121 years since the opening of the Paris Metro!
Today the Paris Metro celebrates its 121st year since its opening!
The Paris Metro (French: Métro de Paris, short for the original name “metropolitan railroad”, French: chemin de fer métropolitain; the words “metro” and “metro” became worldwide thanks to the Parisian metro) is a system of high-speed underground public transport in Paris. The entrance to the metro is marked with a capital «M». The metro network covers the whole of Paris and its immediate suburbs. The metro is laid relatively shallow, deeper is the network of RER commuter trains, crossing the French capital through several lines (A, B, C, D, E) underground.
The metro is located mainly underground and is 214 kilometers long. There are 304 stations, of which 64 have line crossings. There are 16 lines numbered 1 through 14 with two lines, which are named 3bis and 7bis because they began as branches of lines 3 and 7; later they officially became separate lines, but the numbering remained the same. Lines are indicated on maps with numbers and colors, and the direction of travel is indicated by the end point.
It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow metro, and also the tenth busiest in the world . In 2015, 1.520 billion passengers were transported, 4.16 million passengers per day, which is 20% of the total passenger traffic in Paris. It is one of the densest metro systems in the world, with 246 stations within 86.9 km2 of the city of Paris. Chatelet — Les Halles, with five metro lines, three RER commuter trains and platforms up to 800 m long, is one of the largest metro stations in the world. Meanwhile, the metro is poorly suited for people with limited mobility, since most of the stations were built even before attention was paid to this issue.
The first line opened without opening ceremony on July 19, 1900 during the Universselle Exposition. The metro system expanded rapidly until World War I, and the core was completed by the 1920s. Suburban extensions and Line 11 were completed in 1930. After World War II, the network was supplemented with new trains, which allowed for increased passenger traffic, but further improvements were limited by the design of the network and, in particular, the small distances between stations. In addition to the metro, central Paris and its urban areas are served by the RER, which has been in development since the 1960s. In the late 1990s, an automated unloading line A (RER) 14 was built.
