Paris Métro

The Paris Métro (French: Métro de Paris, pronounced [metʁo d(ə) paʁi], or Métro parisien, [metʁo paʁizjɛ̃]), short for Métropolitain (pronounced [metʁɔpɔlitɛ̃]), is a rapid transit system serving the Paris metropolitan area in France. A symbol of the city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform architecture and historical entrances influenced by Art Nouveau. The system is 245.6 kilometres (152.6 mi) long, mostly underground. It has 321 stations of which 61 have transfers between lines. The Métro has sixteen lines (with an additional four under construction), numbered 1 to 14, with two lines, Line 3bis and Line 7bis, named because they used to be part of Line 3 and Line 7, respectively. Three lines (1, 4 and 14) are automated. Lines are identified on maps by number and colour, with the direction of travel indicated by the terminus. The Métro is operated by Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP), which also operates part of the RER network, light rail lines and many bus routes.
It is the second-busiest metro system in Europe, after the Moscow Metro, as well as the tenth-busiest in the world. It carried 1.498 billion passengers in 2019, roughly 4.1 million passengers a day, which makes it the most used public transport system in Paris. It is one of the densest metro systems in the world, with 244 stations within the 105.4 km (41 sq mi) of the City of Paris. Châtelet–Les Halles, with five Métro and three RER commuter rail lines, is one of the world's largest metro stations. The system generally has poor accessibility since most infrastructure was built before accessibility standards emerged, and few stations have been retrofitted.
The first line opened without ceremony on 19 July 1900, during the World's Fair (Exposition Universelle). The system expanded quickly until World War I and the core was complete by the 1920s; extensions into suburbs 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. In 1998, Line 14 was put into service to relieve RER A. Line 11 reaching Rosny–Bois-Perrier in 2024 is the network's most recent extension. A large expansion programme known as the Grand Paris Express (GPE) is currently under construction with four new orbital Métro lines (15, 16, 17 and 18) around the Île-de-France region, outside the Paris city limits. Further plans exist for Line 1, Line 7, Line 10, a merger of Line 3bis and Line 7bis, Line 12, as well as a new proposed Line 19 in the city's outer suburbs.
Besides the Métro, central Paris and its urban area are served by five RER lines (602 km or 374 mi with 257 stations), fourteen tramway lines (186.6 km or 115.9 mi with 278 stations), nine Transilien suburban trains (1,299 km or 807 mi with 392 stations), in addition to three VAL lines at Charles de Gaulle Airport and Orly Airport, making Paris one of the cities in the world best served by public transportation. Despite the network's uniform architecture, several of its stations stand out at the hand of their unique design. The Métro itself has become an icon in popular culture, being frequently featured in cinema and mentioned in music. In 2021, the RATP started offering an umbrella lending service at several Métro and RER stations, highlighting the Métro's own rabbit mascot, which advises children on staying away from the closing doors.
Métro is the abbreviated name of the company that originally operated most of the network: the Empain group subsidiary Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris S.A. (Paris Metropolitan Railway Company Ltd), also known as CMP. The name was directly inspired by the 1863 London Metropolitan Railway (French: Chemin de fer métropolitain de Londres), which had been commonly abbreviated as "métropolitain" in French since the late Second Empire.
CMP was known as "Le Métropolitain", which quickly became abbreviated to Métro, which became a common designation and brand name for rapid transit systems in France and in many cities elsewhere. 'Metro' has been adopted in many languages, making it the most used word for a (generally underground) urban transit system.
The Métro is operated by the Régie autonome des transports parisiens (RATP), a public transport authority that also operates part of the RER network, light rail lines and many bus routes.
By 1845, Paris and the railway companies were already thinking about an urban railway system to link inner districts of the city. The railway companies and the French government wanted to extend mainline railways into a new underground network, whereas the Parisians favoured a new and independent network and feared national takeover of any system it built. The disagreement lasted from 1856 to 1890. Meanwhile, the population became denser and traffic congestion grew massively. The deadlock put pressure on the authorities and gave the city the green light.
Prior to 1845, the urban transport network consisted primarily of a large number of omnibus lines, consolidated by the French government into a regulated system with fixed and unconflicting routes and schedules. The first concrete proposal for an urban rail system in Paris was put forward by civil engineer Florence de Kérizouet. This plan called for a surface cable car system. In 1855, civil engineers Edouard Brame and Eugène Flachat proposed an underground freight urban railway, due to the high rate of accidents on surface rail lines. On 19 November 1871 the General Council of the Seine commissioned a team of 40 engineers to plan an urban rail network. This team proposed a network with a pattern of routes "resembling a cross enclosed in a circle" with axial routes following large boulevards. On 11 May 1872 the Council endorsed the plan, but the French government turned down the plan. After this point, a serious debate occurred over whether the new system should consist of elevated lines or of mostly underground lines; this debate involved numerous parties in France, including Victor Hugo, Guy de Maupassant, and the Eiffel Society of Gustave Eiffel, and continued until 1892. Eventually the underground option emerged as the preferred solution because of the high cost of buying land for rights-of-way in central Paris required for elevated lines, estimated at 70,000 francs per metre of line for a 20 meters (65 ft 7 in)-wide railway.
The last remaining hurdle was the city's concern about national interference in its urban rail system. The city commissioned renowned engineer Jean-Baptiste Berlier, who designed Paris' postal network of pneumatic tubes, to design and plan its rail system in the early 1890s. Berlier recommended a special track gauge of 1,300 mm (4 ft 3+3⁄16 in) (versus the standard gauge of 1,435 mm or 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) to protect the system from national takeover, which inflamed the issue substantially. The issue was finally settled when the Minister of Public Works begrudgingly recognised the city's right to build a local system on 22 November 1895, and by the city's secret designing of the trains and tunnels to be too narrow for mainline trains, while adopting standard gauge as a compromise with the state.
On 20 April 1896, Paris adopted the Fulgence Bienvenüe project, which was to serve only the city proper of Paris. Many Parisians worried that extending lines to industrial suburbs would reduce the safety of the city. Paris forbade lines to the inner suburbs and, as a guarantee, Métro trains were to run on the right, as opposed to existing suburban lines, which ran on the left.
Unlike many other subway systems (such as that of London), this system was designed from the outset as a unified system, initially of nine lines. Such a large project required a private-public arrangement right from the outset – the city would build most of the permanent way, while a private concessionaire company would supply the trains and power stations, and lease the system (each line separately, for initially 39-year leases). In July 1897, six bidders competed, and The Compagnie Generale de Traction, owned by the Belgian Baron Édouard Empain, won the contract; this company was then immediately reorganised as the Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain.
Construction began in November 1898. The first line, Porte Maillot–Porte de Vincennes, was inaugurated on 19 July 1900 during the Paris World's Fair. Entrances to stations were designed in Art Nouveau style by Hector Guimard. Eighty-six of his entrances are still in existence.
Bienvenüe's project consisted of 10 lines, which correspond to current Lines 1 to 9. Construction was so intense that by 1920, despite a few changes from schedule, most lines had been completed. The shield method of construction was rejected in favor of the cut-and-cover method in order to speed up work. Bienvenüe, a highly regarded engineer, designed a special procedure of building the tunnels to allow the swift repaving of roads, and is credited with a largely swift and relatively uneventful construction through the difficult and heterogeneous soils and rocks.
Line 1 and Line 4 were conceived as central east–west and north–south lines. Two lines, ligne 2 Nord (Line 2 North) and ligne 2 Sud (Line 2 South), were also planned but Line 2 South was merged with Line 5 in 1906. Line 3 was an additional east–west line to the north of line 1 and line 5 an additional north to south line to the east of Line 4. Line 6 would run from Nation to Place d'Italie. Lines 7, 8 and 9 would connect commercial and office districts around the Opéra to residential areas in the north-east and the south-west. Bienvenüe also planned a circular line, the ligne circulaire intérieure, to connect the six mainline stations. A section opened in 1923 between Invalides and the Boulevard Saint-Germain before the plan was abandoned.
On 31 January 1904, a second concession was granted to the Société du chemin de fer électrique souterrain Nord-Sud de Paris (Paris North-South underground electrical railway company), abbreviated to the Nord-Sud (North-South) company. It was responsible for building three proposed lines:
Line A was inaugurated on 4 November 1910, after being postponed because of floods in January that year. Line B was inaugurated on 26 February 1911. Because of the high construction costs, the construction of line C was postponed. Nord-Sud and CMP used compatible trains that could be used on both networks, but CMP trains used 600 volts third rail, and NS −600 volts overhead wire and +600 volts third rail. This was necessary because of steep gradients on NS lines. NS distinguished itself from its competitor with the high-quality decoration of its stations, the trains' extreme comfort and pretty lighting.
Nord-Sud did not become profitable and bankruptcy became unavoidable. By the end of 1930, the CMP bought Nord-Sud. Line A became Line 12 and Line B Line 13. Line C was built and renamed Line 14; that line was reorganised in 1937 with Lines 8 and 10. This partial line is now the south part of Line 13.
The last Nord-Sud train set was decommissioned on 15 May 1972.
Bienvenüe's project was nearly completed during the 1920s. Paris planned three new lines and extensions of most lines to the inner suburbs, despite the reluctance of Parisians. Bienvenüe's inner circular line having been abandoned, the already-built portion between Duroc and Odéon for the creation of a new east–west line that became Line 10, extended west to Porte de Saint-Cloud and the inner suburbs of Boulogne.
The line C planned by Nord-Sud between Montparnasse station and Porte de Vanves was built as Line 14 (different from present Line 14). It extended north in encompassing the already-built portion between Invalides and Duroc, initially planned as part of the inner circular. The over-busy Belleville funicular tramway would be replaced by a new line, Line 11, extended to Châtelet. Lines 10, 11 and 14 were thus the three new lines envisaged under this plan.
Most lines would be extended to the inner suburbs. The first to leave the city proper was Line 9, extended in 1934 to Boulogne-Billancourt; more followed in the 1930s. World War II forced authorities to abandon projects such as the extension of Line 4 and Line 12 to the northern suburbs. By 1949, eight lines had been extended: Line 1 to Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vincennes, Line 3 to Levallois-Perret, Line 5 to Pantin, Line 7 to Ivry-sur-Seine, Line 8 to Charenton, Line 9 to Boulogne-Billancourt, Line 11 to Les Lilas and Line 12 to Issy-les-Moulineaux.
World War II had a massive impact on the Métro. Services were limited and many stations closed. The risk of bombing meant the service between Place d'Italie and Étoile was transferred from Line 5 to Line 6, so that most of the elevated portions of the Métro would be on Line 6. As a result, Lines 2 and 6 now form a circle. Most stations were too shallow to be used as bomb shelters. The French Resistance used the tunnels to conduct swift assaults throughout Paris.
It took a long time to recover after liberation in 1944. Many stations had not reopened by the 1960s and some closed for good. On 23 March 1948, the CMP (the underground) and the STCRP (bus and tramways) merged to form the RATP, which still operates the Métro.
The network grew saturated during the 1950s. Outdated technology limited the number of trains, which led the RATP to stop extending lines and concentrate on modernisation. The MP 51 prototype was built, testing both rubber-tyred metro and basic automatic driving on the voie navette. The first replacements of the older Sprague trains began with experimental articulated trains and then with mainstream rubber-tyred Métro MP 55 and MP 59, some of the latter still in service (Line 11). Thanks to newer trains and better signalling, trains ran more frequently.
The population boomed from 1950 to 1980. Car ownership became more common and suburbs grew further from the centre of Paris. The main railway stations, termini of the suburban rail lines, were overcrowded during rush hour. The short distance between Métro stations slowed the network and made it unprofitable to build extensions. The solution in the 1960s was to revive a project abandoned at the end of the 19th century: joining suburban lines to new underground portions in the city centre as the Réseau Express Régional (regional express network; RER).
The RER plan initially included one east–west line and two north–south lines. RATP bought two unprofitable SNCF lines—the Ligne de Saint-Germain (westbound) and the Ligne de Vincennes (eastbound) with the intention of joining them and to serve multiple districts of central Paris with new underground stations. The new line created by this merger became Line A. The Ligne de Sceaux, which served the southern suburbs and was bought by the CMP in the 1930s, would be extended north to merge with a line of the SNCF and reach the new Charles de Gaulle Airport in Roissy. This became Line B. These new lines were inaugurated in 1977 and their wild success outperformed all the most optimistic forecasts to the extent that line A is the most used urban rail line in Europe with nearly 300 million journeys a year.
Because of the enormous cost of these two lines, the third planned line was abandoned and the authorities decided that later developments of the RER network would be more cheaply developed by the SNCF, alongside its continued management of other suburban lines. However, the RER developed by the SNCF would never match the success of the RATP's two RER lines. In 1979, the SNCF developed Line C by joining the suburban lines of the Gare d'Austerlitz and Gare d'Orsay, the latter being converted into a museum dedicated to impressionist paintings. During the 1980s, it developed Line D, which was the second line planned by the initial RER schedule, but serving Châtelet instead of République to reduce costs. A huge Métro-RER hub was created at Châtelet–Les Halles, becoming one of the world's largest underground stations.
The same project of the 1960s also decided to merge Line 13 and Line 14 to create a quick connection between Saint-Lazare and Montparnasse as a new north–south line. Distances between stations on the lengthened line 13 differ from that on other lines in order to make it more "express" and hence to extend it farther in the suburbs. The new Line 13 was inaugurated on 9 November 1976.
In October 1998, Line 14 was inaugurated. It was the first fully new Métro line in 63 years. Known during its conception as Météor (Métro Est-Ouest Rapide), it was the first of the now three fully automatic lines within the network, along with Line 1 and Line 4. It was the first with platform screen doors to prevent suicides and accidents. It was conceived with extensions to the suburbs in mind, similar to the extensions of the line 13 built during the 1970s. As a result, most of the stations are at least a kilometre apart. Like the RER lines designed by the RATP, nearly all stations offer connections with multiple Métro lines. The line initially ran between Saint-Lazare and Olympiades and was subsequently extended north to Mairie de St.Ouen in 2020.
Lines 13 and 7 are the only two on the network to be split in branches. The RATP would like to get rid of those saturated branches in order to improve the network's efficiency. A project existed to attribute to line 14 one branch of each line, and to extend them further into the suburbs. This project was abandoned. In 1999, the RER Line E was inaugurated. Known during its conception as Eole (Est-Ouest Liaison Express), it is the fifth RER line. It terminates at Haussmann–Saint-Lazare, but a new project, financed by EPAD, the public authority managing the La Défense business district, should extend it west to La Défense–Grande Arche and the suburbs beyond.
Between 2007 and November 2011, Line 1 was converted to driverless operation. The line was operated with a combination of driver-operated trains and driverless trains until the delivery of the last of its driverless MP 05 trains in February 2013. The same conversion for Line 4 was completed on 13 January 2022, with the last non-automatic train removed from that line on 17 December 2023, and RATP would now like to automate Line 13. Line 14 was automated from Day 1, as will the lines 15 to 18 which are being built as part of the Grand Paris Express.
Several extensions to the suburbs opened in the last years. Line 8 was extended to Pointe du Lac in 2011, line 12 was extended to Aubervilliers in 2012, line 4 was extended to Mairie de Montrouge in 2013, Line 14 was extended by 5.8 km (3.6 mi) to Mairie de Saint-Ouen in December 2020, and Line 4 was extended to Bagneux in January 2022.
Since the Métro was built to comprehensively serve the city inside its walls, the stations are very close: 548 metres (1,798 ft) apart on average, from 424 metres (1,391 ft) on Line 4 to 1,158 metres (3,799 ft) 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 circular line 15, now under construction, will enable some journeys that do not need to pass through Paris). The slow average speed effectively prohibits service to the greater Paris area.
The Métro is mostly underground (225.2 km or 139.9 mi of 245.6 km or 152.6 mi). Above-ground sections consist of elevated railway viaducts within Paris (on Lines 1, 2, 5 and 6) and the at-level 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 mostly follow the twists and turns of the streets above. During construction in 1900, a minimum radius of curvature of just 75 metres (246 ft) was imposed, but even 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 metro and tramway systems, trains drive on the right (SNCF trains run on the left track). The tracks are 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge. Electric power is supplied by a third rail which carries 750 volts DC.
The width of the carriages, 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in), is narrower than that of newer French systems (such as the 2.9-metre or 9-foot-6-inch carriages in Lyon) and trains on Lines 1, 4 and 14 have capacities of 600–700 passengers; this is as compared with 2,600 on the Altéo MI 2N trains of RER A. The City of Paris deliberately chose to build narrow Métro tunnels to prevent the running of mainline trains; the city of Paris and the French state 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 Paris Métro Lines (1, 4, 6, 11 and 14) run on a rubber tire system developed by the RATP in the 1950s, exported to the Montreal, Santiago, Mexico City and Lausanne metro.
The number of cars in each train varies line by line. The shortest are lines 3bis and 7bis with three-car trains. Line 11 ran with four until the summer 2023 when four-car MP 59 trains, the oldest type in service at the time, were gradually replaced by new five-car MP 14 trains (at a pace of 3 to 5 new MP 14 every Monday). Lines 1 and 4 run six-car trains. Line 14 currently runs a mix of six and 8-car trains; in the future it will only run 8 cars. All other lines run with five. Two lines, 7 and 13, have branches at the end, and Line 10 has a one-way loop. Trains serve every station on each line except when they are closed for renovations.
The first train leaves each terminus at 5:30 a.m. On some lines additional trains start from an intermediate station. The last train, often called the "balai" (broom) because it sweeps up remaining passengers, arrives at the terminus at 1:15 a.m., except on Fridays (since 7 December 2007), Saturdays and on nights before a holiday, when the service ends at 2:15 a.m.
On New Year's Eve, Fête de la Musique, Nuit Blanche and other events, some stations on Lines 1, 4, 6, 9 and 14 remain open all night.
Tickets are sold at staffed counters and at automated machines in the station foyer. Entrance to platforms is by automated gate, opened by smart cards and paper tickets. Gates return tickets for passengers to retain for the duration of the journey. There is normally no system to collect or check tickets at the end of the journey, and tickets can be inspected at any point. The exit from all stations is clearly marked as to the point beyond which possession of a ticket is no longer required.
The standard ticket for a single trip is the Ticket t+. It is valid for a multi-transfer journey within 90 minutes from the first validation. It can be used on the Métro (excluding Orly Airport), buses and trams, and in zone 1 of the RER. It allows unlimited transfers between the same mode of transport (i.e. Métro to Métro, bus to bus and tram to tram), between bus and tram, and between Métro and RER zone 1. The ticket is available in paper form, or can be loaded onto a Navigo Easy pass. As of 2024, it costs €2.15 per ticket, and is also available as a pack of ten tickets (a carnet) for €17.35 on Navigo Easy.
Daily, weekly, and monthly passes are available for users of a Navigo card, an RFID-based contactless smart card. Daily tickets are also available as paper tickets until the end of 2024.
Paris Visite is a paper ticket aimed at visitors offering unlimited trips for a duration of one, two, three or five days, for zones 1–3 covering the centre of Paris, or zones 1–5 covering the whole of the network including the RER to the airports, Versailles and Disneyland Paris.
A single ticket to or from Orly Airport on Métro line 14 costs €10.30.
On 26 June 2012, it was announced that the Métro would get Wi-Fi in most stations. Access provided would be free, with a premium paid alternative offer proposed for a faster internet connection. As of 2020, the entire RATP network was connected with 4G service, including within tunnels. The automated Line 1, Line 4 and Line 14 – as well as some congested stations on Line 13 – have platform edge doors ('porte palière') separating the tracks from the platform.
Less than 10 per cent of Paris’s metro system is wheelchair accessible ranking it as worst metro system in the world for accessibility. The 20 stations of Line 14 (which first opened in 1998) are fully accessible, and all line extensions since 1992 have included lifts at the new stations. By 2025, 23 stations on the Métro will be accessible, following extensions to existing lines. The four new lines of the Grand Paris Express will also be fully accessible.
The Law on Equal Rights and Opportunities, Participation and Citizenship of Persons with Disabilities of 2005 [fr] does not require the Métro to be made accessible. RATP estimates that retrofitting the network would cost between 4 and 6 billion euros, and that certain stations would remain impossible to retrofit. As of 2022, there were no plans to retrofit existing stations with lifts. RATP notes that buses and trams in Paris are fully accessible, and many RER & Transilien stations are accessible.
The Métro has 245.6 kilometres (152.6 mi) of track and 321 stations, 61 connecting between lines. These figures do not include the RER network. The average distance between stations is 562 m (1,844 ft). Trains stop at all stations. Lines do not share tracks, even at interchange (transfer) stations.
Trains had a maximum permitted speed of 70 km/h (43 mph) and averaged 25.1 km/h (15.6 mph) at peak times as of 2018. The fastest lines were the automated ones: Line 14, which averaged 38.9 km/h (24.2 mph), and Line 1, which averaged 30 km/h (19 mph). 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 Métro 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 8 cars depending on the line, the most common being 5 cars, but all trains on the same line have the same number of cars.
The Métro 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 Métro station (less than 500 metres or 1,640 feet), at the cost of speed, except on Line 14 where the stations are farther apart and the trains travel faster. The system is complemented by the RER, which extends farther out into the suburbs and functions as an express network for the city and its surroundings.
The Paris Métro runs mostly underground; surface sections include sections on viaducts 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 (Liège, 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, while line 7bis runs in a unidirectional loop at one end. One end of lines 2 and 5 each and both ends of line 6 have their terminus station on a balloon loop. One end of lines 3bis and 7bis each have their trains essentially operate this way, but instead reverse. One end of lines 2, 3bis, and 4 have trains run out of service on a balloon loop before reentering service. All other termini have trains continue a certain distance beyond the terminal, before proceeding back to the station on a different platform headed the other way.
The rolling stock has steel wheels (MF for matériel fer) and rubber-tyred trains (MP for matériel pneu). The different versions of each kind are specified by year of design. Some trains have suffixes to differentiate between them – CC (Conduite Conducteur) for trains driven by a driver and CA (Conduite Automatique) for trains that are automatically driven.
The typical station comprises two central tracks flanked by two four-metre wide platforms. About 50 stations, generally current or former termini, are exceptions; most have three tracks and two platforms (Porte d'Orléans), or two tracks and a central platform (Porte Dauphine). Some stations are single-track, either due to difficult terrain (Saint-Georges), a narrow street above (Liège) or track loops (Église d'Auteuil).
Station length was originally 75 m (246 ft), enough to accommodate the 5-car trains used on most lines. This was extended to 90 m (295 ft) on high-traffic lines (Line 1 and Line 4) which operate six-car trains, with some stations at 105 m (344 ft) for accommodating seven-car trains (the difference as yet unused).
In general, stations were built near the surface by the cut-and-cover method, and are vaulted. Stations of the former Nord-Sud network (Line 12 and Line 13) have higher ceilings, due to the former presence of a ceiling catenary. There are exceptions to the rule of near-surface vaulting:
Several ghost stations are no longer served by trains. One of the three platforms at Porte des Lilas station is on a currently unused section of track, often used as a backdrop in films.
In 2018, the busiest stations were Saint-Lazare (46.7 million passengers), Gare du Nord (45.8), Gare de Lyon (36.9), Montparnasse – Bienvenüe (30.6), Gare de l'Est (21.4), Bibliothèque François Mitterrand (18.8), République (18.3), Les Halles (17.5), La Défense (16.0) and Bastille (13.2).
Concourses are decorated in Art Nouveau style defined at the Métro's opening in 1900. The spirit of this aesthetic has generally been respected in renovations.
Standard vaulted stations are lined by small white earthenware tiles, chosen because of the poor efficiency of early twentieth century electric lighting. From the outset walls have been used for advertising; posters in early stations are framed by coloured tiles with the name of the original operator (CMP or Nord Sud). Stations of the former Nord Sud (most of line 12 and parts of line 13) generally have more meticulous decoration. Station names are usually inscribed on metallic plaques in white letters on a blue background or in white tiles on a background of blue tiles.
The first renovations took place after the Second World War, when the installation of fluorescent lighting revealed the poor state of the original tiling. Three main styles of redecoration followed in succession.
A number of stations have original decorations to reflect the cultural significance of their locations. The first to receive this treatment was Louvre – Rivoli on line 1, which contains copies of the masterpieces on display at the museum. Other notable examples include Bastille (line 1), Saint-Germain-des-Prés (line 4), Cluny – La Sorbonne (line 10) and Arts et Métiers (line 11).
The original Art Nouveau entrances are iconic symbols of Paris. There are currently 83 of them. Designed by Hector Guimard in a style that caused some surprise and controversy in 1900, there are two main variants:
Later stations and redecorations have brought increasingly simple styles to entrances.
A handful of entrances have original architecture (Saint-Lazare); a number are integrated into residential or standalone buildings (Pelleport).
The original Grand Paris Express plans had a total span of 200 kilometres (124 mi) and counted 68 stations, the completion of which forms the major part of the currently planned lines.
In addition to the projects already under construction or currently being actively studied, there have also been proposals for:
The Métro has a cultural significance in the arts that goes well beyond Paris. The term "metro" has become a generic name for subways and urban underground railways.
The station entrance kiosks, designed by Hector Guimard, fostered Art Nouveau building style (once widely known as "le style Métro"); however, some French commentators criticised the Guimard station kiosks, including their green colour and sign lettering, as difficult to read.
The success of rubber-tired lines led to their export to metro systems around the world, starting with the Montreal Metro. The success of Montreal "did much to accelerate the international subway boom" of the 1960s/1970s and "assure the preeminence of the French in the process". Rubber-tired systems were adopted in Mexico City, Santiago, Lausanne, Turin, Singapore and other cities. The Japanese adopted rubber-tired metros (with their own technology and manufacturing firms) to systems in Kobe, Sapporo, as well as parts of Tokyo.
The "Rabbit of the Paris Métro" is an anthropomorphic rabbit visible on stickers on the doors of the trains since 1977 to advise passengers (especially children) of the risk of getting one's hands trapped when the doors are opening, as well as the risk of injury on escalators or becoming trapped in the closing doors. This rabbit is now a popular icon in Paris similar to the "mind the gap" phrase in London.