Ghost stations of the Paris Métro

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Ghost stations of the Paris Métro are stations that have been closed to the public and are no longer used in commercial service. For historical or economical reasons, many stations on the Paris Métro have been made inaccessible and lie unused, conferring a sense of mystery over Parisians.

The majority of these ghost stations were closed when France entered World War II in September 1939, and some have been closed ever since. Others have been reused or disappeared completely as the network evolved. Two stations were constructed but never actually used, and today still lie inaccessible to the public. Three others were designed but were never serviced by a Métro line.

Unopened stations

Haxo
has no exterior entrances.

Two stations on the

Haxo.[1][2]
Only during rare special service to these stations can they be visited.

Porte Molitor is a station constructed in 1923 on a linking of lines 9 and 10 and was originally intended to service the stadiums Parc des Princes and Roland Garros on the nights of matches.[1][2] Logistics of this service became too complex, however, and the project was abandoned; access to the station was never constructed. The tracks today serve as a garage for trains.[3]

A special tunnel, the voie des Fêtes, links the

Haxo, constructed in 1921.[4] This tunnel was intended to connect lines 3 and 7 (now 3bis and 7bis). Actually the tunnel was never used as it was decided to run a shuttle service between the stations of each of these lines. This shuttle proved unpopular with passengers and service stopped in 1939. Haxo has never been used for passenger transport, and there is no street-level access.[5]

Stations closed and later reopened

At the beginning of World War II, the French government put into action a plan that called for reduced service on the Métro network; specifically, it closed all but 85 stations. The majority of stations that were closed reopened in the following years, however some lightly trafficked and therefore unprofitable stations remained closed for a longer time.

Porte des Lilas - Cinéma
is used for publicity and movie shoots.

Liège (line 13) reopened to the public after about 30 years of being closed, on 20 May 1968 and 16 September 1968 respectively.[6][7] These stations were subject to abbreviated schedules: they closed at 8 PM on weekdays and Saturdays, and did not open on Sundays and holidays.[7] Rennes returned to normal service schedules on 6 September 2004 and Liège, the last station on an abbreviated schedule of the network, returned to normal hours on 4 December 2006.[8]

Cluny (

Cluny – La Sorbonne.[4]

Closed stations

Croix-Rouge, an old terminus of line 10
, has been closed since 1939.

The station

Strasbourg – Saint-Denis.[2]

Three stations have remained closed since 1939:

line 10).[4]

Two other open stations contain unused platforms (that is they are inaccessible to the public):

Invalides (a platform for line 8 is unused after renovations made to the station).[4]

Merged stations

As a result of the expansion of

Pont de Levallois, at a site surrounded by a gate, with its platforms being repurposed, and now they are used as walkways.[4]

Repurposed stations

Training platforms at Gare du Nord USFRT

RATP drivers.[4]

The station

Maison Blanche and the creation of a new service depot.[9]

The old terminus of line 3 at

RATP, just outside Parc Monceau.[4]

Moved stations

Four stations have been moved during the construction and extension of lines:[4]

Victor Hugo
.

Abandoned plans for stations

Three other stations had been planned, outside the neighbourhood of La Défense and the Orly Airport, but have never been served by any lines. Two are situated under the business district, and another under the southern part of the Orly Airport. These stations consist only of a concrete box, void of any further development.[4]

Since the expansion of

Pont de Neuilly in 1937, the future expansion to La Défense had already been considered. Outside of the flagstone pedestrian walks, which include a number of platforms and underground parking from the 1960s and 1970s, the Établissement public pour l'aménagement de la région de la Défense (EPAD) reserved two areas destined to hold two future Métro stations on the axis intended to be served by the line. La Défense – Michelet and Élysées – La Défense are situated under the neighbourhood of Michelet and the apartment building Élysée Défense, respectively.[4]

However, as a result of the planning for the expansion, which was not completed until the 1990s, the complexity and the cost of an under-river crossing in this area was judged to be too prohibitive to complete. Instead, the crossing of the Seine was achieved by passing over the pont de Neuilly, and not in a tunnel as had previously been planned. Thus, the two areas reserved for these stations are not serviced and remain accessible only via a trap door five floors below ground level in an underground parking lot. The current line was realized in part by the number of lanes on the A14 autoroute, which were reduced to 2×2 instead of 3×3, as had previously been planned.[10]

Orly-Sud was conceived at the same time as the terminal, and was dug out under the building in preparation of a future expansion of the Métro to this location. However no such expansion ever occurred, and the automated Métro Orlyval instead opened in 1997 without using the location that had been reserved for the Métro station. The station has now sat as a simple box for more than half a century.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Patat, Jean-Christophe. "Le metro secret de Paris: la station Molitor" [Paris' secret metro: Molitor Station] (in French). Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c "Le métro inattendu / Stations fantômes" [The Unexpected Métro / Ghost Stations]. le métro parisien (in French). Archived from the original on February 15, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  3. ^ Lamming, 2001
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Les stations oubliées" [The Forgotten Stations]. SYMBIOZ (in French). Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  5. ^ Patat, Jean-Christophe. "Le Metro Secret de Paris : Haxo" [Paris' Secret Metro: Haxo] (in French). Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  6. ^ a b "Paris Metro Maps: timeline". Archived from the original on November 14, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  7. ^ a b "Une histoire belge - 1er septembre 2004" [A Belgian Story - September 1, 2004] (in French). September 1, 2004. Archived from the original on April 17, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  8. ^ "La Station "Liège"" ['Liège' Station]. SYMBIOZ (in French). Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  9. ^ "Olympiades". SYMBIOZ (in French). Retrieved April 4, 2010.
  10. ^ "Les coulisses de la Défense – Une Station de métro sans métro" [The Backstage of La Défense – A Métro Station without a Métro]. Defense-92.fr (in French). Archived from the original on March 27, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.

References

External links
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