Paris Métro Line 4

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Line 4
Year opened	1908
Last extension	1910
Rolling stock	MP 59 6 carriages
Stations served	26
Length	10.6 km (6.6 mi)
Average interstation	424 m
Journeys made	155,348,608 (per annum)
Paris public transport Métro lines line 1 line 7bis line 2 line 8 line 3 line 9 line 3bis line 10 line 4 line 11 line 5 line 12 line 6 line 13 line 7 line 14 RER lines line A line D line B line E line C Suburban rail (Transilien) Saint-Lazare Nord La Défense Est Montparnasse Lyon Airport shuttles CDGVAL Orlyval Bus Bus (RATP) Noctilien   Bus (Optile)   Tramway Tramway T1 Tramway T2 Tramway T3 Tramway T4 Other Montmartre funicular

Paris Métro Line 4 is the second busiest metro line serving Paris. It crosses the city from the Porte de Clignancourt in the north to the Porte d'Orléans in the south. The line is completely underground and is operated with rubber-tyred trains of MP 59 stock. The main reason that Line 4 is one of the busiest and most crowded Metro lines in the city is that it includes stops at three of the city's six major rail termini (Gare Montparnasse, Gare du Nord, and Gare de l'Est), as well as two stations with multiple RER connections (Les Halles and Saint-Michel); in addition it is the only line in either network to connect with every other line (except the 3bis and 7bis branch lines).

Contents 1 History 1.1 Chronology 1.2 Origins 1.3 A spectacular construction site 1.4 The rubber tyre metro and the deviation of the line 2 Future 3 Map and Stations 3.1 Stations renamed 4 Tourism 5 Gallery 6 Notes 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Chronology

• 21 April 1908: A first section of the line was inaugurated to the north of the Seine between Porte de Clignancourt and Châtelet.
• 30 October 1909: A second section of the line was inaugurated south of the Seine between Porte d'Orléans and Raspail.
• 9 January 1910: Both sections were linked by a new tunnel between Châtelet and Raspail. Line 4 was the first line crossing the Seine river underground.
• 1967: The rails were converted in order to cater for rubber-tired trains.
• 3 October 1977: The station Les Halles was rebuilt to interchange with the new RER network.

[edit] Origins

Line 4, opened in, 1908 was the last line of the original concession of the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris and the first to cross the Seine underground (Line 5—now Line 6 at this point—crossed the river on the Passy bridge, later renamed the Pont de Bir-Hakeim in 1906). The route was the subject of lengthy discussions that delayed the start of construction of the tunnel. It was originally planned as a straight line under the Rue du Louvre, under the Seine in line with the street, under the Institut de France, along the Rue de Rennes and then the Boulevard Raspail to the Porte d'Orleans.

But as a result of the delay in beginning the extension of the Rue de Rennes as part of Haussmann's plan to the Seine—which was never carried out—and the outcry from the academics who refused categorically to agree to the line passing under the Institut de France, the route was eventually changed to cross further east through the Place du Châtelet and the Île de la Cité.^[1] The new route also has more coherence as a north-south route following the main traffic flows. A second modification of the route was also made: it was decided to make a temporary deviation via the major station of Gare Montparnasse to avoid a further delay in opening the line, which was eagerly awaited. This was made necessary by the delay in building the new Boulevard Raspail between Rue de Rennes and Boulevard du Montparnasse.^[2] Once the Boulevard Raspail was completed, it was planned to take the shorter route and bypass the Gare Montparnasse. To the south of the Vavin station the tunnel provides for the final route along the Boulevard Raspail. But the value in serving three major mainline stations by the line later led to the abandonment of this proposal.^[3]

[edit] A spectacular construction site

In 1905 construction was started by the company of Léon Chagnaud—a former mason from Creuse (a department with a tradition of supplying building workers in France)—and line 4 became the first to cross the Seine underground. The method used for crossing under the river is that of metal caissons, twenty to forty meters in length mounted on the banks and sunken vertically in the river bed. The ends of the caissons were blocked and they were towed to their location before being ballasted with water and sunk in the riverbed. A chamber filled with pressurised air was built at the lower level of these caissons so that workers could excavate under the caissons. Each caisson gradually sank to its final position as the ground below it was removed. The northen stream of the Seine required three caissons, the southern stream two caissons.

The crossing of the Seine also involved the freezing of saturated ground between the station of Saint-Michel and the Seine, under the line of the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans (now RER line C) in 1908 and 1909. The installation of two refrigeration plants allowed the movement of brine cooled to -25 ° C in dozens of tubes to stabilize the ground.^[4]

The northern section was the first completed: it was opened on 21 April 1908 from Porte de Clignancourt to Châtelet. The southern section was opened 30 on October 1909 from Porte d'Orleans to Raspail. The two sections were connected on 9 January 1910. However, the line was closed to traffic a few days later in January 1910, when the level of the Seine broke its banks during the worst flood of the century. On the morning of 24 January 1910, a significant inflow of water at the Seine crossing interrupted services between Châtelet and Vavin, although services were restored later in the day. But the inflow increased and services were again halted in the afternoon. On 26 January Châtelet station and the crossing under the river was completely flooded and slowly rose in the tunnel. On the night of 27 and 28 January, flooding reached Réaumur - Sébastopol and eventually Gare de l'Est: The line at its minimum was reduced to operating between Clignancourt and Gare du Nord and between Vavin and Porte d'Orleans. The fall in the level of flooding during February allowed a gradual resumption of operations, but full service was not restored to 6 April after repair of extensive damage caused to the infrastructure.^[5]

Sinking of a caisson in the narrow (southern) stream of the Seine in 1906

Sinking of the central caisson in the northern stream of the Seine

Sinking of the Saint-Michel station

Work sites in the Place Saint-Michel and Boulevard Saint-Andre before the sinking

During the politically turbulent 1930s, Line 4 had its own drama: on 27 July 1934, a package left in a carriage was carried into the office of its chief supervisor, located on the platform of Montparnasse. The package exploded, killing the chief supervisor and another officer and wounding four passengers. The assassins were never found.^[6]

During World War II the most violent bombing Paris suffered was on the night of 20 and 21 April 1944 when the rail freight yard of la Chapelle and the main truck workshop at Rue Championnet were hit. The roof of the Simplon station was hit by a bomb and it collapsed on the tracks and platforms. After repairs the line was brought back into service a few days later.^[7]

[edit] The rubber tyre metro and the deviation of the line

The RATP was satisfied by experimentation with rubber tyres on Line 11 beginning in1956. It therefore decided to equip lines 1 and 4 for rubber-tyre operations, which can increase line capacity by providing better acceleration and decelerations as a result of a much superior grip.

In the early 1960s these two lines were the two busiest on the network, with loads of 140% of capacity during the evening peak. However, as this change alone was insufficient to overcome this saturation, the length of stations was lengthened from 75 to 90 metres, allowing the lengthening of train from five to six carriages. This work was carried out very quickly and, as early as October 1965, trains of six carriages traversed the line. On 3 October 1966, the first train composed of MP 59 electric multiple units operated on the line. The Line 4 trains were identical to those on Line 1, being composed of four motor and two trailers per train. The line’s MP 59 fleet included 556 carriages, comprising 376 powered carriages and 180 trailers. On 17 July 1967, the last steel-wheeled train left the line to strengthen the service of other with a hundred cars built before 1914 scrapped.^[8] In February 1971, line 4 was the second network after line 11 to be equipped with semi-automatic operation, with a system known as Grecque (“Greek”). This allowed trains once started by the driver to run automatically and stop at the next station.^[9]

Since its opening the only change of the route of the line took place in early October 1977 with the deviation of the line with the relocation of the station at Les Halles. During the excavation of the enormous Les Halles complex the station of Les Halles was relocated about ten metres further east to allow a shorter connection to Châtelet – Les Halles RER station. For this, three hundred and thirty meters of tunnel were built to join the old route. The changeover took place on three consecutive nights from 10pm on Friday, September 30, 1977 to the beginning of services on Monday, October 3. On the first night, the new Line 2 was connected, on the second night, the Line 1 was built and on the last night it was connected.^[10]

The 6 August 2005 at 4: 42 pm, a fire on a train at Simplon due to the malfunction of a circuit breaker caused the evacuation of two MP 59 trains with 19 people mildly affected. The fire was extinguished by fire fighters at around 18 pm.^[11]

[edit] Future

Once the gradual replacement of Line 1's MP 89 by the fully automated MP 05 has begun (2008-10), Line 1's MP 89CC rolling stock will be transferred over to Line 4 to replace the aging MP 59 rolling stock.

A one-station extension to the south is underway, with the new station (Mairie de Montrouge) expected to be open to the public in 2012.

The line is planned to be extended further south after that with two more stations: Verdun Sud at the frontier between Montrouge and Bagneux (in Montrouge) and Bagneux.

An extension to the north to the "docks" of Saint-Ouen (an urban redevelopment project next to the Seine) via Mairie de Saint-Ouen is planned for phase 1 (2007–2013) of the Schéma directeur de la région Île-de-France ("Master Plan for the Île-de-France region", SDRIF), which was adopted by resolution of the Regional Council of Ile-de-France on 25 September 2008.^[12] However no detailed studies have been carried out or finance set aside for it.

The line is expected to be converted to an automated system (like Line 14), after conversion of Line 1 is completed.

[edit] Map and Stations

[edit] Stations renamed

• 15 November 1913: Vaugirard station was renamed Saint-Placide.
• 5 May 1931: Boulevard Saint-Denis was renamed Strasbourg - Saint-Denis.
• 25 August 1931: Marcadet (on line 4) and Poissonniers (on line 12) were combined and the resulting station was renamed Marcadet - Poissonniers.
• 6 October 1942: Montparnasse (on lines 4 and 12) and Bienvenüe (on lines 6 and the current 13) were combined and the resulting station was renamed Montparnasse - Bienvenüe.

[edit] Tourism

Metro line 4 passes near several places of interest :

• Barbès and the Goutte d'Or and their African and Asian influences.
• Gare du Nord and Gare de l'Est XIXth century train stations.
• L'Île de la Cité with the Notre Dame Cathedral.
• Saint-Michel and the Latin Quarter.
• Saint-Germain des Prés quarter with its church and famous cafés.
• Rue de Rennes shopping street.
• Luxembourg Garden.
• Montparnasse, its famous cafés and the Montparnasse Tower.

[edit] Gallery

Cité	Cité	Cité
Marcadet - Poissonniers	Montparnasse - Bienvenüe	Odéon
Porte d'Orleans	Saint-Germain-des-Prés	Vavin
Vavin

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Robert, Jean (1983) (in French). Notre métro ("Our metro"). 
• Tricoire, Jean (1999) (in French). Un siècle de métro en 14 lignes. De Bienvenüe à Météor ("A century in 14 metro lines. From Bienvenüe to Météor". La Vie du rail. ISBN 978-2902808878. 
• Sirand-Pugnet, Bernard (1997) (in French). De la Grand-mère à Météor, 45 ans d'évolution de la technologie des voies au métro de Paris ("From the Grandmother to the Météor, 45 years of evolution of the technology of the lines of the Paris métro". ISBN 978-2912252005. 

[edit] See also

• List of stations of the Paris Métro
• List of stations of the Paris RER

[edit] External links

• (French) RATP official website
• (English) RATP english speaking website
• (English) Interactive Map of the RER (from RATP's website)
• (English) Interactive Map of the Paris métro (from RATP's website)
• (French) Mobidf website, dedicated to the RER (unofficial)
• (French) Metro-Pole website, dedicated to Paris public transports (unofficial)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paris Métro Line 4

Paris Métro

Line 4

Porte de Clignancourt • Simplon • Marcadet — Poissonniers 12 • Château Rouge • Barbès — Rochechouart 2 • Gare du Nord 5 B D E • Gare de l'Est 5 7 • Château d'Eau • Strasbourg — Saint-Denis 8 9 • Réaumur — Sébastopol 3 • Étienne Marcel • Les Halles ⇒ A B D • Châtelet 1 7 11 14 • Cité • Saint-Michel ⇒ B C • Odéon 10 • Saint-Germain-des-Prés • Saint-Sulpice • Saint-Placide • Montparnasse — Bienvenüe 6 12 13 • Vavin • Raspail 6 • Denfert-Rochereau 6 B • Mouton-Duvernet • Alésia • Porte d'Orléans