If all goes well, travelers will see nothing but fire. Monday February 26, after two weeks of complete shutdown, traffic will resume on line 14, exactly as before, between the Saint-Ouen stations, to the north of Paris, and Olympiades, in the south. But, in reality, everything will have changed. The line’s automatic control software, put into service in 1998 by Siemens, will have been replaced by a new generation tool. “The current system was still very efficient, but insufficient given the extension of the line, which will operate with three times more rolling stock than at its launch”explains Stéphane Garreau, responsible for the RATP for this vast project which must be delivered before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The 14 will be doubly extended: by 1.5 kilometers to the north, to the new Saint-Denis-Pleyel station, and by 14 kilometers to the south, to Orly airport, with seven new stations. “Olympic lifeline”, according to Clément Beaune, the former minister responsible for transport, it will connect the athletes’ village to three Parisian stations (Bercy, Gare de Lyon and Saint-Lazare), to Orly airport, and will double the RER B and D to reach the Stade de France and the new aquatic center, in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). The stakes are high: the technical finalization of the line is a critical step in knowing whether or not the Paris Games will be a success in terms of transport.
The old automatic piloting system made it possible to run 35 trains at the same time, with a tight interval: 105 seconds between two trains during rush hour. The new one, with much more powerful computing capacity, will be able to handle 65 and, at full speed, reduce the interval to 80 seconds. However, several steps must still be taken before the Olympic ultimatum.
“An eminently political subject”
“Delivering the 14 is a multi-layered operation”, recognizes Stéphane Garreau. We still need to carry out a final round of tests and finalize the connection of the southern section to the control system. For this, traffic will be interrupted again during the weekends in March, as well as one week, from April 7 to 14, and yet another, in June. The date has not yet been set. So many days and evenings of hardship for travelers.
Added to this is a final “drawer”: the delivery of the Saint-Denis-Pleyel station, a project carried out by the Société des Grands Projets (SGP, formerly Société du Grand Paris). “The passage of the security commission is scheduled for April 25 », underlines Bernard Cathelain, member of the SGP board of directors. This is the last step before delivery: the station is out of air, out of water, the elevators and escalators, the smoke extraction and announcement systems are working. However, for the moment, no one is announcing the inauguration date, in June – “an eminently political subject”, explains the RATP. And for good reason : the President of the Republic would like to be present.
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