Metro station Kléber

Kléber

Kléber is a station of the Paris Métro serving line 6 at the intersection of the Avenue Kleber and the Avenue des Portugais in the 16th arrondissement.

The station, in the direction of Nation, is the true terminus of line 6. Due to the single track loop at Charles de Gaulle - Étoile, the trains cannot stop there for long, so instead they depart quickly back round the loop and then wait for an extended period of time at Kléber.

The station opened on 2 October 1900 as a branch of line 1 from Étoile to Trocadéro. On 5 November 1903 this line was extended to Passy and the line from Étoile to Trocadéro and Passy became known as line 2 South as part of a planned ring line around central Paris to be built under or over the boulevards built in place of the demolished Wall of the Farmers-General; this circle is now operated as two lines: 2 and 6. On 14 October 1907 the line from Étoile to Trocadéro, Place d'Italie and Gare du Nord became part of line 5. On 6 October 1942 the section of line 5 from Étoile to Place d'Italie, including Boissière, was transferred to line 6. The Avenue Kléber commemorates Jean Baptiste Kléber (1753–1800), a General in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and particularly noted for his leadership in the Egyptian campaign, where he was assassinated.

See: Wikipedia

Paris Métro

The Paris Métro or Métropolitain is a rapid transit system in the Paris Metropolitan Area. A symbol of the city, it is noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture, influenced by Art Nouveau. It is mostly underground and 214 kilometres long. It has 303 stations, of which 62 have transfers to another line. There are 16 lines, numbered 1 to 14 with two minor lines, 3bis and 7bis. Lines are identified on maps by number and colour, and direction of travel is indicated by the terminus.

It is the second-busiest metro in Europe, after Moscow. It carried 1.524 billion passengers in 2011, (up from 1.506 billion in 2010), 4.175 million passengers a day. It is one of the densest metro systems in the world, with 245 stations within the 86.9 km2 of the city of Paris. Châtelet – Les Halles, with 5 Métro lines and three RER commuter rail lines, is the world's largest metro (subway) station.

The first line opened without ceremony on 19 July 1900, during the World's Fair (Exposition Universelle). The system expanded quickly until the First World War and the core was complete by the 1920s. Extensions into suburbs and Line 11 were built in the 1930s. The network reached saturation after World War II, with new trains to allow higher traffic, but further improvements have been limited by the design of the network and in particular the short distances between stations. Besides the Métro, downtown Paris and its urban area are served by the RER developed from the 1960s, several tramway lines, Transilien suburban trains and two VAL lines, serving Charles De Gaulle and Orly airports. In the late 1990s, the automated line 14 was built to relieve RER line A.

Naming

Métro is the abbreviated name of the company that originally operated most of the network: La Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris, shortened to "Le Métropolitain". That was quickly abbreviated to métro, which became a common word to designate all subway networks (or any rapid transit system) in France or elsewhere (a genericized trademark).

The name métro proved very popular and was adopted in many languages, making it the most used word for a (generally underground) urban transit system. It is possible that "Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain" was copied from the name of London's pioneering underground railway company, the Metropolitan Railway, which had been in business for almost 40 years prior to the inauguration of Paris's first line.

Network

Since the Métro was built to comprehensively serve the city inside its walls, the stations are very close: 548 metres apart on average, from 424 m on line 4 to one kilometre on the newer line 14, meaning Paris is densely networked with stations. The surrounding suburbs are served by later line extensions, thus traffic from one suburb to another must pass through the city. The slow average speed effectively prohibits service to the greater Paris area.

The Métro is mostly underground (197 km of 214 km). Above-ground sections consist of viaducts within Paris (on lines 1, 2, 5 & 6) and the suburban ends of lines 1, 5, 8, and 13. The tunnels are relatively close to the surface due to the variable nature of the terrain, which complicates deep digging; exceptions include parts of line 12 under the hill of Montmartre and line 2 under Ménilmontant. The tunnels follow the twisting lie of the streets. During construction in 1900 a minimum radius of curvature of 75 metres was imposed, though this low standard was not adhered to at Bastille and Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. Like the New York City Subway and in contrast with the London Underground the Paris Métro mostly uses two-way tunnels. As in most French métro and tramway systems, trains drive on the right (the SNCF drives on the left). The tracks are standard gauge (1.435 metres). Electric power is supplied by a third rail which carries 750 volts DC.

The width of the carriages, 2.4 metres, is narrower than that of newer French systems (such as the 2.9 m carriages in Lyon, one of the widest in Europe) and trains on lines 1, 4 and 14 have capacities of 600-700 passengers; 2,600 on the Altéo MI 2N trains of RER A. The size of the Metro tunnels was deliberately chosen by the City of Paris to prevent the running of main-line trains; the city of Paris and the nation of France had historically poor relations. In contrast to many other historical metro systems (such as New York, Madrid, London, and Boston), all lines have tunnels and operate trains with the same dimensions. Five lines (1, 4, 6, 11 and 14) run on a rubber tire system developed by the RATP in the 1950s, exported to the Montréal, Santiago and Mexico City metros.

The number of cars in each train varies line by line from three to six; most have five, and eight is possible on line 14. Two lines, 7 and 13, have branches at the end, and trains serve every station on each line except when they are closed for renovations.

Technical summary

The Métro has 214 kilometres of track and 303 stations, 62 connecting between lines. These figures do not include the RER network. The average distance between stations is 562 m. Trains stop at all stations. Lines do not share tracks, even at interchange (transfer) stations.

Trains average 20 km/h with a maximum of 70 km/h on all but the automated driverless trains of line 14, which average 40 km/h and reach 80 km/h. An average interstation trip takes 58 seconds. Trains travel on the right. The track is standard gauge but the loading gauge is smaller than the mainline SNCF network. Power is from a lateral third rail, 750 V DC, except on the rubber-tyred lines where the current is from guide bars.

The loading gauge is small compared to those of newer metro systems (but comparable to that of early European metros), with capacities of between about 560 and 720 passengers per train on Lines 1–14. Many other metro systems (such as those of New York and London) adopted expanded tunnel dimensions for their newer lines (or used tunnels of multiple sizes almost from the outset, in the case of Boston), at the cost of operating incompatible fleets of rolling stock. Paris built all lines to the same dimensions as its original lines. Before the introduction of rubber-tire lines in the 1950s, this common shared size theoretically allowed any Metro rolling stock to operate on any line, but in practice each line was assigned a regular roster of trains.

A feature is the use of rubber-tired trains on five lines: this technique was developed by RATP and entered service in 1951. The technology was exported to many networks around the world (including Montreal, Mexico City, and Santiago). Lines 1, 4, 6, 11 and 14 have special adaptations to accommodate rubber-tyred trains. Trains are composed of 3 to 6 cars depending on the line, the most common being 5 cars (line 14 may have 8 cars in the future), but all trains on the same line have the same number of cars.

The Metro is designed to provide local, point-to-point service in Paris proper and service into the city from some close suburbs. Stations within Paris are very close together to form a grid structure, ensuring that every point in the city is close to a metro station (less than 500 metres), but this makes the service slow 20 km/h, except on Line 14 where the stations are farther apart and the trains travel faster. The low speed virtually precludes feasible service to farther suburbs, which are serviced by the RER.

The metro is mostly underground; surface sections include sections on viaduct in Paris (lines 1, 2, 5 and 6) and at the surface in the suburbs (lines 1, 5, 8 and 13). In most cases both tracks are laid in a single tunnel. Almost all lines follow roads, having been built by the cut-and-cover method near the surface (the earliest by hand). Line 1 follows the straight course of the Champs-Elysées and on other lines some stations (for example, Commerce) have platforms that do not align: the street above is too narrow to fit both platforms opposite each other. Many lines have very sharp curves. The specifications established in 1900 required a very low minimum curve radius by railway standards, but even this was often not fully respected, for example near Bastille and Notre Dame de Lorette. Parts of the network are built at depth, in particular a section of line 12 under Montmartre, the sections under the Seine, and all of line 14.

Lines 7 and 13 have two terminal branches.

See: Wikipedia