Wednesday 6 April 2022

Vive La Difference (Numero Six)

PLEASE NOTE

For the benefit of readers who feel they have had a surfeit of Paris Prolongement Posts (and may now be beyond weeping at the lack of similar plans for London!!) fbb will be taking a break from the Metro; returning with lines 14, 15 and 16 in due course.

But it was something Roger French wrote recently that formed another negative link in the old man's agile brain (???) between Paris and London.

The blog (or blogs) will follow next (or soon if fbb fails to complete therm!)

Meanwhile ...

... back to line M11.

M11 is, currently, the shortest of the lines and the only one that does not run cross-city; there have never, as far as fbb can tell, been any plans to extend westwards from Chatelet. Like MOST Parisian metro lines everything is under the surface including depots and storage sidings. On the Carto map, these are clearly shown at the city terminus ...

... at the original Porte des Lilas terminus and the present Mairie des Lilas.
Although they are called Ateliers (workshops) they only handle cleaning and minor maintenance. For this big stuff they have to go to a proper workshop.

The new line, currently under construction, extends eastwards, first in a straight line ...

... to access areas currently without a Metro service.

The new Serge Gainsbourg station is just to the right of the bus stop Sentes Croix de L'Epinette.
All you get there is a local FREE very mini vehicle called Tillbus.
There is plenty of housing, much of it not well served by public transport, so a new stop for M11 here will be much appreciated.
The Metro station entrance replaces the car wash!
The next stop gave fbb real grief. On the map above, "Place Carnot" has an asterisk which means "stop name not finally decided". Good!

Because this is Place Carnot ...

... a sweet little "Place" with large tree that is nowhere near the M11! 

The station is actually at a major road junction on Avenue Carnot, some distance from the eponymous "Place" (map below, top left)!
Here we begin to note how the "new" Metro has changed from the old. Within the former walls of Paris, the Metro is more like an underground tram with stops close together. The extensions are more like a suburban railway. 

Here, at Place Carnot, a substantial station building is being built ...
... quite unlike the simple "steps down" that are typical in the city centre.

And it will look like this.
... seen with the extended Tram 1 right outside the door. But that, dear readers, is another story!
A major "traffic objective" is the huge Hopital de Montreuil ...
... with the station at the north easter corner of the site. R A T P only gives us a picture of the platforms, which are Metro bog-standard.
Next is La Dhuys which also gave fbb some grief!
Obviously things have moved on somewhat since the Streertview pictures; but you can spot the beginning of the circular entrance area in the view below.
Just past this stop, the line emerges from tunnel and runs across a viaduct, seen under construction here.
Cotaux Beauclair station in ON the viaduct with entrance facilities below.
And here it is under construction.
Obviously this is an area planned for development as its present station does not seem to offer much in the way of potential custom - just huge warehouses!
A final curve south brings the line, back in tunnel, to the terminus.
Here M11 will connect with RER line E and suburban line P. 

The present station building is on the east of the line ...
... complete with the obligatory bus station.
But the arrival of M11 will bring a new, much bigger, station on the west.
The extended line will need a new depot, and there really isn't room to add to the footling sets of sidings on the existing line, so a new Atelier is planned just beyond the Rosny Bois Perrier terminus.
The depot site is almost back under the viaduct but above ground,
But there's more. The Prolongement described above is due to open next year (2023), BUT a second phase of M11 extension takes it way out into "the sticks".
The extension to the extension from Roisny-Bois-Perrier to Noisy Champs is almost as long as the whole of the original line, plus the under construction section, all added on again. The station is right on the edge of "Greater Paris" and takes the Metro well out into RER big train territory. Not only that, it will have a "big train" style to it with only four stops!
No date has been announced for the line to Noisy Champs.

You wonder what Fulgence Bienvenue, "father" of the Paris Metro ...

... would think of what has happened to his "baby"!

 Next cartographic blog : Wednesday 7th April 

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