Not so famous about Paris is its incredible mass transit system, whose organization is so complex it can be daunting to the foreigner (and non-Parisian French people as well).
The subway system, formerly known as the Transit Métropolitain, "Metropolitan Transit" — later shortened to Métro de Paris and thus becoming the namer of so many other underground rail systems — is world-famous for the Art Nouveau architecture of many of its stations, most of them built between 1900 and 1920, as well as for being one of the busiest and densest in the world: 14 main lines with 4 more planned and 2 auxiliary lines (3bis and 7bis) crisscrossing downtown Paris for a total of 214 kilometers (376, including future lines). Lines 1 and 14 are totally automated (remote-controlled, in reality). The Châtelet-Les Halles station, which serves a grand total of eight lines (Subway 1, 4, 7, 11, 14, and RER A, B and D), is the largest and busiest subway station of the world. The passageways connecting between lines at transfer stations tend to be long, tortuous and in many instances one-way. The tickets for the metro are very, very tiny. Five of the system's lines (1, 4, 6, 11 and 14) are equipped with rubber-tired trains; Lines 1, 4, 6, and 11 were originally steel-wheeled until the 1960s and 1970s but Line 14 was built new in the 1990s with the rubber-tired system.
Then, you have the RER, Réseau Express Régional, "Regional Express Network", which is a network of rail underground within Paris and ground-level outside of Paris, which serves the entire region of Île-de-France — sort of like a faster subway crossed with commuter rail. It is operated jointly by RATP, Paris's transit authority, and SNCF, France's national rail company; the difference is largely irrelevant as the transition between RATP and SNCF sections is seamless, and only matters when the RATP or the SNCF are on strike. (Also, at RER stations you also have to go through a ticket barrier on your way out). Unlike the Métro, the RER runs on normal train cars moving through standard railroads, as it was initially planned to use the existing railroads of Île-de-France. While not as iconic as the Métro, the RER more than makes up for it for its incredible size: a total of 587 km of railroad, serving 257 stations.
In addition, there is the Transilien note network, run by SNCF, which operates 8 shorter lines (H, J, K, L, N, P, R and U) around Île-de-France and uses the RER's fare system. (Fun (?) fact: RER C is known as Réseau Escargot Régional (Regional Snail Network) because its length and its many branches mean even small delays will result in at least one big cascaded delay; the RER D line is popularly known as "RER Trash" due to its high rate of accidents and disturbances). The frequent delays due to malfunctions, incidents with users and the occasional strike (in 2007, the biggest strike led some people to become stuck in the middle of their trip or at work since you could wait up to four hours between two trains, if they did not decide to just stop) gives the RATP (Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens - Autonomous Office of Parisian Transports) nicknames such as Reste Assis T'es Payé (Keep your seat, you're paid), Rentre Avec Tes Pieds (Go home on foot) or Râle Autant que Tu Peux (Complain as much as you can).
One of the main characteristics of the RER/Transilien network is its named routes. Due to the lines' length and their many branches, there are many different routes and service types a given train can take, and in order to reduce confusion, the routes (called "missions") are named with a four letter mission code. There are two naming schemes: RATP's scheme, used on RER A, B and C, and SNCF's scheme used on RER D and E as well as all Transilien lines:
- Under RATP's naming scheme, the first letter indicates the route's terminus, the second letter indicates the service type (E means omnibus, i.e. stops at all stations), the third and fourth letter are just there to make the name pronounceable, and after the code comes a number from 01 to 99, odd when westbound (line A) or northbound (line B) and vice-versa, and increased every time a train of the same mission leaves the first station; when the train counter reaches 100, the counter is resetted and the last two letters are changed. DROP24, for example, means it stops at Noisy-le-Grand Mont d'Est (D), it's not omnibus (R), and it's the 12th train that has followed this mission so far. When the two last letters are ZZ (e.g. DRZZ), this means the service has been changed for unexpected reasons such as an accident or the trains being on strike; when the first letter is a W, the train is completely nonstop and headed for the maintenance depots.
- Under SNCF's naming scheme, meanwhile, each letter has one meaning depending on the line. On RER D, for example, MIPE indicates a route that ends at Châtelet-Les Halles (M), nonstop between Gare de Lyon and Villeneuve-Saint Georges (I), through the Évry-Courcouronnes branch (P), and doesn't calls at Viry-Châtillon station (E). There is no train counter, and code VIDE (French for empty) indicates a train that goes nonstop to the maintenance depots.
The Bus system is similarly divided in two: the RATP lines, which run around downtown Paris, and several lines operated by city or departemental councils, which provide transportation within Île-de-France. Of note is the night bus, which passes at 30 minute intervals when the last regular busses stop passing, previously known as Noctambus back when it only served downtown Paris, now renamed Noctilien because it now reaches out to Île-de-France.
Finally, there are also eight Tramway lines run by RATP (1, 2, 3a, 3b, 5, 6, 7, 8) and two ran by SNCF (4, 11 Express), 4 of them operating in the inner-most suburbs in a circle surrounding Paris and the other 6 linking several main suburb cities between each other. 5 other tramway lines (9, 10, 12 Express, 13 Express) are planned as well.
The advantages of this complex network are two:
1. The entirety of Île-de-France can be easily covered without using a private car even by people who are totally foreign to the country and who speak only a few words of French. Due to the rather complex and crowded road network, the usual advantage of having a car, freedom of movement, is annihilated: one has to know in advance where to go, where to park, where are road tolls to be paid, how to avoid the rush hours and so on. It may be complicated even for a native, a foreign visitor may be totally lost.
2. Central Paris has extremely expensive (and, unfortunately, for cramped spaces which are definitely not up to price) housing costs and rents, therefore the large population which works there would rather commute to work from cheaper and less crowded places. With millions of daily commuters, travel by car or bus quickly becomes impractical.
Also of note is the terrible snarl that is the fare system:
- To begin with, under this system, the Île-de-France region is divided into six concentric fare zones, the sixth receiving special treatment being the farthest from Paris. Since September 2015, the zone system is no longer relevant in the fares save for 3 interzone fees that were kept because they were cheaper than the new unique fee.
- A normal "T+" ticket is valid for one single bus/tramway/boat trip, or for all the subway and RER trips you want as long as you leave neither the stations nor the fare zone AND your trip doesn't last more than 90 minutes.
- A "Origine-Destination" ticket at variable cost allows one single trip between two precise stations specified while buying the ticket.
- A Mobilis ticket allows unlimited mobility between two zones and all zones in-between for one day.
- A "Accès Aéroport" ticket is only good in the bus networks between Paris and the airports of Orly and Roissy.
- The "Navigo" pass, the most common pass system, can be paid for a week, a month or a year, with special versions for students and highschoolers.
- And all of this doesn't include the special tickets and passes made for children, old people, welfare recipients and more...
The bad part? You'd better understand and know by rote the entire fare system, because if you screw up (for example, you have a ticket for zones 1-5 and you're in zone 6), you have to pay a fine of €86, or in US money, $96!
And the worst part? Since fines-abuse is VERY widespread (all those people you see peeking around the doors into the station are people who skipped the turnstiles and are scouting for railroad cops) the transit lines are often patrolled with railroad cops backed up by the police and the military in some cases asking for tickets.
Now that you've read all of that, here's a map
of the whole damn thing.
Works featuring the Paris transport system:
- One of the stations makes a memorable appearance in The Aristocats. Edgar carelessly rides his motorcycle down the steps... and then rides back up much faster, just barely escaping an oncoming train.
- The surreal Cave of the Beast sequence in The Twelve Tasks of Asterix involves 50 BC Gauls Asterix and Obelix being very briefly transported in time to in a modern Métro station. Fittingly enough, it's Alésia station, named after the city where the Gauls historically made their last stand against Julius Caesar.
- The central character of the Slice of Life film 35 Rhums is an RER driver, and the film features quite a lot of driver's-eye-view shots of the system.
- In Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, the central character has a violent freak-out in a Métro station.
- Code Unknown has several sequences on the Métro.
- Eiffel mentions Gustave Eiffel's contribution to building the Métropolitain network.
- At least mentioned in the title of François Truffaut's The Last Metro, even though that is mainly about a different kind of underground.
- The anthology film Paris, je t'aime contains a few scenes involving Paris public transport, most notably the fourth scene (Tuileries, directed by the Coen Brothers) starring Steve Buscemi. It actually was not shot at Tuileries Métro station, but one of the disused stations set aside for use as movie sets.
- In Peur sur la ville, Jean-Paul Belmondo jumped on the roof of a metro train during a chase (without a stunt double).
- Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter contains a fashion-show event held in a disused Métro station.
- Luc Besson's Subway is set among a group of misfits and homeless people mainly in the Métro.
- Zazie dans le Métro satirically averts this: the child protagonist wants to wander Paris by Metro, but the whole system is shut down by a strike.
- A few of David Sedaris' essays involve the Metro (as he lived in Paris for many years).
- The cops in Engrenages follow suspects through the Metro a few times.
- Appears as part of the general Parisian Scenery Porn in the Doctor Who story "City of Death".
- After Charlie Sheen was sacked from Two and a Half Men, his character was killed off-screen between seasons by being run over by a Métro train in suspicious and embarrassing circumstances.
- Serge Gainsbourg's "Le Poinçonneur des Lilas" is sung in the voice of a Métro ticket collector complaining about his dull life. This led to a tradition of fans leaving tickets at his grave in Montparnasse Cemetery.
- Battlefield: Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 have the map "Operation Métro", famous for being a XP grind.
- In the last mission of Commandos 2: Men of Courage, the commandos infiltrate occupied Paris through a subway tunnel that has been closed for renovation (since German workers are seen working on it).
- In Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Sam Fisher infiltrates a cryogenic lab in Paris through the nearby abandoned subway tunnel.
- Paris is one of the first levels available in Mini Metro, and also has a Paris 1937 "vintage" map as an unlockable alternate level.
