Société du chemin de fer électrique basement north-south de Paris

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NORD-SUD lettering on one of the entrances, an additional sign indicates the underground station as an air raid shelter , 1918

The Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris , abbreviated Nord-Sud , was a French railway company that built and operated metro lines in Paris in the first half of the 20th century .

prehistory

The engineer Jean-Baptiste Berlier had already submitted a project for underground electric trams to the city council of Paris in 1887 . Their route should lead from the Bois de Boulogne in the west of the city under the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and the Rue de Rivoli to the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern city limits. On July 4, 1892, the city gave the permit, but the State Council objected. In 1895 the city was able to assert itself against the state and in 1898 the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP) began building a standard-gauge underpaved railway , the route of which largely followed the route proposed by Berlier. Line A was built between the endpoints Porte Maillot and Porte de Vincennes , when it was commissioned, it was given line number 1 . In recognition of his preliminary work, Berlier received compensation of 500,000 francs from the city  .

History up to the First World War

In 1899 Berlier presented a new plan with the financier Xavier Janicot. A tube railway running in north-south direction was to connect the districts of Montmartre and Montparnasse and touch the stations of Saint-Lazare , Orsay and Montparnasse . The construction and operation of the railway as well as the acquisition of the vehicles should only be at the expense of the license holder. In addition, the city should receive a flat rate for every passenger carried .

The 5542 meter long route was to be built at a depth of 8 to 38 meters below street level, which Fulgence Bienvenüe , the planner of the CMP routes, considered problematic in view of the difficult Paris underground. In addition, the route was in competition with the planned Métrolinie 4 of the CMP. While Berlier and Janicot agreed to transport passengers transferring from the CMP network, the CMP refused to do so in the opposite case.

In December 1901 the city council accepted the Berlier-Janicot Plan, and in July 1904 the planned extensions to the Porte de Saint-Ouen and Porte de Versailles stations . On April 3, 1905, the State Council approved the construction of the route from Place des Abbesses (Montmartre) to Edgar Quinet (Montparnasse), and on July 19, 1905, the route was extended.

As early as 1902, Berlier and Janicot founded the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris . In 1904 it officially became the developer and operator of the planned underground route. In 1905, Georges Bechmann, engineer of the Corps des ingénieurs des ponts et chaussées , was appointed general manager of the company.

The route that was ultimately approved deviated from the original plan in several points. Its construction at great depth was abandoned and the route north of the Seine was shifted slightly to the east. The number of stations, and some of their location, have been changed. The station on Boulevard Haussmann , and thus the option to change to line 9 of the CMP, which later crosses there , was dispensed with. By April 1908, the concession for a line A from Porte de Versailles to Jules Joffrin (10,800 m) and a branch line B from Saint-Lazare to Porte de Saint-Ouen (2650 m) was granted.

Regarding the free transfer between the Nord-Sud and the CMP, an agreement was reached in late 1907 after a long struggle. Nord-Sud agreed to pay the CMP 150,000 francs a year for this, with a contract term of 39 years.

During the construction work for its future line A, Nord-Sud planned its northeastern extension to Porte de la Chapelle , whereby line 4 of the CMP was to be crossed at what is now the Marcadet - Poissonniers transfer station . Another north-south connection should also connect Montparnasse with Porte de Vanves as line B.

Line A

Berler's intention to avoid conflicts with the sewer system, to build the line as a deep tube railway, could not be realized in the Parisian underground. It was erected using the methods already used at CMP; depths of up to 56 m were only reached under Montmartre.

Construction work began in 1907. It was difficult to cross under the Seine east of the Pont de la Concorde . Between the Concorde and Chambre des Députés stations (since 1989: Assemblée nationale ), 671 m apart , two nearly parallel tubes were drilled, the center-to-center distance between 5.8 and 18.5 m. The circular structures were reinforced with cast iron tubbings with an inner diameter of 5 m. The slopes of the ramps are 35.1 ‰ on the north and 40 ‰ on the south bank. Work on the river underpass lasted from July 1907 to July 1909.

Another challenge was crossing the Montmartre hill, which is characterized by old quarries. It is driven under at a great depth, the Abbesses station is almost 30 m below the surface. The neighboring Lamarck - Caulaincourt station is 24 m deep and is also the highest point on the route. The Saint-Georges underground station had to be built in two sub-stations under the narrow Rue Notre-Dame-de-Lorette .

In January 1910 the Seine overflowed its banks , the water also flooded large sections of Line A, which was under construction but was nearing completion. Nevertheless, on November 5, 1910 - at the same time as Line 7 of the CMP was opened - between Porte de Versailles and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette traffic will be added. From April 8, 1911, the trains continued to Pigalle , and on October 31, 1912 to Jules Joffrin. In September 1912, construction began on the extension to Porte de la Chapelle, which opened on August 23, 1916. This section went into operation notwithstanding a lack of vehicles, as the manufacturer was in the part of France now occupied by the German army.

The Ateliers de Vaugirard depot, opened in 1910, was built north of the Porte de Versailles. It is located directly on the Petite Ceinture railway line and is connected to it by a track.

Line B

The "Déclaration d'utilité publique" (determination of public utility) for the line from Saint-Lazare to Porte de Saint-Ouen was issued on July 19, 1905, and then on June 11, 1909 for the branch from La Fourche to Porte de Clichy .

In the only 12 m wide Rue d'Amsterdam, the Berlin station (since 1914: Liège ) had to be built with the platforms offset in the longitudinal direction. The La Fourche separation station received three platforms on two levels one above the other. The crossing of the 6 m high sewer "Collecteur de Clichy" at the terminus Porte de Clichy proved to be difficult. There, contrary to the customs of the north-south, the route was given a final loop .

The main branch from Saint-Lazare to Porte de Saint-Ouen went into operation on February 26, 1911, the branch line followed on January 20, 1912. Since then, the northbound trains have alternated between the two endpoints. Line B served densely populated working-class districts, which led to high utilization. However, there was insufficient demand for 1st class cars on this line, so they were the first Parisian underground cars to be converted into mixed-class vehicles.

Line C

The third project of the north-south was a line from Porte de Vanves to Montparnasse, whose "Déclaration d'utilité publique" took place in July 1912. Line C, however, was not realized by the Nord-Sud. It was only opened in 1937 as line 14 of the CMP.

vehicles

Railcars from CMP (front) and Nord-Sud (rear) in the RATP's collection of historic vehicles
1st class sidecar

The Nord-Sud procured Sprague-Thomson trains from the start ; they were built between 1909 and 1925. Such vehicles were already running in the CMP network, from whose experience Nord-Sud was able to benefit. The north-south railcars were, however, more powerfully motorized, heavier and slightly wider. With regard to the power supply, the north-south railcars also differed from those of the CMP: they not only had sanding pads for power consumption on the conductor rails , but also small pantographs on the car roof. In normal operation, the leading railcar received its power (+600 V) from the contact wire , the railcar at the end of the train (−600 V) from the side conductor rail. The current was returned via the wheels and rails. This solution was chosen because the north-south could not acquire enough space for substations that were sufficiently close together. In an emergency, the train could only be moved with one of the two systems.

The railcars and sidecars were 13.60 m long and 2.40 m wide. The superstructures were made of all-metal with three double doors on each side of the car. In contrast to the brown vehicles of the CMP, they were in light colors - predominantly gray car bodies with blue driver's cabs. The trains carried a sidecar of the 1st carriage class, the side walls of which were cream-colored and the fronts were painted red.

Stations

The ceilings and floors of the stations have elliptical cross-sections. In terms of height, they differ slightly from those of the CMP in order to enable the installation of the contact wire. The sidewalls therefore have a vertical portion, while those of the CMP are continuously curved.

Nord-Sud tried to visually differentiate its stations and their entrances from those of the CMP. The numerous station signs, which were also made of tiles with white lettering on a dark blue background, stood out from the white tiled walls with a more sophisticated decor. Curved letters over the openings of the route tunnels indicated the direction of travel. A spacious underground transfer hall was built at the Saint-Lazare train station.

At the entrances, signs with the inscription NORD-SUD instead of the words MÉTROPOLITAIN (at the CMP) indicated the stations. In addition, unlike the CMP, the station name and the course of the line were displayed. Adolphe Dervaux designed the entrances .

  • Side walls with a vertical section, Lamarck - Caulaincourt station

  • Station sign made of tiles

  • Direction indicator above the tunnel mouth

  • Transfer hall Saint-Lazare, 2006

History from 1914

The entrance designed by Adolphe Dervaux, in 1930 the NORD-SUD logo was replaced by METROPOLIAIN

In 1914 the construction costs had reached 141 million francs. Despite the war, line A was continued and the northern end section opened on August 23, 1916. At the same time, the Nord-Sud had to manufacture bombs in its workshops, and the war worsened the financial situation of society.

An increase in fares in 1920 only covered 98 percent of expenses, as coal (for generating electrical energy) had become more expensive and new benefits had to be financed for staff. In order to avert insolvency, new negotiations were started with the public sector. In July 1921, an agreement was reached: the city of Paris was given complete control over the company's finances and in return guaranteed its survival. Nevertheless, it was not until 1925 before the Nord-Sud was back in the black.

Xavier Janicot and Georges Bechmann died in 1927. In 1928 calls for the city of Paris to take over the companies CMP and Nord-Sud grew louder, especially as the Nord-Sud concession would expire on January 1, 1931. The CMP, which had initially considered the north-south as future “natural prey”, therefore sought a rapid unification of the two companies, which an extraordinary general meeting of the north-south on May 22, 1929 approved. On January 1, 1930, the merger to form Chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris was completed, the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris was history.

epilogue

In 1937 the CMP had 114 railcars of the former Nord-Sud, plus 100 sidecars of the 2nd and 51 of the 1st class.

The new company existed until 1945. At the beginning of January of that year it was replaced by the Administration Provisoire des Transports Parisiens (APTP), which in turn was replaced on January 1, 1949 by the Régie autonome des transports Parisiens (RATP).

Line A of the north-south is identical to today's line 12 , at both ends it was extended by short sections. Part of line 13 , which branches out as one of two Parisian lines, is the former line B.

Nord-Sud type Sprague-Thomson trains ran on line 12 until they were retired in 1972.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Line numbers were reserved for the CMP
  2. ↑ The abbreviation CMP was retained
  3. ↑ Two further branches are operated as autonomous lines

Web links

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. 15 .
  2. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 290.
  3. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 33.
  4. ↑ a b Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 291.
  5. ↑ a b Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 34.
  6. ^ A b Brian Hardy: Paris Metro Handbook . 3. Edition. Capital Transport Publishing, Harrow Weald 1999, ISBN 1-85414-212-7 , pp. 20 .
  7. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 291 f.
  8. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 298.
  9. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 292 ff.
  10. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 294.
  11. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 292.
  12. ^ Julian Pepinster: Le métro de Paris . Éditions La Vie du Rail, Paris 2010, ISBN 978-2-918758-12-9 , p. 216 .
  13. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 294 f.
  14. ^ Brian Hardy: op. Cit. , P. 110.
  15. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 304.
  16. ↑ Petite histoire des égouts de Paris at ptolemaeus.canalblog.com, accessed on January 8, 2017
  17. ↑ a b Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 305.
  18. ^ A b Brian Hardy: op. Cit. , P. 21.
  19. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 306.
  20. ^ Brian Hardy: op. Cit. , P. 62.
  21. ^ Christoph Groneck: Metros in France . 1st edition. Robert Schwandl, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-936573-13-1 , p. 6 .
  22. ^ A b Brian Hardy: op. Cit. , P. 63.
  23. ↑ Julian Pepinster: op.cit , p. 95.
  24. ^ Clive Lamming: Métro insolite . 2nd Edition. Éditions Parigramme, Paris 2001, ISBN 978-2-84096-190-1 , pp. 72 .
  25. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 35.
  26. ^ Brian Hardy: op. Cit. , P. 64.
  27. ↑ Jean Tricoire: op. Cit. , P. 92.