[M II A II R II K]

Can the Paris Metro Make Room for More Riders?

https://www.citylab.com/transportati...idalgo/601903/

.....

- After five years of unprecedented passenger growth, the Paris Metro system is now perilously close to full. According to data from transit authority RATP released this week by newspaper Le Parisien, the French capital’s subway saw its annual ridership leap between 2013 and 2018. Rising from 1.76 billion to 1.84 billion trips annually over the period, the system is now hosting a remarkable 217,837 extra trips every day compared to 2013. — The overcrowding issue is in many ways a success story, since the city’s flagship policy has been to discourage car use. While Paris has witnessed a steady drop in driving over several decades now, its current administration has been particularly intent on reshaping Parisian mobility habits, and can claim responsibility for some of the ridership spike.

- Paris is indeed already in the process of constructing a grand orbital Metro line, along ....with three other new lines and two extensions of existing links; the mega-project, dubbed the Grand Paris Express, is due to open in stages between 2020 and 2030. This major extension will mostly run through Paris’ vast suburbs, making it easier for residents of outer Paris to connect with each other without having to travel into Paris itself. — But the new Metro lines now under discussion would be different. Forming a backwards “C” shape, the link would be made up of two lines totaling 40 kilometers. Much of it would cleave closely to the line of the Boulevard Périphériquethe city’s automotive beltway and lie within the boundaries of Paris Proper

- It would also reach out beyond in its eastern section to connect the fast-gentrifying inner suburbs of Montreuil and Pantin. This, it is hoped, would alleviate pressure in central Paris in much the same way as the Grand Paris Express: By intersecting with the three busiest existing Metro lines, it would remove some of their habitual users and ensure that these lines reached the city center somewhat less packed than they are currently. — In the meantime, transit officials are working on cheaper, quicker means of easing congestion. Among the options: automating all trains, making trains larger, and bringing in experts from Japan (a nation that knows a few things about stuffing more people into trains) to help redesign access to platforms.

.....