LINE 14 of the Paris metro network will grow to 27km in length on June 24 with the opening of two extensions. At the southern end the line will run from Olympiades to Orly Airport, while a new 1.2km section at the northern end will connect Mairie de Saint Ouen with Saint Denis Pleyel.
The extension to Orly Airport has six intermediate stations at Maison Blanche, Hôpital Bicêtre, Villejuif-Gustave Roussy (due to open in December), L’Haÿ-les-Roses, Chevilly-Larue and Thiais-Orly, next to Pont de Rungis station on RER Line C.
Maison Blanche provides interchange with metro Line 7, while Villejuif-Gustave Roussy will be the future interchange with Line 15 of the Grand Paris Express automated metro network currently under construction.
At its southern end, Line 14 continues 2km beyond Orly Airport station under the runways to a new depot at Morangis. The southern extension has cost a total of €2.8bn to build.
The extended Line 14 is set to play a major role in public transport provision for the Olympic and Paralympic Games that Paris is hosting this summer from July 26. It is expected to carry 800,000 passengers a day during the games, as both Saint Denis Pleyel and Mairie de Saint Ouen stations serve the Olympic Village.
A major new bridge costing €240m has been built to link Saint Denis Pleyel station, the future interchange with Grand Paris Express lines 15, 16 and 17, with Stade de France station on RER Line D. The bridge crosses 48 tracks north of Paris Nord station.
The extensions to Line 14 will make it the longest metro line in Paris, stretching much further into the suburbs than other lines. Traffic is eventually expected to grow to 1 million passengers a day.
To increase capacity and cut the minimum headway from 1min 45sec to 1min 25sec, the SAET train control system installed by Matra Transport when the first section of Line 14 opened in October 1998 has been replaced by a new system supplied by Siemens. This was commissioned in two stages during line closures in 2023.
The new system is also needed to cope with a bigger fleet. Alstom is supplying a total of 72 eight-car MP14 CA trains for €1.3bn. Deliveries are due to be completed by mid-2025 and 50 trains have been delivered so far.
Line 14 will be the backbone of Grand Paris Express, providing interchange with the orbital lines 15, 16, 17 and 18. Another component of the new network will be the extension of metro Line 11 from Mairie des Lilas to Rosny Bois-Perrier, due open on June 13 with six new stations. Line 11 will provide interchange with Line 15 at Rosny, and is due to be further extended to Noisy-Champs to provide interchange with lines 15 and 16 as well as RER Line A.
For detailed data on European metro projects, subscribe to IRJ Pro.
