Paris has a massive transit project that is currently under construction called the Grand Paris Express. It consists of 4 new metro lines, 1 line extension (at both ends), 68 new stations, and 200 km of new tracks. The first phase was the extension of Line 14. That opened last year. And the new lines are planned to open in stages up until 2031. I have no idea if they're on schedule and/or on budget, but here's a map of the GPE project:
Paris has a massive transit project that is currently under construction called the Grand Paris Express. It consists of 4 new metro lines, 1 line extension (at both ends), 68 new stations, and 200 km of new tracks. The first phase was the extension of Line 14. That opened last year. And the new lines are planned to open in stages up until 2031. I have no idea if they're on schedule and/or on budget, but here's a map of the GPE project:
Here's what it looks like if you overlay all existing metro lines (note how concentrated they are in Paris proper and how they're clearly designed to bring people into the core):
Here's what it looks like if you overlay all existing tram lines:
And finally, here's what it looks like if you overlay all existing RER lines (suburban rail):
At this point, the map is getting visually pretty cluttered. But if you look at how the GPE lines compare to what's existing, I think you'll start to see just how important this project is for the Métropole du Grand Paris (or Greater Paris). It creates a new set of concentric rings in the inner suburbs and, for the first time, it will allow Parisians to travel around the region (via rail) without first passing through the core of the city. So it's in effect both an expansion and a stitching together of the city.
But let's put some numbers to this.
According to a recent memo by Apur, which looked at the economic composition of the station areas, about 21% of all salaried employees in Grand Paris are located next to one of the new 68 stations. As a total number, this works out to about 934,000 employees (2022 figure). And included in this figure is La Défense, which is the office district where Paris decided to put most of its tall buildings. This has the highest concentration of jobs at approximately 163,599 salaried employees (again, 2022 figure).
Another way to think about these station areas is that they represent what many are now calling New Paris. This is a part of Paris that is less encumbered with history and, therefore, more open to change and new ideas. This creates an exciting opportunity, and already we're seeing that take hold. Later this week on the blog, I'll talk about a specific project in Greater Paris that is currently under construction and that I was fortunate enough to tour on this trip.
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I like trains. So when I come across a video titled "This Sahara Railway Is One of the Most Extreme in the World," there's a high probably that I'm going to watch it — even if it's over 6 years old. Now for a second, I thought that I may have already written about this rail line, but AI tells me that I haven't.
The Mauritania Railway is one of the most iconic and famous lines in the world. It's approximately 704 kilometers long and it was built for the sole purpose of transporting iron ore from the Zouérat mines in northern Mauritania to the port city of Nouadhibou on the Atlantic coast. Iron ore represents somewhere around half of Mauritania's exports.
This railway runs some of the longest trains in the world — each train can have over 200 cars, which translates into trains that are up to 3 kilometers long. They can also transport up to 17,000 tons of iron ore, making it one of the heaviest trains anywhere in the world.
But what I find most fascinating about this railway is the informal economy that unintentionally emerged on top of it. Because the trains return from Nouadhibou to Zouérat empty, local fishermen and traders use it to transport product inland to towns along the line. And for many of these towns, this is their lifeline — it's their only connection to the outside world.
It's not a fun trip, nor is it a safe trip. It also takes 20 hours to travel from one end to the other. But it's importantly free and it provides economic opportunity. It's an extreme example of the power of rail. Here you have a single railway that likely shoulders at least a quarter of the country's entire GDP, and that's without including any of the benefits derived from its informal contributions.
If you haven't yet seen
Here is a neat tool (created by Benjamin Td) that allows you to quickly see how far you can travel in Europe by rail in 5 hours. The way it works is that you just hover over a train station and then the relevant isochrone will show up. Above is what that looks like for Paris' Gare de Lyon, which has one of if not the largest catchment areas from what I can tell after playing around with the tool for a few minutes. The data being used to power this map is from Deutsche Bahn. And if there's a transfer on any of the routes, the tool assumes you can make that happen within 20 minutes, which may or may not be realistic. Regardless, it's fascinating to see just how connected (or disconnected) some cities are. It's also a shameful reminder that a
Here's what it looks like if you overlay all existing metro lines (note how concentrated they are in Paris proper and how they're clearly designed to bring people into the core):
Here's what it looks like if you overlay all existing tram lines:
And finally, here's what it looks like if you overlay all existing RER lines (suburban rail):
At this point, the map is getting visually pretty cluttered. But if you look at how the GPE lines compare to what's existing, I think you'll start to see just how important this project is for the Métropole du Grand Paris (or Greater Paris). It creates a new set of concentric rings in the inner suburbs and, for the first time, it will allow Parisians to travel around the region (via rail) without first passing through the core of the city. So it's in effect both an expansion and a stitching together of the city.
But let's put some numbers to this.
According to a recent memo by Apur, which looked at the economic composition of the station areas, about 21% of all salaried employees in Grand Paris are located next to one of the new 68 stations. As a total number, this works out to about 934,000 employees (2022 figure). And included in this figure is La Défense, which is the office district where Paris decided to put most of its tall buildings. This has the highest concentration of jobs at approximately 163,599 salaried employees (again, 2022 figure).
Another way to think about these station areas is that they represent what many are now calling New Paris. This is a part of Paris that is less encumbered with history and, therefore, more open to change and new ideas. This creates an exciting opportunity, and already we're seeing that take hold. Later this week on the blog, I'll talk about a specific project in Greater Paris that is currently under construction and that I was fortunate enough to tour on this trip.
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that I like trains. So when I come across a video titled "This Sahara Railway Is One of the Most Extreme in the World," there's a high probably that I'm going to watch it — even if it's over 6 years old. Now for a second, I thought that I may have already written about this rail line, but AI tells me that I haven't.
The Mauritania Railway is one of the most iconic and famous lines in the world. It's approximately 704 kilometers long and it was built for the sole purpose of transporting iron ore from the Zouérat mines in northern Mauritania to the port city of Nouadhibou on the Atlantic coast. Iron ore represents somewhere around half of Mauritania's exports.
This railway runs some of the longest trains in the world — each train can have over 200 cars, which translates into trains that are up to 3 kilometers long. They can also transport up to 17,000 tons of iron ore, making it one of the heaviest trains anywhere in the world.
But what I find most fascinating about this railway is the informal economy that unintentionally emerged on top of it. Because the trains return from Nouadhibou to Zouérat empty, local fishermen and traders use it to transport product inland to towns along the line. And for many of these towns, this is their lifeline — it's their only connection to the outside world.
It's not a fun trip, nor is it a safe trip. It also takes 20 hours to travel from one end to the other. But it's importantly free and it provides economic opportunity. It's an extreme example of the power of rail. Here you have a single railway that likely shoulders at least a quarter of the country's entire GDP, and that's without including any of the benefits derived from its informal contributions.
If you haven't yet seen
Here is a neat tool (created by Benjamin Td) that allows you to quickly see how far you can travel in Europe by rail in 5 hours. The way it works is that you just hover over a train station and then the relevant isochrone will show up. Above is what that looks like for Paris' Gare de Lyon, which has one of if not the largest catchment areas from what I can tell after playing around with the tool for a few minutes. The data being used to power this map is from Deutsche Bahn. And if there's a transfer on any of the routes, the tool assumes you can make that happen within 20 minutes, which may or may not be realistic. Regardless, it's fascinating to see just how connected (or disconnected) some cities are. It's also a shameful reminder that a
Cover photo by Andrzej Kryszpiniuk on Unsplash
Cover photo by Andrzej Kryszpiniuk on Unsplash
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