In Seine-Saint-Denis, Noisy-le-Grand gives new life to its ghost metro

In the ticket hall, the vending machine still stands on the pink granite floor. But it’s gutted, empty, covered in graffiti… and only accepts francs. To tell the truth, no one has ever used it, except an extra from the RATP, for a promotional film. At the time, in 1993, the new automatic metro in Noisy-le-Grand, in Seine-Saint-Denis, was supposed to represent the height of modernity. Missed. Tagged walls, broken windows, flooded rooms, overturned equipment: thirty years after its construction, the small line that has never been put into service has been badly damaged, and is about to be definitively dismantled. The prerequisite for a second life for this extraordinary site. And, in principle, to a revival of the whole neighborhood.

On April 8, the town hall of Noisy-le-Grand must launch a call for projects to find a new use for the station and the abandoned tunnel. Three candidates will be selected in June, before the designation of the winner in December. Objective: to go quickly, so that the inauguration can take place “before 2026” and the next municipal elections, smiles the mayor (Les Républicains) Brigitte Marsigny. “Before, this project would still have to be debated at the municipal council”, annoys the ecologist Eric Manfredi.

Read also Article reserved for our subscribers List of 20 destinations for 2021: urban dream in Noisy-le-Grand

On paper, everything is open. But the mayor already has fixed ideas. She would see a trendy bar, an exhibition hall and a climbing wall set up in the station, renamed “Station K”. Mushrooms or endives could grow in the 518 meter tunnel. “This type of hybrid place, we talk a lot about it for Paris and the inner suburbs, but here, further from the capital, there are few of them”, argues Laurent Foret, the director of the public development company which oversees the project. “This space could attract beyond Noisy, radiate throughout the south of 93”, hopes the mayor. And finally erase the incredible fiasco of this ghost subway.

” A mess “

It all started in 1988. Noisy-le-Grand, one of the hubs of the new town of Marne-la-Vallée, is growing. Christian Pellerin, one of the most famous promoters of the moment, plans to build an office district called “Mailles Horizon”. A kind of small Defense that he wants to connect to the city center by a specific metro. The public authorities are seduced. Two stations are being built, one right next to the Noisy-le-Grand – Mont-d’Est RER station, the other in the future business district, which in principle will have 12,000 jobs. Between the two stations, a French system, called “SK”, is installed: the cabins run on rails but are towed by cables. Enough to transport 4,000 to 5,000 passengers per hour.

You have 45.49% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

source site-30