linked by long accordion-style rubber gaskets so that the entire train is open to walk through, which distributes passengers more efficiently. Vibration is kept to a minimum due to the rubber tyres and a pneumatic suspension bogey system. The trainsets will initially have six cars per train with a capacity of 700 passengers. At a later date the train length can be extended to eight cars without platform modification to increase the maximum capacity to 950 passengers. The METEOR line runs a fleet of 19 units which cost €107 million. Future projects for the METEOR line include a southern extension to Olympiades, due to be completed by 2006 at an estimated cost of €111 million, and a northern extension which is still in the design stage.

SIGNALLING UPGRADE TO LINE 13

Alcatel announced in July 2002 that it had been awarded a contract by RATP to design and install a complete Communication Based train Control system (CBTC) to upgrade metro Line 13. Line 13 runs the 22.5km from Porte de Chatillon to Saint Denis and Asnieres. The contract which is due to be completed by 2006 is worth €50 million. The upgrade is being carried out as part of 25-year project by RATP to upgrade signalling systems on the Paris metro.

The equipment to be installed is the Alcatel 6530 Seltrac (S30) system. The Alcatel upgrade will reduce the headway from 105 seconds to 90 seconds. The Seltrac uses block technology in conjunction with radio data communications to optimise the train numbers passing through. The system includes Automatic Train Operation Overlay (ATOO) function and continuous Automatic Train Protection (ATP). The system has a modular overlay design which decreases the costs of installation. In addition, the system is designed to be upgradeable in the future to allow driverless operation. The system will be installed during the downtime of the metro at night and will be installed side-by-side with the old control system to allow a seamless changeover from one to the other without affecting the normal operation of the line. Line 13 is due to be extended towards the north by 3km when the control system upgrade is completed.

AUTOMATIC TRAIN OPERATION OVERLAY (ATOO) TECHNOLOGY

The Alcatel S30 is an ATOO system which supports automatic train separation, automatic train movement authority and automatic train movement control. These control systems will allow the driver to transfer complete control of the train to the S30, allowing more efficient braking, improved running performance and better station stopping accuracy. The whole line and 66 trains need to be upgraded but new trains equipped for Seltrac operation will be phased in from 2005.

The A86 West tunnel project started in 1999 and will form the final link of the Greater Paris A86 ring road system. The project is costing €2.23 billion and is due for completion in 2007. The tunnel complex is the solution to a problem of the link road affecting historic monuments and the environment in the Greater Paris area. The tunnel complex involves both an east and west tunnel, both of which will charge a toll. The east tunnel will be exclusively for light vehicles and will have a 2m height clearance and two decks each with three lanes. The smaller diameter west tunnel will accept all types of vehicles, including heavy goods vehicles, and will be a single deck structure with two lanes in either direction. The concession for the project was awarded to Cofiroute a French company on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis. Cofiroute in turn appointed Socatop as consultant engineers and contractors to bore and construct the tunnel. Socatop are a consortium of VINCI, Eiffage Construction and Colas.

TECHNOLOGY AND TUNNEL BORING

The boring of the tunnels is being carried out using two made-to-measure tunnel boring machines (TBM) built by Herrenknecht. The TBM is a 'mixed mode' machine which can be configured for different compositions of rock and soil. The Paris basin subsoil consists of a mixture of hard rock (chalk and limestone) and loose soil. Previously no TBM had been constructed that was able to handle this mixed subsoil. The machine constructed for the job is 200m long and 11m wide with a laser guiding system and a mix shield with the ability to be able to change configuration for different types of geology within 24 hours.

The TBM drilling head is fitted with hardened tungsten steel roller bits that shatter rock across the diameter of the gallery. As the boring head rotates around its axis it moves forward at a rate of 12m to14m per day. The boring is a continuous process and tunnel lining segments (prefabricated concrete arches) are placed as the machine continues its progress. The circular lining consists of seven segments of 11t each and a keystone. As the drilling proceeds the TBM extracts the rock spoil and an erector installs the segments, which completes the tunnel ring. The process ensures that the drilled area remains solid and the stability of geological layers and ground water tables is maintained.

TUNNELS AND VENTILATION

The east tunnel will be 7.5km long and the double deck west tunnel will be 10km long. The tunnels will have emergency shafts every 1,000m along the tunnel and ventilation systems installed above and below the traffic lanes. The ventilation shafts and emergency shafts may be 80m deep and 7m in diameter (wide enough to allow the installation of a staircase and an elevator). The east tunnel will have a diameter of 10.4m and will vary in depth from 20m to 90m along its length.

TUNNEL SAFETY SYSTEMS

The tunnels will have a 70km/h speed limit which should guarantee smooth, safe driving conditions. An information system is being installed which will automatically collect traffic data such as speed and density of traffic and relay this information to a central safety and control office. The tunnels will also have DIVA cameras (350) to detect non-moving vehicles. The tunnel will also be equipped with heat and smoke detectors, fire alarms and an automatic air quality detection system linked by computer control to the ventilation system (to maintain the quality of the air inside the tunnel automatically). There will be emergency telephones every 200m inside the tunnel as well as regular security patrols.

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