Paris Métro Line 4
Line 4 of the Paris Métro is approximately 740,000 daily passengers (2013 ), the busiest of the entire Paris Métro network. It connects the stations Porte de Clignancourt in the north of the city and Mairie de Montrouge in the southern suburb of Montrouge. In this case, this line leaves the Paris urban area only since the extension in March 2013.
- 3.1 To the south
- 3.2 To the north
- 5.1 The current situation
- 5.2 Planned automation
Importance of the route
Since the commissioning of the line 4 has a great importance in the Paris Transportation: It was the first North -South connection after the previously built trails extend substantially in the west-east direction.
Today the line is 4, the Paris metro line with the second largest number of passengers. On their way through the city it stops at three of the main railway stations, it offers transfer facilities to all other metro lines ( with the exception of the short-range 3 to 7 and up ) and all RER lines and to tram line 3a.
History
Due to unexpected difficulties when crossing the Seine, the line had to be opened 4 in three sections.
The first phase of construction
The 5.0 km long northern section of Porte de Clignancourt to Châtelet with turning loop, sidings and depot Ateliers de Saint- Ouen in the area of Saint- Ouen was put into operation on 21 April 1908.
The second phase of construction
The southern section of the former terminus Porte d' Orléans to Raspail after turning loop with a length of 1.7 km was followed on 30 October 1909.
The third construction phase with gap closure
Since 9 January 1910, there is a continuous connection than the 3.9 km long section Châtelet - Raspail was put into operation. The stations Saint- Michel and Cité opened with little delay until July and December 1910.
According to the original plan of the station Vavin should extend further north the route on the Boulevard Raspail and then turn into the Rue de Rennes and follow their planned extension to the Seine. Then the Seine should be crossed. To the north of the Seine, it should then go through the Rue de l' Amiral de Coligny, along the east facade of the Louvre, for connection to the northern section at Châtelet. However, since the Boulevard de Raspail had not been widened, the city changed its planning: the subway was led by the Boulevard du Montparnasse Montparnasse train station, where a station was created, and from there into the Rue de Rennes. But the extension of the Rue de Rennes was slow in coming: It was proposed to build in greater depth and to drive several buildings, including the Institut de France. There, however, they refused adamantly opposed to this construction project.
The redesign led the way through the Boulevard Saint- Germain and the rue Danton to the Boulevard Saint -Michel. There the most demanding phase of construction of approximately 1100 m in length joined: tunneling under His two arms and the intervening island of Ile de la Cité and the moist and unstable riparian zone on both sides of the Seine. North of the River Seine resulted in the track then at Châtelet. In this planning just a building, namely a barracks on the Ile de la Cité had to be extended.
The construction contract was awarded to the contractor Léon Chagnaud in 1905. Latter had already made with the construction of the Opéra station a name when he built an underground construction, in which the lines 3, 7 and 8 crossed. His proposal was to build a tube, which should contain two tracks and piecewise should be sunk in prefabricated pieces after Senkkastenmethode into the ground. The competition saw drafts before the usual method of shield tunneling. The tunnel should have been but then applied to a much greater depth.
At the crossing of the Seine Nordarms three parts of the tube were used, each about 40 m in length. They are slightly curved and form a curve of 350 m radius of curvature. For the south arm of two straight, about 20 m long tube pieces were sufficient. However, these were not installed perpendicular to the flow direction, but at an angle to it.
The individual components failed due to lack of space can not be built on the site of the installation, but a few hundred meters downstream. They are made of cast-iron lining segments that were bolted together to form a watertight Küvelage. They rest on a rectangular base but bottomless base ( the actual caisson ). The side walls are stable and run down from wedge-shaped. The finished tubes were sealed temporarily at the ends so that they could be brought floating to the place of installation. There they were two wooden piers - which also served as work scaffolding - fixed. First, a second Küvelage was constructed concentrically to the wall inside the tube, which was held in place by struts to the outer wall. The intermediate space between the two Küvelagen was then filled with concrete. The increased weight of the tubes they sank to the bottom, from the enclosed space from the base, the water was squeezed out by increased air pressure. Workers were able to remove in this chamber, the soil, so that the caisson including tube piece could be lowered to the desired depth. After reaching the final position of the Senkkastenhohlraum was filled with concrete.
The tubes have been lowered in succession. They worked from north to south. The first tube section was sunk late 1905 / early 1906, the last in the spring and summer, 1907.
The two metro stations in this area, namely Cité and Saint- Michel, were taken using the Senkkastenverfahrens into the ground. The necessary Küvelagen were built directly on the installation site on the earth's surface. They are considerably larger than the tubes for the river crossing: They are 12.5 meters high and 16.5 meters long. Each station measures 118 m and consists of three caissons. The mean is 66 m long and contains the actual station. At the two ends a elliptical shaft connects containing the staircase and an excerpt. The caissons are brought separated from each other in the ground, wherein the base plate has already been cemented.
A piece of the tube is lowered Südarms
Part of the station Saint -Michel before the start of lowering
Cross section through the stairwell of this section will
Another difficult point was the continuation of the Seine crossing under between southern bank of the Seine and the station Saint- Michel: the ground was soggy and not very compact, also runs parallel to the shore a railway line (now part of the RER C network ), which in no case for longer time could be locked. It was decided to stabilize by soil freezing the ground, what happened in the years 1908 and 1909. With two locally installed chillers a cooled to -25 ° C, brine was pumped through about 40 tubes, which had been driven to deep into the ground. After 40 days of precooling, the ground was frozen so strong that could be started with the excavation.
The Seine flood of 1910
Just two weeks after commissioning of the entire route, there was an unprecedented flood of the Seine, which paralyzed about half of the existing metro network: On January 24, 1910, the water level of the Seine began to rise. Even in the tunnels of the line 4 penetrated water and from 27 January had to train operating on the sections Porte de Clignancourt - be limited Porte d' Orléans - Gare du Nord and Vavin. With declining water levels could then from mid- February, the traffic gradually again be extended, but only from 6 April, the track was again consistently passable.
Line 4 during the 2nd World War
A few months before the retreat of the German armed forces from occupied Paris, the line 4 was damaged: In preparation for the invasion of Normandy, the supply routes of the German Wehrmacht should be severely disrupted. In this framework, the Lokdepot Deposit La Chapelle and a freight station in the north of Paris were bombed by American pilots in April 1944. Here also the adjoining depot site Ateliers de Saint Ouen Line 4 was severely damaged. In addition, a stray Bommbe crashed through the ceiling of the station Simplon. Only after several days of cleanup and repair work, the track was passable again.
Subsequent construction work at the track
Extension of the platforms
In order to continue with the rubber-tyred trains in 6- membered trains, the platforms were extended in the mid-1960s to 90 m.
Relocation of the station Les Halles
During the construction of the RER station Châtelet -Les Halles, the lines in this area especially the station Les Halles in 1977 was slightly changed and shifted about 80 m to the east, in order to shorten transfer distances to the new RER station. To this end, the tunnel had to be moved to 330 meters in length.
Line extension Porte d' Orléans - Mairie de Montrouge
On March 23, 2013 were taken on the Paris city limits into operation with the opening of the 1.5 km long route to Mairie de Montrouge the first extension of the metro line 4. The tunnel leads far beyond the terminus Mairie de Montrouge also planned almost to the next station Verdun South: In the back lane of the extension is a small plant with maintenance pit for minor repairs and maintenance, the middle area is used to stop unneeded features and the front, adjacent to the platforms part is the change of direction of the trains.
Planned route extensions
In the south
In the south the line over Mairie de Montrouge addition direction Bagneux ( Hauts -de- Seine) is to be extended by a further 1.9 km. This results in two other stations Verdun Sud and Bagneux. The terminus Bagneux will allow a transition to the planned line 15 of the Grand Paris Express. The start of construction is planned for 2014, with completion in late 2019.
The end of 2013, the Syndicat des transports d' Île -de -France approved ( briefly called STIF ) the use of approximately 180 million euros for the second period of extra time. French State, the Ile de France region to contribute to the cost of 26%, with 60% and the department of Hauts- de -Seine 14%. To build are 2 km long tunnel, two railway stations and a bus terminal at the terminus.
In the north
In the expansion plan of the metro network is also an extension to the north- west: on station Mairie de Saint- Ouen with connection to the line 13 and the planned extension of line 14 is extended to the new terminus Saint- Ouen Les Docks in the immediate vicinity of the Seine the route be. But there are no concrete plans and financing of the project. A construction is expected to come into question until after 2020.
Technical improvements
Traffic on the line 4 at the moment and in the future
The current situation
The Line 4 is the slowest of the entire Paris Metro network: your trains only reach an average travel speed of 20.8 km / h The fastest line is the line 14, the cruising speed achieved there is nearly 40 km / h In the line 4, the average spacing between two holding points is 465 m in the line 14 is 1145 m. On line 4, in peak hours 40 trains at the same go.
Planned automation
On 10 July 2013, the PTAs of the Paris RATP transport STIF gave the green light for the automation of line 4 This will greatly enhance the cruising speed on the track. Analogous to line 1 will be equipped with platform screen doors first the stations on line. The work should be completed by the year 2019.
After the automation of rolling stock on the line 14 should come on the line 4 are used. With the released Rolling Line 4 trains are older then detaches on other rubber-tyred lines.
A somewhat problematic line
Line 4 has in the Parisians have a bad reputation because it is still the line with the highest temperatures: a Because of the vehicles on rubber tires, the friction generates a lot of heat, the chronic overcrowding of the car and the fact that the line 4 of the few completely underground lines, it comes in the summer of excessive heating on the trains.
It also has the highest crime rate of all the Parisian subway lines.