Metro line 12 (Paris)

map
Route length:	15.3 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Opening:	1910
Passengers (daily) :	197,000
Stations:	29
Mairie d'Aubervilliers (from 2021) Aimé Césaire (from 2021) Canal Saint-Denis Turning track Front Populaire Turning track Petite Ceinture Porte de la Chapelle Marx Dormoy Paris – Lille / RER B / RER D Marcadet - Poissonniers Jules Joffrin Lamarck - Caulaincourt Abbesses Pigalle Saint-Georges Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Trinité - d'Estienne d'Orves Saint-Lazare Connecting track to line 13 Madeleine Concorde His RER C National Assembly Solférino Rue du Bac Sèvres - Babylone Rennes Notre-Dame-des-Champs Connecting track to line 4 Montparnasse - Bienvenüe Connecting track to line 13 Falguière Pasteur Volontaires Vaugirard Convention Vaugirard depot Petite Ceinture Porte de Versailles Parking and turning tracks Corentin Celton Mairie d'Issy Parking and turning tracks

The line 12 of the Paris Métro links the resorts Popular Front in the north and Mairie d'Issy in the southwest of Paris .

history

Beginning as line A of the north-south

Line 12 was originally called Line A and was planned by the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris (North-Sud). It should run from Montmartre to Gare Montparnasse . Originally it was supposed to be a tube railway . However, it was recognized that this would prove difficult and it was built as a conventional metro.

However, the construction work was not without complications: There were strikes and the floods at the beginning of 1910 led to delays, so that line A together with line 7 of the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP) on November 5, 1910 opened. It was the Porte de Versailles - Notre-Dame-de-Lorette section . The line was extended northwards to Pigalle station on April 8, 1911 , to Jules Joffrin station on October 31, 1911, and finally to Porte de la Chapelle on August 23, 1916 .

Since the Nord-Sud wanted to differentiate itself from the CMP externally, other tiles were used to design the stations: white and blue for the station names.

Another special feature is the crossing under the Seine : both tunnels are lined with metal. At Montmartre, the route had to take into account the conditions of underground Paris: The Abbesses station is 30 meters below the ground, behind it the route climbs on a ramp with a 40 ‰ gradient.

The last opening of a section made it necessary to shorten the wagon trains, as the previously commissioned wagon factory could not deliver - it was occupied by the German army.

Line 12 of the CMP

On January 1, 1930, the north-south routes were taken over by the CMP and the previous line A was henceforth run as line 12.

The next expansion took place on March 24, 1934: Porte de Versailles - Mairie d'Issy . Four years earlier, on January 1, 1930, this required the Porte de Versailles station to be relocated 100 meters south. The old station is now used to park trains.

In 1971 a central control center PCC (poste de commande centralisé) was introduced, in 1977 an autopilot system (pilotage automatique). First Sprague-Thomson trains from North-South were used, then those from CMP. This was ultimately replaced by the MF 67 series.

On December 18, 2012, the line was extended over the Paris city limits by one station north to Front Populaire (on the border of the municipalities of Saint Denis and Aubervilliers ). A continuation of two stops to the Mairie d'Aubervilliers is planned.

The railway stations

Notable train stations

• Concorde: The Concorde platformon Métrolinie 12 consists entirely of white tiles, each containing exactly one letter or number. Lined up in a row, the letters make up the French text of the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights (Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen) . This is an idea by the Belgian architect Françoise Schein , which she has already implemented all over the world.
• Abbesses: At around 36 meters below the surface of the earth, the platform hall of the Abbesses station isthe lowest stopping point in the Paris metro network. Long spiral stairs and two elevators bring passengers to the surface from there. The only entrance on the Place des Abbesses is equipped with one of two Guimard roofs thatstill exist.

Renaming of train stations

During the more than 100-year history of the Paris Metro, the official names of a number of stations have changed. Some stations have even been renamed several times. The following stations were affected on line 12:

Name changes of stations on line 12

today's name	since	previous name (s)	comment
Sèvres - Babylone	1923	Sèvres - Croix-Rouge
Marcadet - Poissonniers	1931	Poissonniers	Merged with the Marcadet station on line 4
Montparnasse - Bienvenüe	1942	Montparnasse	Merging of the originally separate stations Montparnasse and Bienvenüe
Corentin Celton	1945	Petits Menages
Marx Dormoy	1946	Torcy
National Assembly	1989	Chambre des Députés

Vaugirard depot on line 12

Road entrance to the Vaugirard depot at the corner of Rue de la Croix Nivert and Rue Desnouettes

The Vaugirard rail depot for the maintenance of the trains used on Line 12 was put into operation in 1910 together with the opening of the first section.

Trains reach the depot from what was then the terminus at Porte de Versailles: a tunnel branches off at the northern end of the former platform, which first runs under Rue de la Croix Nivert and then under Rue Auguste Chabrières . The underground trains finally come to the surface in the company premises.

The depot has an area of ​​approx. 23,000 m². Around 90 people are involved in the maintenance work. The normal inspections of the vehicles on Line 12 are carried out here, as are the major revisions. In addition, a department manufactures the wooden brake blocks for the entire Paris metro network and part of the needs of the Métro Marseille . In 2011 a new central control center (PCC) was set up on the site.

Future development of the route

1st extension in the north: Porte de la Chapelle to Mairie d'Aubervilliers

The extension by three stations is already under construction, the tunnel boring machine completed its work in December 2011 and the first station ( Front Populaire ) has been in operation since December 2012 . The opening of the remaining route via Aimé Césaire to Mairie d'Aubervilliers , originally planned for the end of 2017 , will probably be postponed until 2021, because in 2014 it was already one year behind the plans. At the new terminus Mairie d'Aubervilliers , there will be a transfer option to the planned ring line line 15 of the Grand Paris Express project around 2025 .

2nd extension in the north: Mairie d'Aubervilliers to La Courneuve - Six Routes

This extension by two more stations has long been desired but is no longer included in the Schéma directeur de la région Île-de-France (SDRIF), a kind of master plan for the development of the Île-de-France region , approved in 2012 , so that a realization is not expected before 2030. In the event of construction, however, there would be interesting connections: At the La Courneuve - Aubervilliers intermediate station, connection to the RER B.

literature

• Jean Tricoire: Un siècle de métro en 14 lignes: De Bienvenüe à Météor . 3. Edition. La Vie du Rail, Paris 2004. ISBN 2-915034-32-X .

Web links

Commons : Paris Metro Ligne 12  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jean Tricoire: Un siècle de métro en 14 lignes. De Bienvenüe à Météor . 2nd Edition. La Vie du Rail, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-902808-87-9 , p. 35 .
2. ↑ La mise en service du prolongement de la ligne 14 repoussée de deux ans. Mobilicités, October 23, 2014, accessed on May 3, 2015 (French).